PLYMOUTH

a city and port on the coast of Devon in south-west England. It has long been associated with ships and the sea. The Royal Navy has an important base there. In 1588 English ships waited for the Spanish Armada at Plymouth, and while they were waiting Sir Francis Drake is said to have played a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe, a piece of flat high ground above the sea. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Plymouth across the Atlantic.