stone is far above the highest tides and the tradition is not likely to be of great antiquity, being first mentioned in John Prince's Worthies of Devon in 1697. It is possible that the stone was originally the one from which the town crier, or bruiter, called out his news; or it may be le Brodestone, a boundary stone mentioned in several 15th-century disputes: its last-known position in 1471 was below the East Gate.

The Middle English