Rosalind Northcote - Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts

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The Guildhall, Exeter

DEVON

ITS MOORLANDS, STREAMS, & COASTS

BY LADY ROSALIND NORTHCOTE
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
AFTER FREDERICK J. WIDGERY

LONDONEXETER
CHATTO & WINDUSJAMES G. COMMIN
M CM VIII

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Deep-wooded combes, clear-mounded hills of morn,
Red sunset tides against a red sea-wall,
High lonely barrows where the curlews call,
Far moors that echo to the ringing horn,
Devon! thou spirit of all these beauties born,
All these are thine, but thou art more than all:
Speech can but tell thy name, praise can but fall
Beneath the cold white sea-mist of thy scorn.

Yet, yet, O noble land, forbid us not
Even now to join our faint memorial chime
To the fierce chant wherewith their hearts were hot
Who took the tide in thy Imperial prime;
Whose glory's thine till Glory sleeps forgot
With her ancestral phantoms, Pride and Time.

Henry Newbolt

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Preface

The first and one of the greatest difficulties to confront a writer who attempts any sort of description of a place or people is almost sure to be the answer to the question, How much must be left out? In the present case the problem has reappeared in every chapter, for Devon is 'a fair province,' as Prince says in his 'Worthies of Devon,' and 'the happy parent of ... a noble offspring.'

My position is that of a person who has been bidden to take from a great heap of precious stones as many as are needed to make one chain; for however grasping that person may be, and however long the chain may be made, when all the stones have been chosen, the heap will look almost as great and delightful as before: only a few of the largest and brightest jewels will be gone.

The fact that I have been able to take only a small handful from the vast hoard that constitutes the history of Devon will explain, I hope, the many omissions that must strike every reader who has any knowledge of the countyomissions of which no one can be more conscious than myself. A separate volume might very well be written about the bit of country touched on in each chapter.

This book does not pretend to include every district. I have merely passed through a great part of the county, stopping here at an old church with interesting monuments, there at a small town whose share in local historyin some instances, in the country's historyis apt to be forgotten, or at a manor-house which should be remembered for its association with one of the many 'worthies' who, as Prince sayswith the true impartiality of a West-countryman in regard to his own countyform 'an illustrious troop of heroes, as no other county in the kingdom, no other kingdom (in so small a tract) in Europe, in all respects, is able to match, much less excel.'

From the 'Tale of Two Swannes,' a view of the banks of the River Lea, published in 1590, I have ventured to borrow the verses that close an address 'To the Reader':

'To tell a Tale, and tell the Trueth withall,
To write of waters, and with them of land,
To tell of Rivers, where they rise and fall,
To tell where Cities, Townes, and Castles stand,
To tell their names, both old and newe,
With other things that be most true,

'Argues a Tale that tendeth to some good,
Argues a Tale that hath in it some reason,
Argues a Tale, if it be understood,
As looke the like, and you shall find it geason.
If, when you reade, you find it so,
Commend the worke and let it goe.'

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Contents

Sonnet by Henry Newbolt
Preface
Chap. I.	Exeter
II.	The Exe
III.	The Otter and the Axe
IV.	Dartmoor
V.	The Teign
VI.	Torbay
VII.	The Dart
VIII.	Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and the South Hams
IX.	The Three Towns
X.	The Tamar and the Tavy
XI.	The Taw and the Torridge
XII.	Lundy, Lynmouth, and the Borders of Exmoor
XIII.	Castles and Country-Houses
List of authorities consulted
Index

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Illustrations

The Guildhall, Exeter

Exeter from Exwick

Exeter Cathedral

The Exe: Tiverton

Topsham

Exmouth from Cockwood

Ottery St. Mary

Sidmouth

Branscombe

Beer Beach

Seaton Headland

The Windypost, or Beckamoor Cross

Yes Tor: Dartmoor

Lustleigh Cleave

Wistman's Wood

Widdecombe-in-the-Moor

Sheepstor

Lydford Bridge

Hey Tor

Fingle Bridge

Chudleigh Glen

Teignmouth and Shaldon

Torquay from the Bay

Berry Head

Brixham Trawlers

Postbridge

Dartmeet Bridge

Holne Bridge

Fore Street, Totnes

Sharpham Woods: River Dart

Dartmouth Castle

Salcombe

Bolt Head

Slapton Lea

The Tamar, near Saltash

Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound

Brent Tor. From Lvdford Moors

Tavy Cleave

Brent Tor

Bideford

Appledore

Clovelly

Morthoe

Bull Point: Morthoe

Barnstaple Bridge

Torrington

Lantern Rock: Ilfracombe

Countisbury Foreland

Lynmouth

Malmsmead

Lorna's Bower

Waterslide: Doone Valley

Doone Valley

Powderham Castle

Berry Pomeroy Castle

Compton Castle

Okehampton Castle

Sydenham House

Bradfield

Pynes, near Exeter

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Devon

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CHAPTER I

Exeter

'Richmond! When last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle,
And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once,
I should not live long after I saw Richmond.'

King Richard III., Act IV, Sc. ii.

There are not many towns which stir the imagination as much as Exeter. To all West-Countrymen she is a Mother City ... and there is not one among them, however long absent from the West, who does not feel, when he sets foot in Exeter, that he is at home again, in touch with people of his own blood and kindred.... In Exeter all the history of the West is bound upits love of liberty, its independence, its passionate resistance to foreign conquerors, its devotion to lost causes, its loyalty to the throne, its pride, its trade, its maritime adventureall these many strands are twined together in that bond which links West-Countrymen to Exeter.' Mr Norway is a West-Countryman, and he sums up very justly the sentiment, more or less consciously realized, of the people for whom he speaks, and especially the feeling of the citizens.

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