Part 10

There are good timber roofs at Cullompton, Widecombe, South Tawton, Hartland, Ashburton, Chittlehampton, Sampford Courtenay, and Hatherleigh. The bench-ends at Abbotsham, Ilsington, Ashton, Mortehoe, Tawstock, Braunton, Monksleigh, Frithelstock, East Budleigh, and Combe-in-Teignhead are specially fine. The seventeenth century seats at Cruwys Morchard are inscribed with the farm names of the parish.

Rood-screens, which are here the most remarkable feature of the Perpendicular period, are very numerous in Devonshire. Although many have disappeared, having been removed or broken up, there are still some 150 in more or less perfect condition. So many of them, moreover, are of such truly exquisite workmanship that it is difficult to say which are the most beautiful. The material, in the majority of cases, is wood, perhaps because of the scarcity of tractable stone--elaborately carved, and very often splendidly decorated with gold and colour. There are, however, magnificent screens of stone in Exeter Cathedral and in the churches of Totnes and Awliscombe.

It is probable that most of the screens were the work of native craftsmen, but there are some whose style shows distinct signs of foreign influence. The beautiful screen at Harberton, for example, suggests Spanish work or influence, that of Colebrook French, that of Kenton Flemish, and that of Swymbridge Italian. While by far the greater number are of the Perpendicular period, that of Washfield is Jacobean, and that of Cruwys Morchard is Georgian. It is perhaps generally considered that the magnificent screen at Kenton is the finest of all; but it has a good many rivals which closely approach it in beauty of design and in excellence of workmanship. Other splendid specimens, all of them of great beauty, are those at Kentisbere, Hartland, Hemyock, Swymbridge, Kingsnympton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Holbeton, Tawstock, Lustleigh, Lapford, Pinhoe, and Uffculme. The last-named, which measures sixty-seven feet, is the longest, and that at Welcombe is believed to be the oldest, in the county.

Carved pulpits are another special feature of Devonshire churches. The finest stone pulpit, which is at Harberton, contains, like the beautiful examples at South Molton and Chittlehampton, full-length figures in panels. Other good stone pulpits are at Pilton, Totnes, Paignton, Dartmouth and elsewhere. Two particularly fine carved oaken pulpits are those of Hartland and Kenton, the latter of which is very richly decorated with gold and colour. There are also good specimens at East Allington, Tor Bryan, Ipplepen, and Holne.

Ancient stained glass is very rare in Devon, much having been destroyed by Puritan fanatics. The best which has survived is at Doddiscombeleigh, where there are four very beautiful windows. There is also very good glass at Cheriton Bishop and Budleigh; and some less striking but noteworthy examples may be seen at Ashton, Christow, Cadbury, Manaton, Atherington and other places. The great east window in Exeter Cathedral contains some very fine coloured glass, and there are a few remains in some of the clerestory windows.

Among the very striking recumbent effigies of warriors and churchmen and great ladies to be found in our churches there are some not to be surpassed in England; and the magnificent examples in Exeter Cathedral, in particular, afford most valuable chronological studies both of costume and of carving. Among the finest of those in the cathedral are the splendid thirteenth century alabaster effigy of Bishop Bronescombe, the fourteenth century mail-clad figures of Humphrey de Bohun and Sir Richard Stapledon, and the sixteenth century effigy of Bishop Hugh Oldham. Perhaps the grandest of those in parish churches, to name a few only out of many, are the fourteenth century effigies of Sir Otho Grandisson and his wife at Ottery St Mary, and the seventeenth century figures of Denys Rolle and his wife at Bicton. Other fine effigies are at Paignton, Broadclyst, Landkey, Tawstock, Haccombe, and Horwood and the Seymour tomb at Berry Pomeroy.

Our county is rich also in monumental brasses, most of which date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the finest are the splendid triple-canopied fifteenth century brasses in the church of St Saviour, Dartmouth, in memory of Sir John Hawley and his two wives, the fifteenth century brass of Sir Nicholas Carew in Exeter Cathedral, which is a wonderful representation of the military costume of the period, and the fine sixteenth century brass at Tiverton, in memory of John and Joan Greenway. Other good brasses are in Exeter Cathedral and in the churches of Stoke-in-Teignhead, Stoke Fleming, Clovelly, Braunton, Haccombe, and Clyst St George.

Many of the churches, that of Pilton, for example, have specially musical peals of bells; and there are very old bells at Ogwell, Abbot's Beckington, Alverdiscott and Hittesleigh. At the latter place is the most ancient bell in the county.

By far the most important and remarkable ecclesiastical building in Devonshire is Exeter Cathedral, which, although not one of the largest or--externally, at any rate--one of the most majestic cathedrals in this country, is without doubt the most beautiful example in all England of the Decorated style of architecture. It is built of Beer stone; a material which when first quarried is white and easily worked, but which, in this case, is now dark and crumbling with age.

The two features which specially distinguish this from all other cathedrals are its transeptal towers, of which the only other English example is at Ottery St Mary; and the great length of its roof, which extends unbroken over nave and choir.

The exterior is further remarkable for the statuary on its west front with its figures of kings and knights, saints and angels; for its flying buttresses and its richly carved pinnacles. And the interior, which has been called the finest in Europe, is distinguished for the beautiful tracery of its many Decorated windows, the elaborate details of its side-chapels; its episcopal throne, more than fifty feet high, a marvel of wood-carving, without a rival in the island; its noble screen, one of the best in a county particularly rich in screens; its ancient and quaintly-carved misereres, the earliest in England; its fourteenth century minstrels' gallery, the most nearly perfect known; its long stretch of stone vaulted roof, the longest of the kind in existence; its clustered columns; its richly yet delicately carved bosses and finely sculptured corbels; its many monuments and recumbent effigies of knights in armour and of bishops in their robes of office; and, generally, by the wonderful uniformity and symmetry of its design.

The cathedral is the work of many hands. Hardly one of its long line of bishops but has left his mark upon it. But that it is an architectural masterpiece is due in the first place to the genius of one man, and in the second place to the wisdom of his successors in faithfully carrying out his original design.

The cathedral stands on the site of a Saxon church, of which no trace remains; and of the Norman edifice which succeeded it little is left but the two transeptal towers. These towers, the northern of which has been much altered, and now has strongly-marked Perpendicular characters, were built by Bishop Warelwast (1107-1136), the son of William the Conqueror's sister; and Bishop Marshall (1194-1206), brother of that Earl of Pembroke who helped Henry II in the conquest of Ireland, finished the building in the Norman style. But it was Bishop Quivil (1280-1291) who planned the reconstruction of the whole cathedral in the Decorated style, with the exception of the towers, and himself began the transformation, rebuilding the transepts, the Lady-chapel, and part of the nave. And although the work extended over more than a hundred years after Quivil's time, and was continued far into the Perpendicular period, the architecture was not altered, and there are few features in the building which are not in keeping with the bishop's first design. The magnificent Perpendicular eastern window is filled with beautiful glass of the previous period, and it is believed that its tracery also was originally of the Decorated style.

Of the bishops who succeeded Quivil, Stapledon (1308-1326), a statesman as well as a prelate and an architect, murdered in Cheapside by ruffian partisans of the She-Wolf of France, carried out some of the finest work in the building, including the rood-screen, the episcopal throne, and the stone sedilia. Last of the great builders was Bishop Grandisson (1327-1369), who, in his long tenure of the see, completed and finally consecrated the cathedral, to which, however, some details were added by those who followed him. Bishop Brantyngham (1370-1394), for instance, finished the west front, the great east window, and the cloisters--destroyed by the Puritans and only recently rebuilt. There have been two main restorations of the cathedral; one in 1662, and one between 1870 and 1877, when the reredos and other features were added.

The chapter-house, which is an exception in style to the rest of the building, its lower part being Early English, and its upper part Perpendicular, contains part of the cathedral library. The rest of the 15,000 volumes of books, together with some very valuable manuscripts, including the Exeter Domesday Book, Leofric's Book of Saxon Poetry, and the original charter signed by Edward the Confessor, Earl Godwin, Harold and Tostig, authorising the removal of the see from Crediton to Exeter are preserved in the Chapter Library.

In the north transept of the cathedral are the dials of an ancient and curious clock, believed to have been set up early in the reign of Edward III, although its movement has been renewed. It sounds the hours and the curfew on Great Peter, a ponderous bell in the tower above it. The peal of ten bells in the southern tower is the heaviest in England.

At many points in Devonshire may be seen the ruins of monasteries, priories, and nunneries which were closed by order of Henry VIII. Almost all of them have suffered so severely from decay, or perhaps even more from having been used as quarries, that in a great many instances only a few fragments of ruin remain of what, in their time, were large and magnificent buildings.

These monastic houses were originally founded as places to which people might retreat who wished to retire from the world, and to lead simple lives of holiness, benevolence, and poverty, serving God and benefiting their fellows. For a time the inmates did all these things. As long as they were poor they were a blessing to the countries where they lived. They preached to the people, they taught in schools, tended the poor and the sick, practised agriculture and many useful arts, such as the construction of clocks, keeping alive such learning as there was, and making beautiful manuscript copies of the Bible and of the works of classical writers which otherwise would have been lost. But when they grew rich they became idle, careless, and ignorant, and their lives too often a scandal to the world. Henry VIII, as the result of a commission which he sent round to enquire into their condition, decided to suppress them. The houses were closed, their inmates were scattered, their estates were sold for trifling sums or given to the king's favourites, while part of their vast wealth was used in founding grammar-schools.

The richest monastic house in the county was the Cistercian Priory of Plympton, of which little now remains beyond the refectory and the kitchen. Of the Benedictine monastery of Tavistock, an establishment second in wealth only to Plympton, the gateway, a porch, and two towers alone are left. The remains of the Norbertine abbey of Torre consist chiefly of the refectory, a gate-house, and the fine building known as the Spanish Barn, from a tradition that Spanish prisoners of war were confined in it.

The two Cistercian houses of Buckfast and Buckland are specially interesting. The ruins of the former, which was a very ancient and very rich establishment, whose last abbot attained his office as a reward for having helped to capture Tyndale, were bought in 1882 by a community of French monks, who have rebuilt much of the abbey in the original style. Part of Buckland Abbey, which had been converted into a dwelling-house in Henry VIII's time, was bought and rebuilt by Sir Francis Drake. Several relics of Drake are preserved here, and the house, with its fine cedars and stately tulip trees, is one of the most picturesque buildings in Devon. Hartland Abbey, originally founded, like Buckfast, in Saxon times, has also been converted into a dwelling-house, into which were built the Early English cloisters. At Leigh, near Christow, are the very picturesque remains--a fine gate-house, the refectory, and the dormitory--of a small cell connected with Buckland Abbey.

Other monastic remains, mostly in a fragmentary condition, are those at Polsloe (Benedictine nuns), Denbury (Benedictine cell connected with Tavistock), Newenham and Dunkeswell (both Cistercian), Cornworthy (Augustinian nuns), and Frithelstock (a house of Augustinian canons).

21. Architecture--(_b_) Military.

As has already been pointed out, there were in Devonshire a very great number of primitive castles or fortresses, generally on the tops of hills, and consisting simply of enclosures surrounded by ramparts of earth or of loose stones. After the Norman Conquest castles of a very different type, strongly built of stone, were erected in our county, as in many other parts of England, partly by order of the king himself, and partly by his knights and nobles, who found it necessary to defend themselves against the Saxons, of whose lands they had taken possession. By the end of the reign of King Stephen, after less than ninety years of Norman rule, there were 1115 such strongholds in England.

The early Norman castle consisted, as a rule, of a single three-storied tower with walls of great thickness. But at a later period, after the experience gained in the Crusades, and in consequence of the introduction of powerful engines capable of throwing great stones against a besieged fortress, military architecture became much more elaborate.

The castles of the Middle Ages, which sometimes occupied a space of many acres, were usually built on high ground, or close to a river or the sea-shore, and were almost always surrounded by a ditch or moat, which, if possible, was filled with water. Inside the moat was a high and very thick wall, generally with towers at intervals, especially at the corners, with a parapet to shelter the men fighting on the top of it, and with spaces called embrasures through which they could shoot arrows at the enemy. The principal gate was strongly defended by covering towers, and above it were holes through which melted lead, or boiling water, or hot pitch or sand could be thrown on the besiegers. The doorway was reached by a drawbridge, raised and lowered by chains, and was closed by a heavy door, or a strong grating called a portcullis. Smaller gates were the postern and the sally-port.

The space inside the outer wall was known as the outer bailey, inside which was another wall, also with towers and a gate, within which were dwellings and store-houses. This was the inner bailey; and within it was the most important part of the fortress, the high tower called the keep--a building of several floors, with walls 15 or even 20 feet thick--the last place of retreat when the rest of the castle was taken. On the ground floor, which had no windows, were the well, sometimes of immense depth, the dungeon, and the store-rooms. On the next floor, which was lighted by narrow loop-holes, were the soldiers' quarters. On upper floors were the chapel and the apartments of the governor and his family.

There were nearly twenty Norman and mediaeval castles in Devonshire, few of them large or elaborate from the military point of view, and some, perhaps even the majority of them, insignificant in size and simple in style. Of some of these twenty strongholds no trace remains. Almost all, of which anything survives, are ruinous and uninhabitable. And although a few have been partially restored and are now occupied as dwelling-houses, only one, that of Powderham, retains its ancient dignity, after continuous occupation that has lasted for nearly six centuries. Comparatively little is known of the history of these castles; but many of them have been the scenes of fighting, especially in Norman times, in the reign of Henry VIII and during the Civil War.

One of the most famous and at the same time one of the oldest of Devonshire castles, is that of Exeter, called Rougemont from the colour of the rock on which it stands, built in 1067 by William the Conqueror on the site of an earlier fortress constructed by Athelstan, destroyed by Sweyn, and restored by Cnut and Edward the Confessor. Its first Norman governor was Baldwin de Brioniis, the Conqueror's nephew by marriage. It, or the city round it, has sustained many sieges; by the Saxons, by the sons of Harold, by King Stephen, by the Yorkists, by rebel armies, by Royalists and Parliamentarians, but it was ruinous even when Fairfax captured Exeter in 1646. A mere fragment, consisting chiefly of the gateway tower, is all that now remains of it.

The picturesque ruins of Okehampton Castle, built, it is believed, in the thirteenth century, partly of water-worn stones from the river below, and dismantled by order of Henry VIII, stand in a strong position above the West Okement, and include the remains of many rooms and of a great banqueting hall. A French prisoner of war has left a Latin inscription cut in one of the stones.

The remains of the ancient castle of Berry Pomeroy--founded, as some think, in the reign of William I--the most picturesque ruin in Devonshire, standing on a rocky eminence surrounded by dense woods three miles north-east of Totnes, consist principally of two towers, and of the gate-house and the chapel, whose fine masonry, much of which is thirteenth century work, is overgrown with moss and ivy. Inside the original building stands a very large but unfinished mansion, of great magnificence, begun by Lord Seymour, to whom, when Sir Thomas Pomeroy was deprived of his estates because of his share in the Commotion of 1549, the castle was given. The property still belongs to the Duke of Somerset, and has thus been in the hands of only two families since the Norman Conquest.

Compton Castle, about two miles west of Torquay, a very strongly fortified manor-house of the early fifteenth century built on the site of a castle of William I's time, is specially interesting from its association with Sir Humphrey Gilbert. It is now occupied as a farm. Nearness to the sea, and the consequent danger from the raids of foreign invaders, led to the strength of its defences. The building, which is large and picturesque, includes a number of ancient features, especially the chapel and two gateways.

Lydford Castle, now little more than the shell of a square tower, stands on an artificial mound, and is said to have been founded soon after the Conquest. It was a place of great importance in the palmy days of Devonshire tin-mining, when Lydford was one of the chief towns in the county. Here, from a very early period until late in the eighteenth century, was held the Stannary Court, proverbial for its arbitrary methods of procedure; and within the walls was a notorious dungeon, used as the Stannary prison.

Plympton Castle, built by Richard de Redvers, first Earl of Devon, and the scene of fighting in the reigns of Stephen, John, and Charles I, is now quite ruinous. Tiverton Castle, ascribed to the same founder, but reconstructed in the fourteenth century and dismantled after the Civil War, has been partly adapted as a modern house. It sustained a brief siege, of only a few hours' duration, by Fairfax in 1645. A cannon-shot cut the chain of the drawbridge, the bridge fell, and the besiegers, pouring in, were quickly masters of the fortress. The chief ancient features are the great gate, a tower, and the remains of the banqueting hall and the chapel. The scanty remains of Hemyock Castle, two miles east of Culmstock, and not far from the border of Somerset, at first garrisoned for the Parliament, then taken by the Royalists, and finally dismantled by Cromwell, consist of little more than the gateway and its covering-towers, which are of flint. Totnes Castle, whose ivy-clad walls of red sandstone look down upon the river Dart, was founded by Judhael, soon after the Conquest, but it has been a ruin since the time of Henry VIII. Of Dartmouth Castle, a very picturesque ruin at the end of a promontory guarding the harbour, the chief remains are a square tower of the time of Edward IV, and a round tower of the reign of Henry VII. The place may still be seen where a chain was drawn across the river to Gomerock Castle, a small fort on the opposite shore, to keep hostile ships from sailing up the Dart. Kingswear Castle, a small thirteenth century building on the same river, the scene of some fighting during the Civil War, has been restored, and is now a private residence. Salcombe or Clifton Castle, on the Kingsbridge estuary, one of Henry VIII's coast defences against the long-expected attack of the Spanish Armada, was the last place on the Devonshire mainland to hold out for Charles I.

The square Morisco fortress on Lundy, whose plain walls now shelter cottages that have been built inside it, is twelfth century work. The scanty ruins of Colcombe Castle near Colyton, supposed to have been destroyed by the Parliamentarians, and the square tower of Gidleigh, not far from Chagford, date, it is believed, from the century following; and the castle of Ilton, two miles north-west of Salcombe, on the Kingsbridge estuary, now used as a farm, was built in the fourteenth century. Of Torrington Castle a few fragments only are left. The castles of Exmouth and Bampton have entirely disappeared; and of Barnstaple Castle, built, it is said, by Athelstan, but ruinous as far back as the reign of Henry VIII, nothing but the site remains.

Powderham Castle, the only one of all these fortresses which has been continuously inhabited since its foundation, stands--from a military point of view--on a poor site, on low ground close to the estuary of the Exe. Its chief charm is in its setting, in its beautiful park and fine timber, especially its magnificent oak-trees. Built in 1325 in the form of a long parallelogram, with six towers, four of which remain intact, while two have been restored, it has been altered and added to by many hands, and is now a vast, irregular pile of buildings. Its present owner is the lineal descendant of its original founder, the Sir Philip Courtenay who, in 1367, was knighted by the Black Prince on the field of Navarete. Successfully held for the King in December, 1645, against Fairfax himself, it was taken by Colonel Hammond in the following January after some sharp fighting, in which the Parliamentary troops, as happened on not a few occasions during the war, seized and fortified the village church.

22. Architecture--(_c_) Domestic.

Scattered up and down over Devonshire are many fine old manor-houses, some of them, in parts at least, very ancient, some with picturesque and striking features, many set in very beautiful surroundings, and others of interest for the sake of their historic associations. Such houses are so numerous that only a few of them can here be even lightly touched upon.