Launceston,

Launceston, till 1838 the county town of Cornwall, on the Kensey, a tributary of the Tamar, 36 miles NW. of Plymouth and 50 W. of Exeter by branch-lines opened in 1865 and 1886. It has a handsome granite church (1511); the circular Norman keep of a castle which figured much in the Great Rebellion, and in which Fox the Quaker was imprisoned (1656); an old gateway; and a new town-hall (1887). A municipal borough since about 1227, Launceston returned two members till 1832, one till 1885. Pop. (1851) 3397; (1891) 4345. See A. F. Robbins, Launceston, Past and Present (Launceston, 1885).