Part 12
During the comparatively few years he spent on shore Drake constructed the still-existing leat or water-course for bringing drinking-water into Plymouth, and he also represented that town as Member of Parliament.
In 1595 he and Hawkyns set out for the West Indies on what proved to be their last expedition. Misfortune dogged the fleet from the outset. Both commanders died at sea, Hawkyns off Porto Rico, late in 1595, and Drake off Porto Bello, early in 1596.
A greater man in some ways than even Drake himself was the gentle, noble, lovable, gallant Sir Walter Ralegh, a man who won renown in many fields, not only as soldier, sailor, and explorer, as courtier and administrator, but as historian and poet; whose whole life was crowded with adventure and romance, and who is one of the most picturesque figures in the entire range of English History.
Born in 1552, in a house that still stands at Hayes Barton, he was only 17 when he left Oxford to fight for the Huguenots; and from that time, except for brief intervals at Court, and even shorter periods of quiet enjoyment of his property in Ireland, or of his home at Sherborne, or when he was a prisoner in the Tower, the rest of his life was spent in action; now fighting the rebel Desmonds in Ireland, now harrying the ships and towns of Spain and Portugal, now helping in the attack on the Armada, now engaged with his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert in perilous and fruitless exploration in the far north of America, now attempting to colonise Virginia--an enterprise whose sole result was the introduction to this country of tobacco and potatoes--and now sailing up the Orinoco in the vain quest of the fabled golden city of Manoa.
Elizabeth, whose favour he won by the sacrifice of his cloak, and lost again for a time owing to her jealousy of his passion for one of her Maids of Honour, when he had to spend four years in the Tower, knighted him, gave him vast estates in Ireland, made him captain of the guard, Governor of Jersey, Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Vice-Admiral of Devon and Cornwall. Like Drake, he sat in Parliament; and it was while still in favour with the Queen that he was elected Member for his county.
On the accession of James I, however, Ralegh was charged with joining in the plot on behalf of Arabella Stuart, and was again sent to the Tower. During his long imprisonment there he wrote his most famous work, the _History of the World_, whose learned, eloquent, and philosophic pages proved that his skill was no less with his pen than with his sword. His stirring description of the last fight of the _Revenge_ inspired Tennyson's noble ballad.
Released from prison by James in order that he might once more sail up the Orinoco in search of the mythical treasure-land ruled over by El Dorado, he came back from that most disastrous expedition a broken man. Again committed to the Tower at the instigation of the Spanish Ambassador, he was soon afterwards beheaded on the old charge of treason, dying as he had lived, dignified, noble, and fearless to the last.
Two other heroic figures of the Elizabethan age, worthy to be ranked in the same company with Drake, are his gallant comrade Hawkyns, who was born at Plymouth in 1532, and Grenville the indomitable, the hero of that last fight of the _Revenge_.
Several other men who were born in our county have distinguished themselves as explorers, or by having helped, by peaceable means, to found our over-seas empire. Such were Davis, the arctic navigator, who was born near Dartmouth about 1550, who left his name in Davis's Straits, and who wrote _The Seaman's Secrets_ and other works; Sir Humphrey Gilbert, born in 1539 at Dartmouth, distinguished as a soldier in the Irish wars of Elizabeth's reign, but still more as having taken possession of Newfoundland, thus establishing the first British colony; Gate, who with Somers colonised Bermuda in 1611; and Wills, who perished in 1861 with Burke in crossing Australia.
Devonshire has been the native land of many soldiers. Two of the most distinguished, both of whom strongly influenced their country's destiny, and were made dukes as a reward for their services, were Monck and Marlborough. George Monck, born near Torrington in 1608, distinguished himself both by land and sea. He twice defeated the great Dutch admiral Van Tromp; and although severely beaten by de Ruyter he afterwards gained a great victory over him off the North Foreland. At first a Royalist, he joined the parliamentary army after his capture by Fairfax (followed by two years in the Tower) and Cromwell made him governor of Scotland. On the death of the Protector he marched to London, and was the chief instrument in the Restoration of Charles II, who made him Duke of Albemarle.
John Churchill, better known as the Duke of Marlborough, born at Ashe House in 1650, was not only the greatest general of his time, but one of the ablest military commanders the world has ever seen. His most memorable successes were the four great battles of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, in which he defeated the long-victorious armies of Louis XIV, then the most powerful monarch on the continent. By this series of victories, followed by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the peace of Europe was secured for thirty years.
Many great Devonshire men, including some of the earliest who became distinguished, were churchmen or divines, not a few of whom are also famous as authors. Such, for example, was Winfrid, otherwise Saint Boniface, and known as the Apostle of Germany, who, born probably at Crediton in 680, began his career as a Benedictine monk at Exeter, and after spending many years in converting the wild German tribes to Christianity, was appointed archbishop of Mainz, and was afterwards murdered by the Frisians in 755. Such were Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, Warelwast the builder of the Norman cathedral, Quivil the designer of the magnificent fabric that replaced it, Stapledon and Grandisson his able successors, Reynolds the leading Puritan divine at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, whose proposal of a new translation of the Bible led to the Authorised Version of 1611, Trelawney, one of the Seven Bishops whose trial and acquittal formed one of the most memorable events of the reign of James II, Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, one of the fathers of English Protestantism, the "Judicious" Hooker, author of the _Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_, Barclay, who translated Brant's satiric allegory under the title _The Shyp of Folys_, Prince, author of the _Worthies of Devon_, Dean Buckland the famous geologist, author of _Reliquiae Diluvianae_, who died in 1856, and Charles Kingsley, born at Holne in 1819, distinguished as an able and eloquent preacher and as a strenuous worker for the good of mankind, as poet, novelist, and naturalist, author of many books, and especially of _Westward Ho!_ and the _Water Babies_, and of the words of many beautiful songs, such as the _Three Fishers_. Not a native of the county, but Bishop of Exeter in 1551, was Miles Coverdale, whose translation of the Bible appeared in 1535. To him many of the finest phrases in our Authorised Version of 1611 are directly due.
The most distinguished of the many Devonshire men of letters is Coleridge, poet and dreamer, philosopher and critic, who was born at Ottery St Mary in 1772. That, however, was his sole connection with the county. It was chiefly during his three years' residence at Nether Stowey, in Somerset, that the finest of his few masterpieces, especially the _Ancient Mariner_ and part of _Christabel_, were written. Amongst other authors who were born in Devon may be named Gay, writer of plays, fables, and songs, among them the _Beggars' Opera_ and _Black-eyed Susan_; Ford the dramatist; William Browne, the author of _Britannia's Pastorals_; Kitto, the deaf compiler of Biblical literature; Merivale the Roman historian; Rowe and Risdon, each of whom wrote books on the county; and Froude the historian, author of many books, and especially of the _History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada_.
Herrick was not Devonshire born, but it was while he was vicar of Dean Prior, between 1647 and 1674, that he wrote the _Hesperides_, among which are some of the best lyrics in the language. Dryden, again, was a frequent visitor at Lord Clifford's seat at Ugbrooke, and there is a tradition that he there finished his translation of Virgil. It was at Lynton that Shelley wrote part of _Queen Mab_. Keats finished _Endymion_ at Teignmouth. Tennyson was often a guest of Froude at Salcombe, and it is said that he had Salcombe Bar in mind when he wrote his last verses, _Crossing the Bar_.
Distinguished in other ways may be mentioned Blundell, the Tiverton cloth-merchant, who, dying in 1601, left money for the establishment of Blundell's School; Bodley, born at Exeter in 1545, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford; John Baring, founder of the great banking-house of Baring Brothers; Babbage, the inventor of the calculating machine; Bidder, the "Calculating Boy," son of a stone-mason of Moreton Hampstead; Cookworthy, the originator of Plymouth china; and Newcomen, a Dartmouth ironmonger, whose improvement on the atmospheric steam-engine of Savery, also a Devonshire man, was used early in the eighteenth century for pumping water out of mines.
Devonshire has been specially remarkable for its artists, of whom the most distinguished were Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great portrait-painter, born at Plympton in 1723; Cosway, who painted exquisite miniatures; Samuel Prout, the famous architectural painter, and Skinner Prout his nephew; Eastlake, the great painter of figures, and the author of books on art; and Hilliard the goldsmith of Queen Elizabeth.
Two very famous Devonshire houses are those of Courtenay and Carew. There is said to be hardly a parish in all Devon in which a Courtenay did not hold land. Courtenays followed the King to many wars. One tilted with Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Three were at Navarete with the Black Prince. Three died during the Wars of the Roses, either in battle or on the scaffold. Of the house of Carew, one was at Cressy and another at Agincourt. One was knighted on the field of Bosworth, one was at Flodden, and one, while fighting the French, was blown up with the _Mary Rose_.
26. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF DEVONSHIRE.
(The figures in brackets after each name give the population of the parish in 1901, from the official returns, and those at the end of each paragraph are references to the pages in the text.)
#Appledore# (2625). A small sea-port at the mouth of the Torridge, wrongly supposed, through confusion with an Appledore in Kent, to have been the landing-place of Hubba the Dane. (pp. 27, 61, 130, 131.)
#Ashburton# (2628). A market-town on the Yeo, eight miles south-west of Newton Abbot, one of the Stannary Towns, with some manufacture of cloth. A good centre for Dartmoor, and with a fine church and other old buildings. Near it are Holne Chase and the Buckland Woods, with very beautiful scenery. (pp. 46, 112, 118, 120, 151, 173, 212.)
#Axminster# (2906). Close to the border of Dorset, high above the Axe. Interesting for the history of its church, founded in 755, and endowed by Athelstan after his victory over the Danes. The manufacture of Axminster carpets was discontinued here in 1835. (pp. 114, 150, 153, 168, 170, 199, 206.)
#Axmouth# (643). A pretty village in a combe in rugged chalk cliffs, near the mouth of the Axe. The coast here has been much altered by landslips. (pp. 66, 199.)
#Bampton# (1657). An old market-town, near the border of Somerset, with a very large annual fair, especially for the sale of sheep and Exmoor ponies. Has also large limestone quarries. (p. 191.)
#Barnstaple# (11,999). The chief town of North Devon, nine miles from the mouth of the Taw, where the river widens into a tidal estuary. It formerly had much trade with America, but is now noted only for its pottery, called Barum ware. The river is spanned by a famous stone bridge of 16 arches, dating from the thirteenth century. (pp. 82, 101, 112, 114, 130, 131, 139, 149, 173, 192, 206, 207, 210, 212.)
#Beer# (1118). A fishing-village at the foot of a narrow, deep valley near the Dorset border, noted for lace-making, and for its very extensive subterranean quarries of fine building-stone. (pp. 68, 112, 114, 123, 168, 200.)
#Bere Alston.# A village eight miles north of Plymouth, close to the border of Cornwall, was formerly noted for its rich silver mine, flooded by the Tamar in 1860. (p. 121.)
#Berry Pomeroy# (423). A village in the valley of the Dart, near Totnes, famous for its ruined castle, the most picturesque ruin in Devonshire. (pp. 100, 176, 188.)
#Bideford# (8754) is a market-town and river-port near the mouth of the Torridge, here crossed by a fine bridge, built in the fifteenth century in place of the dangerous ford which gave its name to the town. It was a very important place in Armada days, and formerly had great trade with Newfoundland and other American colonies. (pp. 114, 123, 130, 131, 194, 204, 207, 210.)
#Bovey Tracy# (2693), six miles north-west of Newton Abbot, is noted for beds of clay and lignite, and for its potteries. (pp. 25, 40, 114, 122, 123.)
#Brixham# (8092), a sea-port with a good harbour, a market-town, and a very important fishing-station, with many trawlers, stands on Berry Head, at the south end of Torbay. Here William of Orange landed in 1688. (pp. 73, 118, 128, 130, 132, 150, 154, 197.)
#Buckfastleigh# (2781) is a small town in the Dart valley, with woollen factories. Buckfast Abbey, a Saxon foundation, was restored and reinhabited by French Benedictine monks in 1882. (pp. 112, 171, 184, 200.)
#Buckland Abbey#, seven miles north of Plymouth, was in part converted into a dwelling-house by Sir Richard Grenville, and this was afterwards altered by Sir Francis Drake, of whom interesting relics are here preserved. (pp. 54, 145, 166, 184.)
#Budleigh Salterton# (1883). A small port and favourite watering-place, beautifully situated five miles east of the mouth of the Exe. (pp. 69, 129, 199.)
#Chagford# (1397). A small market-town, high above the Teign valley, on the borders of Dartmoor, forming a good centre for tourists, naturalists, and archaeologists. There are many Bronze Age antiquities in the neighbourhood. (pp. 25, 120, 191, 204.)
#Chudleigh# (1820), seven miles inland from Dawlish, contains the ruins of the palace of the Bishop of Exeter, built in 1080. Ugbrooke, often visited by Dryden, is a mile away. (pp. 123, 199, 200, 221.)
#Chumleigh# (1158), is a village on high ground above the valley of the Taw, chiefly interesting for the history of the Seven Prebends of its church. (pp. 172, 196, 197.)
#Clovelly# (621). A small but extraordinarily picturesque fishing-village, consisting of one cobble-paved street, running steeply up a narrow ravine through a densely-wooded hill-side. Near it is the Hobby Drive. There is a fine camp on the hill above. (pp. 62, 63, 85, 161, 176.)
#Colyton# (1943) is a small market-town, beautifully situated in the Coly valley, near the border of Dorset, with a fine church. (pp. 114, 122, 150, 168, 191.)
#Combe Martin# (1521), a village on the coast six miles east of Ilfracombe, in a fertile valley, was formerly noted for its very rich silver mine; now for market-gardening. (pp. 15, 121, 171, 172.)
#Countisbury# (279) is a little village on the west side of the Foreland, close to the Somerset border.
#Crediton# (3974), a market-town with boot and shoe, and cider factories, stands above the valley of the Creedy, eight miles north-west of Exeter, whither the see of the Bishopric was, for greater safety, moved from here by Leofric, in 1050. The very fine church, of unusual length, contains many monuments. (pp. 112, 118, 168, 172, 200, 219.)
#Cullompton# (2919) is a market-town 12 miles north-east of Exeter, on the road from Bristol. The manor belonged to Buckland Abbey. The Walronds is a fine Elizabethan mansion. (pp. 112, 118, 172, 173.)
#Dartington# (478), so-named when the tidal estuary of the Dart ran close to it, is now a suburb of Totnes. Dartington Hall is a very fine Elizabethan house. (pp. 129, 194.)
#Dartmouth# (6579), a market-town, and favourite resort of yachtsmen, and formerly a port of great importance, at the narrow entrance of the Dart estuary, is a place of exceptional beauty and of great historic interest, built in terraces on a steep, wooded hill. In the old town along the quay and in the Butter-Walk are fine old Elizabethan houses. St Saviour's, one of its four churches, dates from 1372, and has a splendid rood-screen and a very fine pulpit. The land-locked harbour was guarded by two castles. On a hill above the town is the great white building of the naval college, which has superseded the old training-ship _Britannia_. (pp. 23, 74, 75, 129, 130, 132, 140, 147, 172, 175, 176, 191, 200, 210, 212, 218, 222.)
#Dawlish# (4287) is a charming and highly popular watering-place with fine sands and beautiful red cliffs, in a sheltered combe, south of the estuary of the Exe. A pretty pleasure garden called the Lawn, with a stream through it, divides the new town from the old. (pp. 69, 80, 128.)
#Devonport# (70,437) is a parliamentary, municipal, and county borough, on high ground above the estuary of the Tamar, two miles west-north-west of Plymouth, one of the chief naval arsenals in Britain, with government establishments--dockyards, barracks, magazines, etc.--stretching nearly four miles along the Hamoaze, a great anchorage for men-of-war. (pp. 79, 118, 210, 212.)
#Drewsteignton# (673), a large village near the Teign, not far from which is the Spinster's Rock, the only cromlech in Devonshire. (p. 154.)
#Exeter# (47,185), the capital of Devonshire, and long regarded as the Key of the West of England, is a picturesque old city, standing on high ground above the Exe, which passes through the town. It is a port, with a large basin connected with the estuary of the Exe by a canal. A municipal, county, and parliamentary borough, it has factories of agricultural implements and gloves, and there are large nurseries round it. Of its castle of Rougemont, built by the Conqueror in 1067, little now remains. But its magnificent cathedral, which contains many most beautiful and interesting features, is the finest example of the Decorated style of architecture in England. Other interesting or important buildings are the Deanery, the House of the Abbots of Buckfast, Mol's Coffee House, the Guildhall, and the Albert Memorial Museum.
The history of the town is of the highest interest, and is linked with every event of importance connected with the county. It has been besieged in turn by Danes and Normans and Saxons, by King Stephen, by the army of Perkin Warbeck, and the rebels of the "Commotion," by the Yorkists, and by Royalists and Parliamentarians. Many distinguished Bishops have held the see; and noteworthy names of those who have been born in the city are those of the "Judicious" Hooker, Sir Thomas Bodley, and the Princess Henrietta, daughter of Charles I, and afterwards Duchess of Orleans. (pp. 22, 101, 112, 118, 132, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 160, 163, 164, 168, 170, 171, 175, 176, 178, 180, 181, 182, 187, 195, 196, 197, 200, 203, 204, 205, 210, 212, 219, 221, 222.)
#Exminster# (2550), a village on the west bank of the Exe, where is a large asylum.
#Exmouth# (10,485), once a sea-port, is a rapidly growing and very popular watering-place, with docks and brick-works, at the entrance of the estuary of the Exe, here narrowed to a swift current by the sand-bank called the Warren. (pp. 22, 82, 96, 129, 132, 191, 206.)
#Haccombe# (9), the smallest parish in England, contains the residence, not always occupied, of the Carew family, and three other houses. In the tiny church, the rector of which is an "arch-priest," are many memorials. (pp. 171, 176, 209.)
#Hartland# (1634), a small town in a very large but thinly-inhabited parish, stands on the west side of Hartland Point. In the church, whose lofty tower serves as a steering-mark for ships in the Bristol Channel, is one of the longest rood-screens in Devon, and also a good Norman font and door. (pp. 64, 150, 170, 172, 173, 175, 184.)
#Holbeton# (850) stands on the Erme estuary, ten miles from Plymouth. Its fine church contains a magnificent rood-screen and a Norman font. (pp. 175, 196.)
#Holcombe Rogus# (607), on the Somerset border, south-west of Wellington, contains a church in which are many monuments of the Bluett family, who formerly owned Holcombe Rogus Court, the finest Tudor mansion in the county. (p. 195.)
#Holne# (273), a small village in the beautifully-wooded valley of the Upper Dart, was the birth-place of Charles Kingsley. The church has a fine screen and pulpit. (pp. 23, 160, 175, 220.)
#Holsworthy# (1371), is an important market near the border of Cornwall, ten miles inland from Bude. The very ancient horse-fair of St Peter is held here in July.
#Honiton# (3271), a municipal borough on the London and Exeter road, 16 miles from the latter town, gives its name to the lace which was first made here by Flemish refugees. St Margaret's Hospital for Lepers has been converted into almshouses. Four miles away is Hembury fort, one of the finest camps in Devon. (pp. 112, 138, 161, 175, 210, 212.)
#Ilfracombe# (8557), a small sea-port and very popular watering-place on the north coast, having a land-locked harbour sheltered by the Capstone Hill, and with the Chapel of St Nicholas, now a lighthouse, at the entrance of it, is celebrated for the exceptional mildness of its climate. (pp. 58, 94, 130, 131, 150, 151, 170, 206.)
#Instow# (634), a small but very ancient port, at the point where the Taw and the Torridge meet, has weekly communication with Lundy. (pp. 27, 61.)
#Kenton# (1612), a very picturesque village, inland from Starcross, with a fine church of red sandstone, whose rood-screen, partly Flemish, is one of the best in England, and its oaken pulpit perhaps the finest in Devon. (pp. 172, 174, 175.)
#Kingsbridge# (3025 with #Dodbrooke#) is a small but important market-town at the head of the Kingsbridge estuary, which is really a tidal creek without a river, in the extreme south of the county. It is one of the chief places in the fertile district called the South Hams. (pp. 16, 50, 54, 118, 122, 193.)
#Kingswear# (841) is a picturesque village opposite Dartmouth, which is reached from it by a steam-ferry. Near the old castle, now modernised, but said to date from John's reign, are the remains of a guard-house from which a chain was stretched across the river to Dartmouth Castle, to guard the estuary. (pp. 74, 191.)
#Lydford# (2812), a small village in the largest parish in England, including a great part of Dartmoor, was once second in importance to Exeter, a Stannary Town, and the seat of the Stannary prison. There is a ruined Norman castle. Lydford Gorge, spanned by a single-arched stone bridge, is one of the most beautiful spots in Devon. (pp. 14, 120, 138, 139, 190, 204, 207, 209.)
#Lynton# (1641) and #Lynmouth# (402) are two villages in the parish of Lynton, on the north coast, the latter on the shore, and the former 450 feet above it, famous for their very beautiful scenery, especially along the river Lyn--where one of the finest spots is at the Watersmeet--and in the wild ravine called the Valley of Rocks. (pp. 16, 57, 82, 127, 150, 221.)