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MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES
OF SOMERSET.
^
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Ul
y^
m^tb6, Scenes, Si Mottbies
of
Somerset
BY
MRS. E. BOGER
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDExV.
MDCCCLXXXVII.
DA
(. 10
g^Mcattxrn*
THIS ATTEMPT TO KEEP GREEN THE MEMORY
OF WORTHY DEEDS
DONE BY SONS OF SOMERSET,
IS DEDICATED, BY KIND PERMISSION, TO
LORD ARTHUR CHARLES HERVEY,
LORD BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS,
BY
THE AUTHOR.
VHT
aQSSSl..
pR
EFACE.
-:o:-
The author has somewhat departed from her original
intention of making a collection of the myths and legends
of Somerset. Unwittingly, fiction glided into fact, and the
story developed into history, and it was found diflficult, if
not impossible, to define their respective limits. For in-
stance, though Arthur is an impalpable and shadowy per-
sonage, while Alfred is a most real and substantial one, yet
the mingling of truth and fable in the story of each — as
connected with Somerset — is only one of degree ; and even
in later times, myth is so entertwined with the lives of St.
Dunstan, of Sir John de Courcy, of Roger Bacon, &c., that,
if one tries rudely to tear away the accretions of myth and
fable, a maimed and distorted picture is all that is left.
Among the legends of Saints are some of rare beauty, full
of earnest thought and quaint suggestiveness. It has been
endeavoured to show that, instead of being — as they are
generally and conveniently classed, with a charming sim-
plicity as — the " lying inventions of the monks," they are in
most cases but the loving exaggerations of a simple age, to
which every unexplained wonder was a miracle.
Some of the articles may be thought to be of undue
length ; but St. Dunstan is a character so strangely mis-
represented in most histories, that the author was anxious to
prove incontestably his claim to be one of the worthiest of
the worthies of Somerset ; again, as to the unhappy Duke of
Monmouth, though the story of his rebellion is of necessity
taken chiefly from Macaulay, the story of his quasi-royal
via PREFACE.
progress is little known, and Macaulay studiously omits any
palliating or softening circumstance in the terrible record of
the battle of Sedgmoor and the Bloody Assize.
There is no excuse to offer for the arbitrary way in which
the subjects are selected, but a record extending from the
ninth century B.C. to the nineteenth a.d. could not by any
possibility be exhaustive; as many more myths cauld be
selected, and as many more worthies found, as those herein
recorded, if the public chooses to demand them. One or
two articles promised in the prospectus will be missed,, but as
it is, the allotted space has been largely exceeded.
There is only left the pleasant task of thanking those who
have so courteously helped the author with advice, encourage-
ment, information, and — not the least valuable — kindly criti-
cism. Among these are the Rev. G. G. Perry, Canon of
Lincoln; the Rev. H. T. Perfect, Rector of Stanton Drew;
the Rev. G. J. Gowring, Vicar of Whitelackington; the Rev.
C. R. Tate, Rector of Trent ; the Rev. W. Hunt, Vicar of
Congresbury ; the Rev. S. A. Hervey, Vicar of Wedmore ;
the Rev. S. O. Baker, Vicar of Muchelney ; the Rev. W,
Hook, Rector of Porlock ; the Rev. R. B. Poole, Vicar of
Ilton ; the Rev. B. H. Wortham, Rector of Eggesford, and
the Rev. Edmund Wyndham ; also Hugh Norris> Esq., of
South Petherton, Edward Walford, Esq., Arthur Kinglake,
Esq., St. David Kemeys - Tynte, Esq., J. H. Pring, Esq.,
and, one who has already passed away, the late Mr. Edward
Solly. To each and all, and to those whose names by any
chance may have been omitted, cordial thanks are given,
with a sincere wish that the result were more worthy of their
kind assistance. • C G. B.
c
ONTENTS.
-»o«-
PAGE
INTRODUCTION I
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN; OR, THE LEGEND OF BATH . 15
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA AND THE LEGEND OF GLASTONBURY . 26
WATCHET. THE LEGEND OF ST. DECUMAN . , > . 34
PORLOCK AND ST. DUBRITIUS . . • - • - > 37
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET 4°
ST. KEYNA THE VIRGIN, OF KEYNSHAM 63
GILDAS BADONICUS, CALLED GILDAS THE WISE, ALSO GILDAS
THE QUERULOUS 65
ST. BRITHWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY . . ^ , 70
KING INA IN SOMERSF^T. INA AND ALDHELM . , . Si
ST. CONGAR AND CONGRESBURY 9^
HON, THE LEADER OF THE SUMORSiETAS, AT THE BATTLE OF
ELLANDUNE .......•• lOI
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET AND THE LEGEND OF ST. NEOT . IO4
ST. ATHELM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY .... I30
WULFHELM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY > . . • 13^
THE LANDING OF THE DANES AT WATCHET .... 139
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN : HIS LIFE AND LEGENDS . . I43
MUCHELNEY ABBEY I 82
ETHELGAR, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 186
SIGERIC OR SIRICIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY . . 189
ELFEAH, ELPH^GE, OR ALPHEGE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY I93
ETHELNOTH, OR AGELNOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY . 201
X CONTENTS.
PAGE
MONTACUTE AND THE LEGEND OF WALTHAM CROSS . . 2IO
PORLOCK, AND HAROLD SON OF GODWIN .... 213
GLASTONBURY AFTER THE CONQUEST. BISHOP THURSTAN . 215
WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY; CALLED ALSO " SOMERSETANUS " 219
THE PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET IN THE TWELFTH AND THIR-
TEENTH CENTURIES 223
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON ; JOAN CLIFFORD, COMMONLY
CALLED " FAIR ROSAMOND " 23O
JOHN DE COURCY 245
ST. ULRIC THE RECLUSE, OR ST. WULFRIC THE HERMIT . 260
SIR WILLIAM DE BRIWERE 262
WOODSPRING PRIORY, AND THE MURDERERS OF THOMAS A
BECKET 269
RICHARD OF ILCHESTER, OR RICHARD TOCKLIVE OR MORE . 274
HALSWELL HOUSE, NEAR BRIDGEWATER. THE LEGEND OF THE
HOUSE OF TYNTE 278
WITHAM PRIORY AND ST. HUGH OF AVALON (iN BURGUNDY) 279
WILLIAM OF WROTHAM 287
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS 294
HUGH TROTMAN, OF WELLS 305
ROGER BACON . . , , ^U
SIR HENRY BRACTON. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE IN THE REIGN OF
HENRY III 223
WILLIAM BRIWERE (BRIEWERE, BRUERE, OR BREWER) . . 329
DUNSTER CASTLE. SIR REGINALD DE MOHUN. LADY MOHUN 33I
FULKE OF SAMFORD, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN , , . 336
SIR JOHN HAUTVILLE AND SIR JOHN ST. LOE .... 337
SIR SIMON DE MONTACUTE 34O
THE EVIL WEDDING. CHEW MAGNA AND STANTON DREW . 342
ROBERT BURNEL ... 346
SOMERTON. KING JOHN OF FRANCE 350
STOKE-UNDER-HAM. SIR MATTHEW GOURNAY . . . 354
BRISTOL (sT. MARY REDCLIFFE). THE CANYNGES ; CHATTERTON 357
THOMAS DE BECKYNGTON 360
THE LEGEND OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON . , . 371
CONTENTS. XI
PAGE
THE LEGEND OF THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNEY . . . .378
SEBASTIAN CABOT 387
TAUNTON AND ITS STORY . 392
GILES LORD DAUBENEY AND THE CORNISH REBELLION. KING
INA'S PALACE AND SOUTH PETHERTON .... 40I
JOHN HOOPER. THE MARIAN PERSECUTION .... 408
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETTS, OF HINTON ST. GEORGE 415
RICHARD EDWARDES 427
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE POPHAM 433
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY 438
WILLIAM BARLOW AND THE TIMES OF EDWARD VI. . . 460
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS 465
HENRY CUFF 476
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON 477
THE WADHAMS. WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD ; ILMINSTER,
MERRIFIELD, ILTON 4S8
SAMUEL DANIEL 493
DR. JOHN BULL 502
THOMAS CORYATE, OF ODCOMBE, IN SOMERSET . . . 506
JOHN PYM 510
SIR AMIAS PRESTON 518
ADMIRAL BLAKE 519
WILLIAM PRYNNE 535
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON 54I
RALPH CUDWORTH 554
ON WITCHES. MRS. LEAKEY, OF MYNEHEAD, SOMERSET . . 557
JOHN LOCKE 560
THOMAS KEN, D.D., SOMETIME BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS . 562
TRENT HOUSE. CHARLES II. AND COLONEL WYNDHAM . 571
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET 575
PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK AND JOHN DUDDLESTON OF
BRISTOL 592
BEAU NASH. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY HISTORY
OF THE CITY OF BATH . 596
WOKEY OR OCKEY HOLE, NEAR WELLS 604
Xll CONTENTS.
PAGE
CAPTAIN ST. LOE 6o8
THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
MRS. HANNAH AND MRS. PATTY MORE, AND CHEDDAR . 614
DR. THOMAS YOUNG 629
EDWARD HAWKINS, PROVOST OF ORIEL AND CANON OF
ROCHESTER 648
CHARLES FUGE LOWDER 65O
A TALE OF WATCHET. THE DEATH OF JANE CAPES . . 656
CAPTAIN JOHN HANNING SPEKE 659
CHEDDAR CHEESE. WEST PENNARD's WEDDING PRESENT TO
THE QUEEN, 1 839 662
IN MEMORIAM, 181I-1833 664
MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES
OF SOMERSET.
INTRODUCTION.
No county of England possesses a story of more absorbing
interest than that of Somerset, yet few have been so strangely
neglected. The varied beauties of its scenery have been
depreciated to exalt that of the neighbouring county of
Devon. Its legendary history, which is of singular beauty,
is almost unknown; its real history, except perhaps the
ghastly episode of the Monmouth Rebellion, has attracted
little attention ; nay, the fact that here first — in all England,
nay, in all the British Isles— trod " the feet of those who
brought good tidings, who preached the gospel of peace,"
has well-nigh been forgotten ; while the roll of its worthies
has been so little studied, that the names of St. Brithwald,
St. Athelm, and the martyred Alphege, Adelard of Bath,
and Adam de Marisco, of William of Wrotham and the two
great brother bishops, Joceline and Hugh Trotman (bishops
respectively of Bath and Wells, and Lincoln), will sound
stranger to the ears of many, than the names of ancient
Greeks and Romans ; while to most, the knowledge that St.
2
2 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Dunstan, and possibly William of Malmesbury ; the Lady
Joan Clifford, commonly called Fair Rosamond ; De
Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster and champion for the
honour of England in the reign of King John ; Roger
Bacon and Sir Henry Bracton ; Sebastian Cabot and Chief-
Justice Popham; Daniel, the Elizabethan poet, and Dr.
John Bull, the great musician and reputed author of " God
save the Queen ; " Lord Hopton and Admiral Blake ; John
Locke and Dr. Thomas Young; Canon Hawkins, Sir
Edward Parry, and Father Lowder, &c., &c., were all natives
of Somerset, will probably be quite new.
Somerset forms the eastern extremity of the Western
Peninsula, and it is that position which made it again and
again a rallying point against oppression. Kent was the
point by which Romans, Saxons, and Normans alike entered
our island home, while Somerset has the more glorious
memory of serving as a refuge for the oppressed nationality,
whence it issued out again refreshed and invigorated to
continue the struggle for independence. The Romans,
having encountered the Belgse in Gaul, seem to have
avoided for many years meeting them in Britain, and when
they did at last subdue the West, Bath became a British
Pompeii, and was as fashionable a resort in the days of
Roman British luxury as in the eighteenth century. Mag-
nificent baths, Roman villas, and country seats have been
laid bare during modern excavations. How far our first
myth, the legend of Bath, points to a still earher civiliza-
tion it is difficult to say.
Washed on the north by the Bristol Channel, poetically
called the Severn Sea, it is divided roughly into three parts
INTRODUCTION. 3
by the parallel ranges of the Mendip and the Quantock
Hills. The eastern portion includes Bath and part of
Bristol, while Wells is situated among the Mendips, for
Somerset alone of all the counties of England has three
cities in, or partly within, its boundaries. The Avon marks
the eastern boundary of Somerset, and its magnificent gorge,
with St. Vincent's rocks, forms the entrance to Bristol
Harbour. The position of Bath is simply unrivalled ; it is
situated on the bottom and the steep sides of the valley of
the Avon, which, sweeping round the ancient town, traverses
the heart of the city in a winding course. From the
Beechen Cliff the visitor can see the whole city like a
great amphitheatre, as it rises with its terraces and crescents
tier upon tier to a height of nearly 800 feet ; the whole city
being built of the white oolite, which adds to the dazzling
beauty of the scene, for Bath is entirely free from the smoke
and dirt attendant upon trade and manufacture. Waagen
speaks of it as the queen of all the spas in the world.
Part only of Bristol is within the county, but that part
contains St. Mary Redcliffe, one of, if not the finest, parish
church in England. At the south-east of the county
are a group of villages bearing the names of Cadbury and
Camel. They are situated among the most charming
scenery, and are connected, as we shall see, with the legends
of Arthur.
The Mendip Hills are full of wild and picturesque
scenery ; the Cheddar cliffs, that bold cleft through them,
is wildly romantic, and the hills abound with caverns ; caves
filled with the bones of animals which certainly have not
existed in the country in historic times, such as hytenas,
4 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
bears, (Sec. Stalactite caverns, too, of great beauty are to be
seen, and the scenery is a strange mixture of savage
grandeur and picturesque beauty. The Mendips do not
even cease with the coast, for the islets of the steep and
flat Holms in the Bristol Channel are really but continua-
tions of the range. Between the Mendip and the Quantock
ranges is the plain of Somerset, watered by the Parret and
the Tone, with tributaries such as the Brue, the He, and
the Vvel. The north part of this district consists chiefly of
the Bridgwater flats, a rich grazing district, and which
even now is, sometimes, almost entirely under water in the
winter. From these marshes rise island hills such as
Glastonbury Tor, Brent Knoll, Weary-All or Wirral Hill,
Wells Tor, &c. At the south-west of the plain of Somerset
is the rich vale of Taunton Deane, with its lovely gold-
besprinkled meadows, its waving cornfields, its hedges,
which are hanging gardens fairer than those of Babylon ;
while the lanes and roads are shaded by magnificent elms
which grow in the hedgerows. The orchards, too, change
their dress with every changing season, for even in winter
one descries bunches of mistletoe which enliven the dead
time of the year. But for picturesque scenery the third or
western portion surpasses. From the exquisite little village
of Porlock, one of the loveliest spots in which a lotus-eater
might dream life away, and the quaint little sheltered nook
of Culbone, buried among the hills, the tourist passes to
the grand mass of Dunkery Beacon, with its gorgeous
covering of purple and gold which robes its sides in
autumn ; while above, on its summit, are the waves of purple
heather, which lie on the rounded knolls like a sea of
INTRODUCTION. 5
glorious light. From its summit Somerset may be viewed
from end to end, sixteen counties may be descried, and a
panorama of 500 miles. Bossington Beacon, with its
artistically arranged plantations and its winding paths and
restful seats, is by some considered even more beautiful.
Minehead, and Dunster with its quaint old town and market-
place, its fine church and magnificently situated castle, are
well worth a visit, and close at hand is the Somerset portion
of Exmoor Forest, where the wild red deer and the forest
ponies still roam at will.
Nor have w^e spoken of the geological treasures which
abound on every side, and which have found a worthy
interpreter in Charles Moore, himself a native of the county.
In an article on "The Shire and the Ga," in Macmilla7i's
Magazine for April, 18S0, Dr. Freeman shows how some of
the counties of England are mere shires, or shares, of a
great whole, while others are districts which went to build
up our country; and of this latter class is Somerset, for in
olden times it was not called Somersetr/«>^, any more than
Cornwall or Durham were so called. The affix ga, or gau,
signifying district, has become familiar to us of late years
from the Ober-Ammergan Passion-play. As Dr. Freeman
puts it, Somerset is not a district separated or divided off
from the kingdom of England, but is older than the king-
dom of England itself. Somerset, then, is the land of the
Sumorsaetas, one of the tribes of the Saxons, who, as they
came across the chill plains of Eastern Europe, were struck
with the summer warmth and the green pastures and the
purple distance of our summer land, and hence they gave
it its — perhaps not always — appropriate name. Camden says
6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
it was called Gladerhaf by the Welsh in his day, and he
conceives that they had translated the Saxon name, but
there are other antiquarians who maintain that Gladerhaf
(though certainly not originally a British word) was the older
title, and it certainly would add an additional charm to the
name to know that, from all time, it was known as the glad
and happy summer land or home.
But at the time Caesar visited Britain, Somerset was but a
district lately won by a tribe of the Gaulish Celts, who had
come over to Britain in large numbers, under their chief,
Divitiacus, trusting here to be free from the yoke of the all-
conquering Roman. At the north of Somerset is the Wans-
dyke, or Woden's dyke; this would naturally, from its name,
be supposed to be the work of the Saxons, but its construction
is undoubtedly Belgic, and it was doubtless the northern
frontier of the Belgic province. This magnificent earthwork
extended from the woodlands of Berkshire to the Severn.
It consists of a huge rampart and ditch, the ditch being on
the north side, and runs in a waved line along the sum.mit
of the hills, which, being unenclosed, contribute much to the
effect of this rude bulwark, the work of a race long since
passed away or absorbed by their conquerors. Of this mighty
fortification some remains are still to be found in Somerset ; it
crosses near Bath the uplands of Combe Down and Lans-
downe Hill. Offa's dyke in Wales, and the Wansdyke in
England, says Sir R. C. Hoare, are the most conspicuous
examples of the old territorial boundaries.
At this spot, then, we gain some idea of the strangely
mixed race that inhabits Britain. We cannot suppose, when
the Celts and the Cymri first found their way into our island,
INTRODUCTION. 7
that there were absolutelyno inhabitants; all tradition, legend,
and folk-lore point to some exceptionally savage and bar-
barous race, to whom Spenser refers as salvage men, and
who appear in the nursery tale of Jack the Giant-killer
as ferocious cannibals of huge stature. These indigenous
people of the soil were overcome by the Celts, who
probably came, like the Saxons and Danes of historic
times, in such overwhelming numbers as to defy all resist-
ance. Whether any immigration answering to Geoffrey of
INIonmouth's wild tales of the Trojan-descended Brutus ever
occurred, we have no means of knowing. There is no
record, legendary or otherwise, for dear old Geoffrey's is
pure invention, either of his own or some other man, and
is no true legend or myth. The last Celtic wave was, as
v.-e have seen, the Belgic immigration which took place
barely more than half a century before the Christian era.
Then comes the Roman invasion, but this did not touch
the frontier of the province of the Belgas for many a year.
In the interval of nearly a century, which took place between
the invasions of Julius Cassar and Claudius, occurs the story
of Cymbeline, or Cunobelin, which so wonderfully connects
secular history, ancient legend, and ecclesiastical tradition,
for was not Arviragus — the patron, and perhaps the convert,
of Joseph of Arimathea — the son of Cymbeline? and the
twelve hides of Glastonbury his gift to the infant Church ?
Time passed on ; the greater part of the county was con-
quered by the Romans, and at Bath in particular there are
numerous traces of their baths and villas. The Romans
were eminently practical, and they knew how to utilize the
works of their predecessors. It seems certain that many of
8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the Belgic fortifications were improved and strengthened by
them, such as perhaps the Wansdyke, and almost certainly
Cadbury fort, in the south-east of Somerset, and others.
But the Romans had had their day, and now occurs in our
story a circumstance almost without parallel in the history
of nations, viz., a period of legend and myth with no
authentic history whatever, intervening between two periods
of known and undoubted fact, and this period is almost
entirely connected with Somerset.
The Romans left, draining the country of all their fighting
men and their natural leaders, and leaving them a prey to
foreign invasion and internal confusion and discord. No
records were kept, or if there were, they were swept away,
and nothing can be recovered but a misty dream of wild
disorder. Picts, Scots, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Belgse, Britons,
all combating together — a veritable chaos from which no
order could be evolved. Out of this weird confused
struggUng mass looms at last one figure, bright and beauti-
ful, but with so mysterious a halo around him, that we
know scarcely whether he was a real or only an ideal
character. It was about the year 500 that Arthur appeared
and made his magnificent defence in our county against the
Saxon hordes : for a time he was successful, but all legend
points to the truth that he fell from internal dissensions and
treachery, and with him passed away the last hope of the
Britons. Time passed on, and Somerset was eventually
absorbed in the kingdom of the West Saxons, but not till
the Saxons themselves had embraced the Christian faith,
and conquered and conqueror knelt side by side in the
ancient British fane of Glastonbury.
INTRODUCTION. 9
The next great epoch in our history is the reign of Ina ;
he is beheved to have been of mixed British and Saxon
blood, and was probably a Sumorssetan by birth. He did
much to amalgamate the discordant elements of the western
kingdom. He built the town upon the Tone, and made
Taunton his western capital, erecting a castle there, which
was intended to overawe the West Welsh, as the inhabitants
of Cornwall and Devon were called. He founded Wells
and re-founded Glastonbury, making them centres for the
different forms of religious life. Wells was for the secular
clergy, and the centre for parochial work. Glastonbury
was the home for monastic life, and there learning, educa-
tion, and religious retirement were specially provided for,
and it was from the learned clergy trained at Glastonbury
that eight Archbishops of Canterbury were chosen — men,
almost without exception, of high attainments and holy
lives.
But fresh troubles came upon the land : the Saxons had
to experience in their turn the miseries which centuries
past they had inflicted on the ancient inhabitants. Again
Somerset was the rallying place, and the last hope of an
oppressed and despairing people. "Reculer pour mieux
sauter" might well be the motto of Somerset. Arthur's
magnificent defence was but the last lingering flash of a
decaying cause ; but Alfred's was the vigorous struggle of
a young and energetic nation, rising with fresh life and
determination from each defeat ; and Alfred not only won
peace in his own day, but transmitted a power greatly
strengthened and increased to his descendants. Learning,
too, was fostered, and to the sacred Isle of Avalon were
lO MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
invited teachers and professors from Ireland and abroad,
and Glastonbury flourished again, as in Ina's days, with
renewed life and splendour, and from her precincts, and
those of Bath and other schools of learning, went forth
men famous in their generation. Men like those spoken
of by the son of Sirach, " Such as did bear rule in their
kingdoms, renowned for their power, giving counsel by
their understanding, and declaring prophecies. Leaders
of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of
learning meet for the people; v/ise and eloquent in their
instructions. Such as found out musical tunes, and recited
verses in writing. Rich men furnished with ability, living
peaceably in their habitations. All these were honoured
in their generations, and were the glory of their times.
And some there be which have no memorial, who are
perished, as though they had never been ; but these were
merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.
Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for
evermore." Nay, we can count a martyr among these heroes
of Somerset, Archbishop Alphege, whose heroic death re-
lieves the level misery of the reign of Ethelred the Unred.
The guilty ambition of Harold, and his mean revenge
for the punishment of his rebellion and treachery against
Edward the Confessor, brought much sadness upon Somerset.
Then followed the iron rule of the Conqueror. During
what historians have agreed to call Stephen's reign, Somerset,
under the influence of Maude's half-brother, Robert, the
great and good Earl of Gloucester, remained in great part
faithful to the Empress, and her son, Henry of Anjou, was
much in Somerset in his younger days, while he was being
INTRODUCTION. 1 1
trained by his wise uncle in learning and good government.
It was in those days, in the woods of Canyngton, that he
met the beautiful Joan Clifford, known to all time as Fair
Rosamond ; but alas for him, and for her, and for all, the
great Earl died, and Henry was left, without wise restraint
and with his passions unchecked, to the care of the weak
father, whom he despised, and his proud, passionate mother.
There was a conference in 1141 held at Bath between
Stephen's and Matilda's partisans. The Earl of Gloucester
was there, but they wasted words to no purpose, and
departed without being able to conclude a peace.
But in all these troublous times the monastic schools of
Somerset sent forth wise and learned men, whose names
should be held in honour.
Earthquakes appear to have been of greater severity in
early times in the west than they have been in later years.
In 1248 we hear of one that injured Wells Cathedral, and
another in 1271 that threw down St. Michael's Tower on
the Tor hill at Glastonbury. In 1356 the castle of Somer-
ton was chosen as the residence of King John of France ;
and here seems a fit opportunity to make some mention of
the strange anomaly that, though Somerton, from its name,
would naturally be supposed to have been at one time the
capital of the county, such never seems to have been the
case, and the town probably took its name from the county
instead of, as usually happens, the county from the town.
There is, in fact, no town in Somerset which has ever held
the undoubted position of capital or chief city. Bath was
the largest town in the Roman times, but it lies too much
in a corner. Wells and Glastonbury were only ecclesiastical
12 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
centres, and, as towns, were very small. Taunton is the place
that most nearly holds that position, but no one place can
be called the undoubted chief town or city.^
In the reign of Henry VII. the curious episode of the
Cornish Rebellion took place. The insurgents passed
through Somerset ; they visited Taunton and Wells on their
way. They were finally subdued by Lord Daubeny, him-
self a native of the county. Meanwhile the wise traders,
the Canyuges, founded the beautiful Church of St. Mary
Redcliffe, in our portion of Bristol, and Sebastian Cabot
discovered the Continent of America and Newfoundland,
and a great rage for church building went through the
county, and the magnificent church towers of Somerset are
almost all of this date. It has been said that Henry VII.
promoted this fervour of church building as a reward to the
people for their being staunch Lancastrians. But this seems
doubtful.
But troublous days were coming on the church, and at
the destruction of the monasteries Glastonbury furnished
martyrs who refused to betray their trust, and Abbot
Whiting and his two friends were murdered by the tyrant
Henry ; while in the days of Edward A'l. Bishop Barlow
yielded up the church's patrimony without a struggle.
In Mary's reign Somerset was singularly free from perse-
cution ; the gentle Bishop Bourne, of Bath and Wells,
Romanist though he was, refusing to persecute. It, how-
ever, furnished a Protestant martyr in Bishop Hooper, of
Gloucester.
Elizabeth's reign furnishes us with a motley assembly of
' Mr. Freeman's " Shire and Gau."
INTRODUCTION. I3
celebrities : the Jesuit Parsons, the witty Sir John Har-
rington, the poet Daniel. The Wadhams, and their foundation
of the first post-Reformation College at Oxford, belong to
the reign of James I.
In the days of the great rebellion Somerset all but re-
deemed the struggle for the king. Two champions, one on
each side, were natives of the county, and on whichever
side our sympathies are, we may be proud to reckon among
the worthies of Somerset two men of such valiant courage,
such unblemished purity of life, such high conscientiousness
and deep religious feeling, as the chivalrous Sir Ralph,
afterwards Lord, Hopton, and the truly patriotic soldier and
sailor, Admiral Blake.
The life of that holy confessor, Bishop Ken, embraces the
reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and
part of Anne's reign. Two scenes in the life of the guilty
and unfortunate Duke of Monmouth are connected with
Somerset — his quasi-royal progress in his father's reign, his
defeat at Sedgemoor and its subsequent horrors.
It is the last great historical event connected with our
county. Since then Somerset has sent out many and
worthy sons, but her history is merged in that of the
nation at large. A sketch of Bath in the last century during
the reign of Beau Nash has been attempted, though it
requires the pen of Miss Austen to do it justice. The
philosophers, John Locke and Dr. Thomas Young; the
great Arctic Explorer, Sir Edward Parry, and Canon Haw-
kins, who has passed away but as yesterday ; Captain Speke,
the discoverer of the sources of the Nile (though not
actually a native of the county) ; and the heroic toiler
14 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
at St. Peter's in the Docks, Father Lowder, were all worthy
sons of Somerset. And the series of papers appropriately
closes with " In Memoriam," explaining the connection
between the churchyard of Clevedon in Somerset and that
exquisite garland laid on the tomb of a friend.
Bl^DUD, KlJiC\ OF B^ITyMJN;
OR, THE LEGEND OF BATH.
(Circa B.C. 900.)
:o:-
Of this, the earhest of the myths connected with our county
that I have been able to trace, there are two versions; one —
and marvellous to say the simpler of the two— is to be found
in Geoffrey of Monmouth ; the other, the longer and more
interestmg, has probably been handed down by oral tradition,
gathering fresh incidents from the old minstrels, or possibly
from " the old wives' tales " round the fire, and connecting
itself by dint of names and places with divers spots on a
route stretching from Ludgate Hill, in London, to the
celebrated hot springs of Bath.
But before we proceed to tell the tale, the hero's birth and
parentage should be known, and, thanks to old Geoffrey, we
are able to trace his pedigree with marvellous accuracy for
a period of at least two hundred and eighty-four years. And
here it is :
1 6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
LATINUS.
I
= JEneas of Troy = Lavinia.
1
ASCANIUS.
Sylvius = a niece of Lavinia.
Brutus = Ignoge, daughter of Pandrasus, King of
the Greeks. Brutus at the age of fifteen
killed his father, having by his birth
caused his mother's death. At this time
Eli governed Israel, and the Ark was
taken by the Philistines ; and the sons
of Hector reigned in Troy, and Sylvius
^-Eneas, uncle of Brutus, in Italy.
CORIN.IJUS. Albanact. Kamber.
LocRlN = Gwendolen; by Estrilda, Locrin had a daughter Sabre,
who was drowned in the Severn — to which she gave her
name— by the jealous hatred of Gwendolen.
Maddan ; at this time Samuel governed Israel and Homer
flourished.
Mempricius. Malin.
I
Ebraucus.
Brutus ; and 19 other sons, and 30 daughters.
Leil ; contemporary of Solomon. Queen of Sheba and Sylvanius
Epitus.
Hudibras.
Bladud ; contemporary with Elijah.
I
Leir.
It does not need to go on with this mythical and impossible
genealogy, save to advise those of my readers who will take
the trouble to examine for themselves (in Dr. Giles' transla-
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN. 1 7
tion of the old Chroniclers) this mythical world. They will
find that it will lead them into a wondrous shadow-land,
whence have been culled so many flowers of myth and
legend, as witness, Thomas Sackville, Lord Dorset's Tragedy
of Gorbudoc or Ferrex and Porrex ; Wordsworth's Aiiegal
and Elidure ; Shakespeare's King Lear ; and Cyvibeline^
whose son, Arviragus, is connected with our next legend.
" It was," begins old Geoffrey, " in the days when Lud
Hudibras was king over Britain," and then in that terribly
accurate way of his, which of itself breeds suspicion, he tells
us how it was in the time of Capys, son of Epitus, and when
Haggai, Amos, Joel, and Azariah were prophets in Israel,
that he built Canterbury, Winchester, and Salisbury. At
this last place an eagle spoke while the wall of the town was
being built; his speech (the eagle's) the old Chronicler
would have transmitted to posterity had he thought it as
true as the rest of the story !
It is as well to explain to such of my readers as are not aware
of the fact, that Lud Hudibras gave his name to London ;
for is not London Lud's town ? and Ludgate, what is it but
Lud's gate ? But we must not discourse of Lud Hudibras,
for, except as connected with his son, he has nothing to do
with our story. Old Geoffrey's account of Bladud is as
follows : " Next succeeded Bladud, his son, and reigned
twenty years. He built Kaerbadus, now Bath, and made
hot baths in it for the benefit of the public, which he
dedicated to the goddess Minerva, in whose temple he
kept fires that never went out, nor consumed to ashes, but as
soon as they began to decay were turned into balls of stone.
About this time the Prophet Elias prayed that it might not rain
3
1 8 MYTHS, SCEN'ES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
upon earth ; and it did not rain for three years and six months.
This prince was a very ingenious man and taught necro-
mancy in his kingdom ; nor did he leave off pursuing his
magical operations till he attempted to fly to the upper
region of the air ^^'ith wings which he had prepared, and
fell down upon the temple of Apollo, in the city of Trino-
vantum, when he was dashed to pieces." So far Geoffrey
of Monmouth ; let us now turn to the more developed
legend, whose parentage I have been unable to trace, ^^'e
will give it the unpoetical title of
BLADUD AND HIS PIGS.
While Bladud, the only son of Lud Hudibras — the eighth
king from Brute — was still young, he, by some mischance,
became infected with leprosy, and, following the cruel but
necessary precautions of the times, the nobles and people
who frequented the court all joined in a humble petition
to the king that the prince might be banished from the
kingdom. Lud Hudibras had no means of evading their
request, and desired Bladud to depart from his palace ; the
queen, his mother, on parting with her only son, whom she
dared not embrace, so fearful was the infection of this
deadly scourge, presented him with a ring of exquisite
workmanship, as a token whereby she should know him
again, if perchance he should ever be cured of the loath-
some disease, and so be enabled to return.
And now we must follow the steps of the young prince,
an outcast from his home from no fault of his own, but a
victim to the ignorance of those sanitary laws which it took
so many centuries to discover. Sad, sick, and solitary he
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN. 1 9
went his way : the world was before him. He might have
said with Norfolk —
" Now no way can I stray,
Save back to LucTs town all the world's my way."
He was sent forth to wander he knew not whither, and
chance — or an over-ruling Providence — directed his steps
westward. Berries and roots, or some wild animal caught
in a snare or shot with his bow and arrows, satisfied him
for a time, but ere he came to the Wiltshire Downs he had
begun to feel the pangs of hunger. But what could he do ?
He was too proud to beg, and he had very little idea of
work, but he must needs try to find some employment ;
but when the people to whom he applied saw the youth in
his fine sheepskin raiment, elaborately stained with emblems
and quaint devices, they shook their heads, and said they
wanted an honest lad who knew how to work, and not some
runaway servant, who had dressed himself in his master's
fine clothes. The poor peasantry on these fresh open downs
knew nothing of the terrible disease with which he was
afflicted, and at last he persuaded a shepherd boy about
his own age to change clothes with him, and once more he
set forth in search of employment and food. It is to be
owned that this proceeding of my hero was undoubtedly a
very selfish one ; he must have known the risk, though the
lad with whom he made the exchange knew nought of it.
And now in his peasant's dress he passed into Somerset,
and at Caynsham, or Keynsham, he persuaded an aged
swineherd to let him undertake the charge of his pigs. —
The story here is strangely like that of the prodigal son ; it
2 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
is likely enough that some tale-telling monk may have
dressed it up with details from the parable. — But alas ! in a
short time he discovered that he had given the infection to
his charge, and that the swine were suffering- from leprosy.
Remorse preyed upon him for his selfish disregard of
others, and day by day he led his herd deeper into the
forest, and further from the haunts of men. In his wander-
ings he came to the clear waters of the Avon, and a great
desire seized upon him to cross the sparkling water, and to
feed his charge on the acorns which fell from the oak trees
in the forest on the other side. His old master consented,
so on the next day, starting early, he discovered a shallow
part of the river where they could cross without difficulty, at a
spot since known, in memory of his adventure, as Swineford.
Here the rising sun breaking through the clouds saluted
the royal herdsman, and while he was addressing himself to
the glorious luminary, which was to him the representation of
Deity, and praying that the wrath of God might be averted,
the whole herd of swine were seized as with a sudden mad-
ness, and, bursting from his control, took their course up
the valley by the side of the river, to which their natural
instinct guided them.
The scum which the water naturally emits, mixing with
leaves of trees and decaying weeds, had made the land
about the springs overrun with vegetation ; into this the pigs
plunged, and so delighted were they with wallowing in their
oozy bed that hunger alone made them leave it. Enticing
them with acorns, their favourite food, Bladud drew his
herd to a convenient spot to wash and feed them day by
day, as well as to secure them by night ; he made distinct
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN. 2 1
crues (cribs ?) for the swine to lie in ; the prince concluding
that by keeping the pigs clean and separate, the infection
might be the better prevented from spreading. In this plan
he was much encouraged, when, upon washing them clean
from the filth with which they were covered, he observed
some of the pigs to have shed their hoary marks. (It is
quite evident that Bladud was far in advance of his age,
and on the way to becoming a great sanitary reformer.)
He had not been settled many days in the place, which from
the number of crues took the name of Swinewick, before he
lost one of his best sows, nor could he find her during a
whole week's diligent search, till, passing by the place where
the hot springs were continually bubbling up, he observed
the strayed animal wallowing in the mire about the waters,
and on washing her found to his joy and surprise that she
was perfectly cured. The prince now began to consider
that the same means might effect his own cure, so, stripping
himself and plunging in, he wallowed as the pigs had done,
and with the same effect ; in a few days the loathsome
scales fell off, he was cured of his leprosy, and " his flesh
became again as the flesh of a little child."
No sooner did Bladud make this happy discovery than
he returned to his aged master. He told him his story, and
with some difficulty persuaded him of its truth, for naturally
enough it seemed incredible to the old man that he had a
prince as his swineherd. At last, however, he was induced
to accompany him to his father's court. Arrived at the
palace, whither he was followed, not only by his aged
master, but by his favourite pig, it was no wonder that the
weak and sickly young prince was not recognized in the
22 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
healthy and stahvart peasant lad who was so strangely
attended. He found the king and queen keeping the feast
of acorns, and, as was their custom at that festival, dining in
public. Bladud found means unperceived to drop the ring
his mother had given him into her goblet of hippocras,
which the queen perceiving as she drank, cried aloud that
her son had returned. Immediately, to the astonishment of
all, Bladud discovered himself, and was received with trans-
ports of joy, not only by his parents, but by the whole
assembly as the heir to the throne, given back to them as
from the grave.
When the rejoicings were over, and the young prince had
sent back his old master loaded with presents, he began to
solicit his father for permission to travel into foreign parts.
To this the king at last consented, and Bladud set out for
Greece to study literature and science.' The king would
have sent him abroad with a numerous retinue, as befitted
his state and dignity, but the prince preferred to travel as a
simple student, that he might find no hindrance to his
desire to acquire all the learning to which he could possibly
attain. He chose Athens for his residence, and remained
abroad eleven years, studying philosophy, mathematics, and
necromancy, or what the simple folk of that age thought to
be such ; so that when he returned he was of great use to his
father in the government, and on the death of Lud Hudi-
bras succeeded to the throne, and became a wise and
beneficent king. In fact, could Bladud only have claimed to
' It seems worth noting that in this legend we find the first mention
of the debt our learning and literature owe directly to Greece — a debt
renewed again and again in later years.
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN. 23
be a native of Somerset, we might have ranked him as first
among the philosophers of that county.
Bladud's first care on receiving the kingdom was to found
at the hot springs a city which went by the name of Carbren,
and was the beginning of the beautiful city of Bath. He
built a temple to the goddess Minerva, who, however, seems
scarcely to have guarded her votary well. For himself he
built a grand palace and houses for his chief nobility, and
it became the main seat of the power of the British
kings.
After this Bladud sent for his old master and gave him a
handsome estate, upon which he built a mansion, which he
settled on his family for ever. From the circumstances the
place was called Hog's Norton, or, as it now stands, Norton
Malreward, from a tradition that the king's bounty was looked
upon in the same light as Hiram regarded King Solomon's.
In spite of state duties Bladud did not neglect his studies,
which he pursued with so much assiduity that he even
taught necromancy in his kingdom. He pursued his
magical or scientific operations till he persuaded himself
that he could fly with wings which he had invented for the
purpose, but, unfortunately, falling from a temple in the
city of Trinovantum (London), dedicated to Apollo, he was
dashed to pieces.
Such is the curious legend of Bath, which, in spite of its
bearing evidence of being, at least in some degree, of
modern growth, yet who will venture to dispute the main
facts, for is there not yet to be seen, close above the hot
spring that has been bubbling up with its health-restoring
properties for at leastthree thousand years, a piece of sculpture
24 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
representing a forest in which swine are feeding? and is not
the head of Bladud still to be seen in the square of one of the
Bath rooms ? He was succeeded by his son King Leir, the
original of Shakespeare's Tragedy.
What elements of truth there may be in this quaint
and picturesque myth it is impossible to say. Perhaps
the most curious part of it is the comparatively wida
stretch of country which it embraces. Writing from South-
wark, it is interesting to the author to notice the probable
connection between South London and this earliest legend
of the west. The feast of acorns must almost certainly
have been held in the oak woods of Bermondsey. For in
historic times the monks of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey, fed
their swine there upon the acorns they loved so well. Could
Bladud's pet pig, which is said to have accompanied him to
his home, have been the ancestress of a long and illustrious
line of pigs, and so have become the indirect cause of the
principal trade of Bermondsey ? I leave this as a suggestion
for archaeologists and antiquaries to pursue !
In Warner's " History of Bath " is found another curious
development of the legend. In this version Bladud, instead
of being cured by the springs, is himself the author of them,
and we are told that "Our ancestors considered them as
produced by the all-powerful necromancer, King Bladud.
The origin of their heat and the theory of their constitution
are given in some lines which the author rightly calls a
barbarous jargon. The first few lines are as follows :
Two tunne ther beth of bras,
And other two imaked of glas ;
BLADUD, KING OF BRITAIN. 2^
Seve Salt there beth inne,
And other thing imaked with ginne.
Quick brimstone in them also,
With wild fire imaked thereto.
Sal Gemmce and Sal Petrce,
Sal Armonak there is eke,
Sal Albrod and Sal Alkine,
Sal Gemmce is mingled with wine.
Sal Conim and Sal Almelke bright,
That borneth both day and night.
All this is in the towne ido,
And other things many mo ;
And borneth both night and day,
That never quench it ne may.
The meaning of this doggrel is this, that Bladud buYied
deeply in the earth at Bath two tuns of burning brass and
two formed of glass ; the latter of which contained seven
species of salt, brimstone, and wild-fire, and these being
placed over the four springs occasioned (by the fermentation
of their contents) that great heat which has continued for
so many ages and should last for ever. This infernal
mixture would not induce people to take them internally.
They were used sparingly in Queen Elizabeth's time, and
not generally taken till the time of Charles II.
Authorities. — Geoffrey of Monmouth ; Burlington's Mo-
dern British Traveller ; Miss Strickland's Stories from
History; Warner's History of Bath; oral tradition.
Jo3e:ph of Arimathea
AND THE LEGEND OF GLASTONBURY.
(Circa A.D. 35.)
-:o:-
" Good Lucius
That first received Christianity,
The sacred pledge of Christ's Evangely :
Yet true it is, that long before that day
Hither came Joseph of Arimathy,
\Yho brought with him the Holy Grayle (they say),
And preacht the truth : but since it greatly did decay."
Faerie Queene, book 2, canto x. stanza liii,
" The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with his own.
This, from the blessed land of Aromat —
After the day of darkness, when the dead
Went wandering o'er Moriah — the good Saint
Arimathean Joseph, journeying brought
To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn
Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord,
And there awhile it bode ; and if a man
Could touch or see it, he was healed at once.
By faith, of all his ills."
Tennyson — The Holy Grail.
Glastonbury, unlike most of the spots hallowed by tradi-
tion and dedicated to God's service by the monks of old,
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 27
owes nothing of its interest to the beauty of its situation.
The exquisite ruins of this ancient Abbey, once the greatest
and richest in Europe, is situated in the low flat lands of
Somerset. Tradition and geology concur in stating that at
no distant period the sea came within a short distance of the
Tor, which rises like an island from the flat district around.
Yet there is not a spot in the British Islands which should
be so sacred to the heart of every British Christian ; for
here, unfailing tradition declares, is the place where Christian
feet first trod, bringing to our island the sweet message of
peace.
Glastonbury was originally founded on an island rising
from the estuary of the little river Brue, the clearness of
whose glassy waters won for it its ancient British name
of Ynis-^^7tren, or the Glassy Isle, and of this name Glas-
tonbury is nearly the modern equivalent ; its alternative
name of Avalon is derived from its apple orchards.
Like all ancient myths, there are slightly different versions.
I have preferred that with which I was familiar from child-
hood, and which in a great degree was derived from oral
tradition and not from books.
It was at the time of " the persecution that arose about
Stephen " that the disciples, remembering our Lord's com-
mands, went into all lands, " preaching the gospel to every
creature." The curse of Babel was reversed, and the
preachers of the Word went everywhere seeking to gather
into Christ's fold the scattered families of the earth.
St. Freculphus, Bishop of Lisieux, tells us that St. Philip
the Apostle was preaching in Gaul and contending mightily
against the Druidical superstitions which prevailed there.
28 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Whilst engaged in this work, he learned from his converts
that the head and fountain of their teaching was in the
neighbouring island of Britain, whither the youthful devotees
of Gaul were sent to be instructed in the mysteries of their,
belief in the schools which flourished there.
Upon this St. Philip determined to send faithful men of
his band to oppose the superstition at its chief seat. He
selected as chief of the mission his beloved friend, Joseph
of Arimathea, for it was meet that he, who took such loving
care of the Lord's dead body, should be entrusted with the
charge of settling a branch of His living body in that distant
land. With him went eleven companions, for in those days
it was never attempted to send a solitary missionary — priest,
prophet, or apostle, though he might be — to preach the
Christian Faith in some unknown region ; but a band of
friends went together, who could mutually assist and comfort
one another.'
One of this devoted band is said to have been Simon
Zelotes, the Canaanite. Setting out on their journey they
traversed Gaul, and, having arrived at the coast, took boat
and set out on their unknown route. Toiling at their oars
they rounded the Land's End, and following the north coast
' It may not be amiss here to mention a striking remark made on
this very subject to the author by a negro clergyman. He was asked
how he could account for the fact that, while the governor of our
colony at Gambia and his family were able to bear the climate, white
clergymen invariably succumbed after a short time ? He answered,
** Partly because the clergy exposed themselves more, but principally
because, sent out as they were alone, the want of sympathy and
mutual intercourse was so felt, that on the first attack of illness they
were completely prostrated, and having no rallying power, sank at
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 29
of Cornwall they at last entered the Bristol Channel. A
vision or dream had been vouchsafed to St. Joseph, and he
was warned not to stay his course till he saw before him
a hill " most like to Tabor's Holy Mount." They toiled
on with renewed hope till the Tor at Glastonbury burst on
their sight ; then, by St. Joseph's desire, they shipped their
oars, and the vessel, impelled by unseen hands, glided into
port and rested near the place, at a spot now twenty miles
from the sea, but, as both tradition and geology concur in
stating, then close to it. Here they knelt, and thanking
God that their weary voyage was over, and that they had
arrived at the desired haven, they took their pilgrims' staves
and made their way to the hill pointed out to them.
Two precious treasures had St. Joseph brought with him,
one a thorn taken from our Lord's brow, and as they crossed
Wirral or Weary-All Hill he planted the precious relic. It
soon grew to a great tree ; in the course of centuries two
branches grew from the same root, but it had this peculiarity
that it ever flowered at Christmas time, and that however
many cuttings were taken from it still -it increased and
flourished. The other relic, still more precious and sacred,
was the cup out of which our Lord drank at His last
supper. They stayed their course at the foot of the Tor,
and there, to signify that at last he had found his resting-
place, St. Joseph planted his staff, and from it grew the
famous walnut-tree, which flowered ever on St. Barnabas'
Day, the nth of June.
It was here they lived, seeking to win the wild people
around to their holy faith. The king of the country was
Arviragus, son of Cunobehn—Shakespeare's Cymbeline. He
30 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
hearing of the patience and poverty of these holy men, and
of the sanctity of their Hves, granted to them Ynis-wytren,
or the Glassy Isle, as their home ; this grant, on account of
its size and in relation to the number of the mission, has
ever since been called " the twelve hides of Glastonbury."
The first care of the holy men was to build and set apart
a place for prayer, and here was raised the first building ever
erected in Britain to the honour of the true God. It was
made of withies and reeds — the best materials they could
find ; and the low wattled structure, the form and fashion
of which has been preserved, was for ages regarded with
reverence as the first Christian church in the land, and was
known as " The Vetusta Ecclesia." We shall hear of it
again.
It was dedicated in the name of the Blessed Virgin, and
the myth tells how, when St. Joseph was asleep, he saw in a
vision her Blessed Son Himself descend and consecrate it
in His mother's honour. The saint was told on no account
to dedicate it anew, as it had been already done by the Lord
Himself. Arviragus, though he more than tolerated the
mission, yet could not be induced to leave the worship of
his false gods ; the progress made therefore was slow, and,
as men calculate success, the mission was undoubtedly a
failure. But the foundations of any vast building are laid
underground and out of sight, and the work, though silent
and unobstrusive, remained. It was a hundred years later
that Lucius, the first Christian King of Britain, took notice
of the small colony of Christians, and desired to give their
work fresh life, and to insure further and higher teaching
for himself. Britain was at this time subject to Rome ;
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 3 1
Lucius therefore sent to Elutherius, Bishop of that See, to
request that he would send teachers to carry on the work,
and spread the knowledge of the faith among his people.
This was done, but the story of Lucius seems to have little
connection with Somerset, beyond the fact that it was to the
descendants of St. Joseph's mission that he owed his iirst
interest in Christianity.
For several hundred years — long after we leave the region
of myth and legend, and come to sober history — the vetusta
ecclesia was preserved as a holy shrine. St. Paulinus, the
first Bishop of York, from 625-644, is said to have cased it
with boards and covered it with lead from top to bottom.
Nor did it disappear till the great fire of 11 84, when all the
magnificent buildings lately erected by the munificent Abbot,
Bishop Henry of Blois, were destroyed by fire, and this
precious relic was lost in the flames. On its site was
erected the exquisite chapel of the Virgin, now known,
though erroneously, as St. Joseph's Chapel. But though
the most ancient part of the ruins, it is far more perfect
than the magna ecclesia, to which it formed the Galilee, or
porch. To those who visit them with that reverend faith
which is alone the temper of mind in which one should seek
such spots, Glastonbury must ever remain the most sacred
spot in Britain. It is not necessary that the legends which
cluster around such places should be actually true ; sacred
they are, sanctified by unnumbered generations of worship-
pers, and from the germ planted in this secluded spot in
Somerset, has grown the mighty tree which spreads its
branches into all lands, and is gathering by degrees all
nations of the earth to rest beneath its shadows, for where-
32 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
ever the English power plants its flag, aye and beyond,
there the Church of England strives to gather the nations
within its fold.
The Glastonbury thorn itself has perished ; in the reign
of Ehzabeth, one of its huge trunks was hacked down by the
impious zeal of a puritan, and the other would have followed
but that the blow with which he would have felled it fell on
his own leg, while a chip flying upwards put out his eye.
The remaining trunk, the blossoms of which we are told
were considered such curiosities that Bristol merchants
carried them into foreign parts, survived till the great
Rebellion, when it was cut down by a " Military Saint "
of the period. What judgment fell upon him we are not
told. But there are many survivors among its descendants,
and few gentlemen's parks in Somerset are without the
Glastonbury thorn, grown from a slip taken from the origi-
nal tree. So firm was the belief in its sanctity, that in
the author's younger days an old woman gravely argued
that the old style must be right and the new wrong, as on
old Christmas night (Epiphany) the cattle always knelt down
at 1 2 o'clock before the Glastonbury thorn in Mr. Lee Lee's
park at Dillington (near Ilminster), 7wt on what we called
Christmas day. It is a fact that the thorn does often flower
about Christmas, and that it is undoubtedly of Eastern
origin.
The holy grail has entirely disappeared, never having
been seen since the days of Arthur ; and it seems, more-
over, to have quite died out of the folk-lore of Somerset.
One striking point in this legend is the way it serves as a
meeting point for so many converging lines of history and
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 33
legend. In fact, it is a sort of quaint cross-road of literature
and myth. We have Joseph of Arimathea, who plays
the principal part, and yet is himself one of the persons
mentioned in the New Testament, and a veritable disciple
of the Lord. Then there is Arviragus, whose father,
Cunobelin, represents at once Roman history, British his-
tory and British legend, and who, both father and son,
figure in Shakespeare's play of Cymbeline ; and to complete
the tale comes the mythical King Lucius, whose much
doubted mission to Rome appears to me, however, both
natural and probable.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury ; Geoffrey of
Monmouth; Ecclesiastical Myths and Legends from
various sources ; and local tradition.
Watchet.
THE LEGEND OF ST. DECUMAN.
{Circa A.D. 400.)
" Watchet is a neat little port with a neat little harbour,
enclosed by piers and protected by a breakwater, close to
which the line passes. Far older is it than it looks, for it
was of sufficient importance back in Saxon times to be
repeatedly ravaged by the Norsemen. Local memory of
the site of some of the conflicts still abides, and a field
between Watchet and Williton bears the name of Battle-
gore. The scenery is not bold, but it is peaceful and pretty,
and the red cliffs of sandstone and conglomerate, alternating
with variegated marls, intersected by white bands of g)-psum,
and contrasted with the sombre shade of the liassic lime-
stones, gives the coast a chromatic character peculiarly its
own. Nor does the land monopolize the richness of
colouring. The sea along this shore often manifests a
peculiar iridescent hue, with a tinge of rainbow green, which,
mixed together, formed different gradations of kindred
colours, and, sometimes going off in purple, gave the surface
of the ocean a great resplendency." ^
It was to this shore, some time in the fourth or fifth
' Worth's "Tourist Guide."
WATCHET. 35
centuries, that St. Decuman crossed the Bristol Channel, or
what was perhaps then called the Sabrina y^ilstuarium, from
the opposite coast of Wales, on a hurdle, or as some say his
cloak, which, if waterproof, was perhaps the better boat of
the two. What moved him to this marvellous voyage the
legend does not say ; in fact, there is one note of a veritable
legend to be observed, that it always leaves immense room
for the imagination, while invented legends are suspiciously
minute. But whatever may have been his motive he landed
at Watchet, but not caring for the low flat shore scaled a
hill near at hand, and built there some kind of shrine for
worship, and a cell for his own habitation. Here he lived
for many years, in part supported by the milk of a cow,
which followed him wherever he went.
At last he suffered for his faith. The date is so doubtful,
that whether heathen Britons, Romans, Saxons, or Danes
were authors of his martyrdom, it is difficult to say ; one
thing — I had nearly said — is certain ; perhaps it is safer
to say, is undoubtedly part of the legend, viz., that when the
heathen cut off his head, they left his body dead and
dishonoured upon the shore, but he, not willing that his
body, erewhile a living temple of the Holy Spirit, should
be left in such a state, carrying his head in his hands, took
it to a spring, where he cleansed it from all impurities. And
there his body was found, decently laid out, by his disciples.
They buried him in front of the altar in his own small
chapel, and afterwards built a church over his remains on
the hill where he had taught and worshipped, and for all
ages it luis born the saint's name and is known as the
Church of St. Decuman.
36 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
This quaint and graceful legend is one of those wonders
that plainly grew from the loving memory of his disciples ;
it may have been that some heathen who looked on, or even
assisted, at his martyrdom, may have been seized with
remorse while witnessing his pious end, and paid due
reverence to his remains, and then, from fear of revenge,
have concealed his good deed, and left it to be supposed to
be the work of the saint himself.
PORI^OCK yVjMD ^T. DUBRITIU^.
(A.D. 444-519.)
There is scarcely a fairer spot in England than Porlock — ■
the enclosed port — on the north coast of Somerset. There
the wearied traveller may be well pleased to rest and sigh
out his soul in the very languor and weariness of happy
idlesse. It was the writer's happy lot some summers past
to spend a few days in the bowery Myrtle Cottage, with
two charming elderly ladies as hostesses, and a stolid
Somersetshire lass as attendant. The cottage is almost
hidden from view by the wealth of climbing roses and wood-
bine, myrtle and jasmine, that cover it. Every sense is
gratified at once. The interior is as charming as the
outside, with stores of old china, antique oak furniture, with
pots of flowering fuchsia and geranium in every window,
and weak Christians might well be content to rest here on
enchanted ground and forget the world, its pomps, vanities,
and vexations.
But stay ; there is a reminder that how fair soever this
world may be, here is not our home, for night and morning
the bell of the quaint little church of St. Dubritius summons
^8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
US to a higher service than a mere aesthetic or epicurean
■worship of material beauty. It is only the other side of the
road, but, small as it is, it has some fine monuments and
countless points of interest. I fear the patron saint cannot be
claimed as a native of Somerset. He probably was a native
of South Wales and Archbishop of Caerleon, the city of
legions — metropolitan therefore of the British Church, the
seat of his diocese being one of the three great fortified
points which Arthur held as fortresses. It was at Caerleon
that he crowned Arthur with great pomp, as Geoffrey of
Monmouth tells us ; and after the magnificent ceremony,
which old Geoffrey minutely describes, the holy man re-
signed his archbishopric and went into retirement, and it
may well be that he chose this lovely spot in which to spend
his last days. Whether this be so or not, one thing is
certain, that the communication between North Somerset
and South Wales was constant, and the connection
intimate.
One is thankful for the few records and memorials of the
ancient British Church, before Saxon and Norman had
occupied the county, and given to every sacred spot the
name of some favourite saint of their own race, or of the
intruding Roman Church, and the name of St. Dubritius
is one that may well be held in reverence and loving
remembrance.
" How great soever," says Alban Butler, " was the cor-
ruption of vice which had sunk deep into the hearts of
many in the degenerate ages of the ancient Britons, before
the invasion of the English Saxons, God raised among them
many eminent Saints, who, by their zealous exhortations and
PORLOCK AND ST. DUERITIUS. 39
example, invited their countrymen by penance to avert the
Divine wrath which was kindled over their heads. One of
the most illustrious fathers and instructors of the Saints was
St. Dubricius, who flourished chiefly in that part which is
now called South "Wales. He had two large schools of
sacred learning on the Wye, where he had a thousand
scholars with him for years together. He flourished about
the year 444." For more than fourteen hundred years, then,
has the name of this eminent saint of the ancient church
of our county been held in honour in this fair spot. And,
little as we knov\' of his connection with Somerset, he well
deserves a place among its worthies.
Authorities. — Geoffrey of Monmouth ; Butler's Lives
of the Saints.
(A.D. 492-542.)
■:o:-
DuRiNG a summer holiday, some years gone by, the author
made the acquaintance, for the first time and within a few
weeks, of Arthur's birth-place at Tintagel, in Cornwall, and
of his burial-place at Glastonbury, in Somerset. These visits
gave a form and consistency to the myth that had been
familiar from childhood, viz., that Arthur was ;iof dead,
that he but slept a charmed sleep, and that the day 7iwuld
come when he would arise, with his sword Excalibur, and
chase away the perfidious Saxons. Moreover, that where
he slept would be found this legend —
"Hie jacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus."
From whence the legend was learned I cannot tell ; cer-
tainly in those days I knew nought of Tennyson's Morte
d' Arthur, or Caxton's version of Sir Thomas Mallory's King
Arthur. But the myths and tales gathered from various
sources have gradually arranged themselves together, till,
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 4 1
at least in my own mind, they have arrived at a clearness
and consistency which, though much mingled with fable,
makes the story of King Arthur in Somerset rather an
embellished and elaborated piece of history than a veritable
myth. It is at any rate satisfactory to be able to begin the
story with
CAXTON'S apology for his life and death of ARTHUR.
" It is notoriously known, through the universal world, that there be
nine worthy and best that ever were, that is, to wit, three Panims, three
Jews, and three Christian men. As for the Panims, they were before the
incarnation of Christ, which were named, the first, Hector of Troy, of
whom the history is common, both in ballad and in prose ; the second,
Alexander the Great ; and the third, Julius Ccesar, Emperor of Rome,
of which the histories be well known and had. And as for the three
Jews, which were also before the incarnation of our Lord, of whom the
first was Duke Joshua, which brought the children of Israel into the
land of behest ; the second was Da\'id, King of Jerusalem ; and third
was Judas Maccabaeus. And since the said incarnation have been three
noble Christian men, called and admitted through the universal world
into the number of the nine best and worthy ; of whom was first the
noble King Arthur ; the second was Charlemagne, or Charles the Great,
of whom the historj' is had in many places, both in French and in
English ; and the third, and last, was Godfrey of Bulloigne.
' ' And shall the Jews and the heathen be honoured in the memory
and magnificent prowess of their worthies ? Shall the French and
German nations glorify their triumphs with their Godfrey and Charles ?
and shall we of this island be so possessed with incredulity, diffidence,
stupidity and ingratitude, to deny, make doubt, or express in speech and
history the immortal name and fame of our victorious Arthur ! All the
honour we can do him is to honour ourselves in remembrance of him."
Fortified by such authority we proceed to give the legend
of Arthur in Somerset : —
42 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
FYTTE I.
BRITAIN AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS.
"Time upon my waste, committed hath such theft,
That it of Arthur here scarce memory hath left."
Drayton's Polyolhion.
It was before the Christian era, and some time before the
coming of the great Csesar, that a colony of the Belgae came
to Britain, and, headed by Divitiacus, settled in the southern
counties, where probably other emigrants from Gaul had
preceded them. The memorials of their occupation are
still to be seen, notably their defensive works of the Fosse
way in Wilts and Somerset, and, what concerns us most, the
hill fort at Cadbury, in the east of Somerset. Both these
are undoubtedly the work of the Belgse, strengthened and
improved by Roman science and military skill.
In all the legendary history of this part of the county we
find traces of the original inhabitants of the land ; fierce,
nay, savage they seem to have been, "a race whom no
civility could melt, who never tasted grace, and goodness
ne'er had felt."' They seem to have been looked upon as
the indigenous sons of the soil, and to have been regarded
by the Trojan Brutus and his successors, by the Belgae and
others, as hopeless and irreclaimable monsters.
But the Romans came and overcame, and (iladerhaf, like
the rest of Britain, shared in the mingled good and evil of
the Roman rule. In the fifth century the Roman power
was breaking up, and their armies were recalled from their
distant dependencies to defend Rome's very existence at
'Wordsworth. These "salvage "men reappear in the romances of
Mallory, Spenser, and ol Jack the Giant-killer I
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 43
home. Every fighting man was in their legions, and
Britain was drained of its youth and strength, deprived of
its governing power, and left a helpless prey to the savage
barbarians who attacked it from the north and east, and to
repel whom had taxed even Roman power to the full.
" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," was the
reckless cry of the despairing Britons. Hopeless, heartless,
they fell an easy prey to the fierce invaders, and the high
civilization to which they had been brought by Roman
culture was now only a source of weakness. The fearful
state of the country has been described in the mournful
pages of the one historian of the time, Gildas. In 420 a.d.
the last Roman soldier left the British soil.
Nearly a hundred years pass before the heavy " plague-
cloud " that descended upon Britain, its people and its
history, rolls away. The period may be aptly described as
" The groans of the Britons." It is all we can say of it with
certainty. We hear of wars and rumours of wars; a confused
sound of battle reaches us ; misty shadows pass across the
stage ; there is much bloodshed but little resistance ; we
catch sight but of the pursuers and the pursued. But as
the century goes on there is a change. When the dark
cloud descended, it was on the despairing Britons, who
either fell or fled ; as it partially lifts, we descry the grand
figure of a noble Briton of royal race, Aurelius Ambrosius.
He had been trained under Roman discipline, and was a
wise and valiant man. He is said to have been King of
Damnonia, which included, besides Devonshire, part of
East Cornwall and West Somerset. Those who were babes
when the Romans left had grown to manhood, and a new
44 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
generation had arisen not enervated by servitude to Rome.
Ambrosius gathered the youth of the country around him ;
he trained them to arms, and began a spirited resistance to
the heathen Saxons, but in a.d. 497 Ambrosius died, and was
succeeded by his far less worthy brother, Uther Pendragon.
Uther forced the widowed queen of Gorlois, King of
Cornwall, to marry him,' but he did not live to see the
fruit of his violence, and passed away wailing that he had
no heir to succeed him.
But Arthur in due time w-as born, and delivered to
Merlin's care. Strange tales were told of a great storm,
and a wondrous ship, and the naked babe being found
wailing on Tintagel rock. Merlin, however, vouched him
to be Uther's son, and all then looked to him to carry on
the work that had been so well begun by his uncle. He was
brought up by ^Merlin, and by him instructed in all wise
government, while holy priests taught him a still higher lore.
Glastonbury was then, as it remained till the sixteenth cen-
tury, a school of holy teaching for the noblest in the land.
Arthur was often there, if not, as is highly probable, entirely
educated there. The spot where Christian foot first trod in
Britain, it remained to the very last faithful to its high calling.
Here it is said that he saw a wondrous vision. While
resting for a night at a convent at the foot of Weary- All Hill,
he was commanded to go the next day, at dawn, to the
Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene, at Bekey, a small island
in the neighbourhood, and to attend diligently to what
» I am, of course, perfectly aware of the ordinary legend, but it has
no connection with Somerset, and there being two versions of the tale I
have preferred this one.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 45
he should behold. Arthur entered the chapel, and was
placed by the ofificiating priest in a position where he might
get a clear view of all that passed. The priest began to vest
himself, when suddenly the Virgin mother appeared with
the infant Jesus in her arms, and she condescendingly
assisted in adjusting his robes. The mass began, and the
priest read to the prayer of consecration, when the lady
handed the child to him. He placed it near the chalice on
the corporal, elevated it at the words " Hoc est corpus,"
deprived it of life, and then returned it a corpse to the
sacred cloth. Arthur partook of the slaughtered victim,
which, after the conclusion of the mass, became a living
child again, and flew back, sound and uninjured, to his
mother's arms. ^
At the age of fifteen Arthur was crowned king, at Caer-
leon-on-Usk, in Monmouthshire, then the acknowledged
metropolis, both political and ecclesiastical, of the Britons.
He fought against the Picts and Scots in the north, and at
Carlisle lingers many a tradition of the valour with which he
subdued his northern foes. But again he had to turn south-
ward, to oppose the heathen hordes who were swarming
from the east. It may have been the taking of Winchester
by the Saxons, in the year 515, that determined him to fix
upon some site of known strength, and fortifying it with all
the skill of the time, to make it a rallying point and position
of offence and defence against his enemies. Such a- site he
found in Camelot, or, as it is now called, Cadbury Fort.
Here it is necessary to pause and tell somewhat of its
history.
' This is manifestly not a veritable legend, but a religious fable
invented for a special purpose.
46 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
FYTTE THE SECOND.
ARTHUR AT CAMELOT.
"Arthur's antient seat
Which made the Briton's name through all the world so great,
Like Camelot, what place was ever yet renown'd
Where, as at Caerleon oft, he kept the Table Round ?
Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,
From whence all mighty deeds and brave achievements sprung."
Drayton's Polyolbion, song iii.
Arthur had arrived at man's estate, and his people would
fain that he should take a wife, so that if, like his uncle,
Aurelius Ambrosius, he were taken from them, he might,
unlike him, leave an heir of his own blood. Among the petty
kings in the West was Leodogran, King of Cameliard, a
country represented at this day by Camelot, or Cadbury Fort,
and a cluster of places in the east of Somerset whose names
are derived from the same root : North and South Cadbury,
Queen's Camel, West Camel, and Castle Cary. Leodogran's
kingdom had been beset with invaders, and overrun with
wild beasts : Arthur had come to his help and rescued his
dominions. So it came to pass that when his people spake
to him of marriage, Guinivere, the fair daughter of Leodo-
gran, came to his mind, and he asked her of her father.
The King of Cameliard was well pleased, and with his
daughter's hand he promised him his greatest treasure — the
Table Round — and made him his heir.
But Guinivere, in her pride of youth and beauty, had
little noted her father's deliverer, and scarce glanced at the
young knight, who paid her none of the homage she
thought her due, and who was ever engrossed in earnest
KIN-", ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 47
consultations with her father on the state of the kinedom.
on knights and wars, on castles and sieges ; and so it came to
pass when Launcelot, Arthur's best and most trusted knight,
was sent by him to fetch her home, she, never doubting but
that the king would have come himself, thought Launcelot
was Arthur, and when she saw him her heart leapt to his.
But, when she came to see her pure and stainless lord, he
seemed cold and passionless beside Launcelot ; and he, who
had no thought of guile, and loved where he trusted, and
trusted where he loved, gave them unconsciously oppor-
tunities of meeting, and Guinivere's heart passed more and
more from Arthur and attached itself more and more
passionately to Launcelot. For Arthur was taken up with
affairs of State, and with his beautiful dream of the Kniahts
of the Round Table. In this order none was higher than
other ; and here, in his palace of Camelot, built by
Merlin's magic power in a single night, he would assemble
a hundred and fifty knights of noble birth, pure and stain-
less like himself, and the knights bound themselves by
solemn oaths to keep the rules of the order. They were as
follows : —
1. That every knight should be well armed and furnished
to undertake any enterprise wherein he was employed by
sea or by land, on horseback or on foot.
2. That he should be ever prest (ready) to assail all
tyrants or oppressors of the people.
3. That he should protect widows and maids, restore
children to their just rights, repossess such persons as,
without just cause, were exiled, and with all his force main-
tain the Christian fixith.
48 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
4. That he should be a champion for the public weal,
and as a lion repulse the enemies of his country.
5. That he should advance the reputation of honour and
suppress all vice ; relieve the afflicted by adverse fortune ;
give aid to Holy Church, and protect pilgrims.
6. That he should bury soldiers that wanted sepulture,
deliver prisoners, ransom captives, and cure men hurt in the
services of their country.
7. That he should in all honourable actions adventure his
person, yet with respect to justice and truth, and in all
enterprises proceed sincerely, never failing to use the utmost
force of body and labour of mind.
8. That after the attaining of an enterprise he should
cause it to be recorded, to the end the fame of the fact
might ever live to the eternal honour and renown of the
noble order.
9. That if any complaint were made at the court of this
mighty king, of perjury and oppression, then some knight
of the order whom the king should appoint ought to avenge
the same.
10. That if any knight of foreign nation did come into
the court with desire to challenge or make any show of
prowess (were he single or accompanied), those knights
ought to be ready in arms to make answer.
11. That if any lady, gentleman, or widow or maid, or
other oppressed person, did present a petition declaring that
they were or had been in this or other nations injured or
offered dishonour, that they should be graciously heard, and
without delay one or more knights should be sent to take
revenge.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 49
12. That every knight should be wiUing to inform young
princes, lords, and gentlemen in the orders and exercises
of arms, thereby not only to avoid idleness, but also to
increase the honour of knighthood and chivalry.
Such were the rules of this renowned order, which, com-
bined with the disturbed state of the country, caused that
" Every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight."
It may probably, as I have already said, have been the
taking of Winchester by the Saxon Cerdic in 515 which
caused Arthur to concentrate his forces in the western
peninsula. Cameliard was now his in right of his wife.
He determined, therefore, to fortify his kingdom, and at
the three extreme points to place strong castles, which he
strengthened by every available means. These points were
Caerleon-on-Usk, which guarded the Sabrina, or estuary of
the Severn, and St. Michael's Mount, at the extreme south
west ; but the post of danger, and therefore of honour, was
Camelot. He pitched with an experienced eye upon this
great Belgic fortress, situated in one of the most fertile and
picturesque parts of the south-east of Somerset, as the place
where the great stand must be made. The shape of the
mound is irregular, neither quite round nor square : part of
it was hewed from the solid rock. Its circumference is
about a mile. Four deep ditches in concentric rings, with
as many ramparts of earth and stones, form the primary
defences : these are further strengthened by a series of zig-
zag terraces on inclined planes, so constructed that the
5
50 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
besieged, though they retreated from their assailants, could
still make a desperate resistance. On the top of this fortified
mount is a moated camp or Prsetorium, enclosing a space
of at least twenty acres, and here Merlin raised the enchanted
palace of Camelot. The spot must have been well-nigh
impregnable in days when artillery was unknown.
Here, then, was Arthur's great rallying point ; hither the
persecuted fled for protection, the wronged for redress, the
patriotic to assist in the defence of their country. Every
possibility of defence and adornment was lavished here ;
and here were held, specially at Whitsuntide, chapters of the
order of Knights of the Round Table. Here, in intervals
of peace, were held the mimic games of warfare ; and from
here, after a time of repose, they issued forth again and
again against the heathen hordes. Within the greater
triangle was a smaller and more sacred one ; its three
points were, the Tor Hill at Glastonbury, the Mons Acutus,
or Montacute, and Camelot itself — lines drawn from point
to point make an equilateral triangle, each side being twelve
miles in length. This twice trebly guarded territory was
defended by saintly shield from invasion, and from any
noxious or venomous creature.
It was the year 520 a.d. Exactly one hundred years had
elapsed since the last Roman soldiers left Britain a prey
to their enemies. But what a different Britain it was now.
It is true the enemy were in the land, and held a great
part of it, but the Britons were no longer helpless or hope-
less. From the towers of Camelot Arthur led forth an
army full of confidence and eager for the fray ; he led them
beyond the bounds of Gladerhaf (Somerset), for he would
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 51
not that this beloved land should be soiled by the heathen's
tread. At Mount Badon, in Wiltshire, was fought the great
battle in which Arthur was victorious, and the onward march
of the Saxons was stayed for the time. At Camelot watch and
ward was kept ; from its summit could be seen the Mendip
Hills in the west of Somerset, the Blackdown summits in
Devonshire, and the British Channel in the south. Twelve
great battles did Arthur fight ; the eleventh is said by some
to have been fought near Camelot, but I hold rather that
the traces of a great conflict, which have been discovered
there, took place in more recent times, when the Saxon
dominion was extending itself still further to the west. For
Gladerhaf remained British till after Arthur's time, nor did
Glastonbury pass under the Saxon sway till after they too
had embraced Christianity, and conquerors and conquered
knelt together at the same shrine.
The story of King Ryence's challenge belongs in part
to Camelot. It may be found in full in IMallory's King
Arthur, and also in part in a ballad preserved in Percy's
" Reliques of Ancient Poetry." King Ryence, a potentate
of North "Wales, sent to Arthur at Caerleon to demand his
beard, as he needed one more to make up the tale of twelve
royal beards, with which "to purfle his mantle.'' If he
were refused he would slay him, and lay waste his country.
Arthur, who was then young, replied that his beard would
scarce answer for the purpose he required it, and threw back
his threat upon himself. Shortly afterwards Ryence was
brought as a prisoner to Camelot, and Arthur seems to have
been content with his humiliation, and to have retaliated no
further upon him. The ballad is as follows ; it is worth
52 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
noting how constantly Whit-Sunday or the day of Pentecost
recurs in the Arthurian legends : —
KING RYENCE'S CHALLENGE.
" As it fell out on a Pentecost day
King Arthur at Camelot kept his Court Royall,
With his faire Queene, Dame Guiniver the gay ;
And many bold barons sitting in hall,
With ladies attired in purple and pall :
And heraults in hewkes ' hooting on high,
Cryed ' Largesse ! Largesse ! Chevaliers tres-hardie ! '
A doughty dwarfe to the uppermost deas
Right pertlye 'gan pricke, kneeling on knee,
With Steven ^ fulle stoute am ids all the preas,
Sayd, ' Nowe, Sir King Arthur, God save thee, and see
Sir Ryence of North-gales greeteth well thee !
And bids thee thy beard anon to him send,
Or else from thy jaws he will it off rend !
For his robe of state is a rich scarlet mantle
With eleven kings' beards bordered about,
And there is room lefte yet in a kantle
For thine to stande, to make the twelfth out :
This must be done, be thou never so stout ;
This must be done, I tell thee no fable
Maugre the teeth of all thy Round Table ? '
When this mortal message from his mouthe past,
Great was the noyse both in hall and in bower :
The king fum'd, the queene screecht, ladies were aghast ;
Princes pufif'd ; barons blust'red ; lords began lower ;
Pages and yeomen yell'd out in the hall.
Then in came Sir Kay, the king's seneschal.
' Silence ! my soveraignes,' quoth this courteous knight,
And in that stound the stowre began still :
' Then ' the dwarfe's dinner full deerely was dight,
Of wine and wassal he had his wille :
And, when he had eaten and drunken his fill.
An hundred piece of fine coyned gold
Were given this dwarf for his message bold.
' Heralds' coats. ' Voice.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 53
' But say to Sir Ryence, thou dwarf,' quoth the king,
' That for his bold message I do him defye ;
And shortlye with basins and pans will him ring
Out of North-gales ; where he and I
With swords and not razors, quickly shall trj-e
\Yhether he, or King Arthur will prove the best barbor
And therewith he shook his good sword Excalabor."
As before told, in the legend of Glastonbury, among the
treasures brought by Joseph of Arimathea to Britain were
two of priceless worth ; one, a thorn taken from the Lord's
brow, the other, the cup from which He drank at the last
supper. This latter most precious relic, called the Sangreal,
had been preserved for ages at Glastonbury, but on account
of the grievous sins which prevailed and the disordered
state of the country, it had been caught away ; but now
a murmur arose, no one knew how or where, that the
Sangreal had been seen again : and here seemed the salve
for all their wounds, the cure for all their troubles, the talis-
man which was to preserve them from all ill ; so men were
waiting and wondering for what was to come to pass, they
scarce knew what.
Pentecost had come, and a chapter of the order of the
Knights of the Round Table was held as usual at Camelot.
The knights were assembled in the great hall of the castle.
Anon a cracking and crying as of thunder was heard, and
they thought the palace would break asunder. In the midst
entered a sunbeam more clear by seven times than ever they
saw day. Then the knights beheld each other fairer than
they had ever seen them before, and no knight might speak
a word for a great while, and each man looked on the other
54 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
as they had been dumb. Then entered into the hall the
Holy Grail, covered with white samite ; but none might see
it, nor who bare it, and all the hall was filled with sweet
odours, and the holy vessel departed suddenly, and they
wist not whence it came.
Dumb were they all for. a lime ; then spoke the light and
foolish Sir Gawaine, and took an oath that he would go on
a quest for the Sangreal, and would search for it, at least a
year and a day, until he found it. Then the other knights
swore to the same. It was with bitter grief that Arthur
learned the vow, for well he knew that high and holy gifts
are given by God to those who are in their ordinary way
of duty, as the angels came to the shepherds whilst they
kept their sheep, and that this wild quest would but disperse
the knights throughout the country, while they neglected
the work that God had set them, viz. the defence of their
own land against the heathen. Then said the king : "lam
sure at this quest of the Sangreal shall all ye of the Round
Table depart, and never shall I see you whole together
again ; therefore will I see you all together in the meadow
of Camelot, for to joust and tourney, that after your death
men may speak of it, that such good knights were wholly
together on such a day." So were they all assembled in the
meadow both more and less.
Arthur's last tournament was held, and the maiden-knight,
Sir Galahad, won the honours of the day. Then, when the
tourney was over, the whole assembly went to the Minster,
and there, for the last time, joined all together in rites
of prayer and praise. Then said the king to Sir Gawaine :
" Alas ! ye have well-nigh slain me with the vow and
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 55
promise that ye have made, for through you ye have bereft
me of the fairest fellowship and the truest knighthood that
ever were seen together in any realm of the world ; for,
when they shall depart from hence, I am sure that all shall
never meet more in this world, for there shall many die in
this quest, and so it forethinketh me a little, for I have
loved them as well as my life." The next morning the
knights rode out of Camelot.^ But the history of their
adventures does not belong to Somerset.
FYTTE THE THIRD.
Arthur's tomb at glastonbury.
" Not great Arthur's tomb, nor holy Joseph's grave
From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save
He, who that God in man to his sepulchre brought,
Or he, which for the faith twelve famous battles fought."
Drayton's Folyolbwn.
Behind all this bravery and fair seeming, however, was
rising a dark cloud, which did more to break up Arthur's
Table-Round than even the quest of the Sangreal, for
rumours had long been rife that Guinivere was unfaithful,
and that his best-beloved knight, Sir Launcelot, was the
partner of her sin. It was long ere they reached Arthur,
' It seems necessary to say here that Caxton gratuitously explains
Camelot to be Winchester ; but Caxton was a Kentish man and, more-
over, lived abroad in Burgundy and the Netherlands for a great part
of his life. He probably knew something, though little, of Winchester,
and nothing whatever of Somerset. Stowe, and Drayton in his " I'oly-
olbion," make it in Somerset, and local tradition is clear upon the
point. As a matter of fact, dates make it simply impossible, as Win-
chester passed to the Saxons in 515.
56 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
who was so guileless that he could not believe in the guilt
of those he loved ; but at last it became too manifest, and
Guinivere's flight made the unfaithfulness of his wife and
friend patent to the king. Guinivere's first flight was to
Glastonbury ; and in a life of Gildas, written by Caradoc of
Lancarvon, we are told that whilst he (Gildas) was residing
at Glastonbury, Arthur's Queen was carried off and lodged
there, that Arthur immediately besieged the place, but,
through the mediation of the Abbot and of Gildas, con-
sented at length to receive his wife again and to depart
peaceably. When this first flight took place we are not
told; but after a time, and when the rebellion of his nephew
Mordred took place, Guinivere fled again, this time to
Amesbury, in Wiltshire. There she was professed a nun.
After her death her body was carried to rest at Glastonbury
by Sir Launcelot himself, she having prayed that she might
never see him again in life. And when she was put into the
earth. Sir Launcelot swooned and lay long upon the ground.
A hermit came and awaked him, and said : " Ye are to
blame, for ye displease God with such manner of sorrow-
making." " Truly," said Sir Launcelot, " I trust I do not
displease God, for He knoweth well mine intent, for it was
not, nor is for any rejoicing in sin, but my sorrow may never
have an end. For when I remember and call to mind her
beauty, her bounty, and her nobleness, that was as well with
her king, my lord Arthur, as with her; and also when I saw
the corpse of that noble King and noble Queen so lie to-
gether in that cold grave, made of earth, that sometime were
set in most honourable places, truly mine heart would not
serve me to sustain my wretched and careful body also.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 57
And when I remember me, how through my default, and
through my presumption and pride, that they were both laid
full low, the which were ever peerless that ever were living
of Christian people. Wit ye well," said Sir Launcelot,
" this remembered of their kindness, and of mine unkind-
ness, sunk and impressed so in my heart, that all my natural
strength failed me, so that I might not sustain myself."
The rebellion of his nephew Mordred brought strife and
war into the hitherto carefully-guarded peninsula. Mordred
maintained that Arthur was no son of Uther Pendragon, and
that he himself was the rightful heir; so Arthur had to turn
his arms against his own people. It was at Camelford,
near the north coast of Cornwall, that he fought his last
fight. He was wounded to the death, for his skull was, as
we shall see, pierced with ten wounds. Then, after the
episode of the flinging away of the sword Excalibur, when
Sir Bedivere saw " the water, wap, and waves waun," a
barge hove to the bank ; in it were ladies with black hoods,
and one was Morgan la Fay, King Arthur's sister. Then
the barge floated to the shores of Gladerhaf,' and thence to
the valley of Avilion, where they took him to heal him of
his grievous wound. And so men said that Arthur was
not dead, but by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ was in
another place ; and men say that he will come again. I
will not say that it shall be so, but rather I will say, that
here in this world he changed his life. But men say that
there is written upon his tomb this verse —
" Hie jacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rex que futurus."
' Gladerhaf, the ancient name of Somerset. Avilion, or Avalon, of
Glastonbury.
5S MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
And thus leave we him here, and Sir Bedivere with the
hermit that dwelleth in a chapel beside Glastonbury.'
With Arthur perished the bright gleam of hope for the
British race, but the Saxons did not as yet advance farther
westward, nor was it till the seventh century that Gladerhaf
became Somerset. That he was buried at Glastonbury,
men knew, but the exact spot remained a secret from all,
and so the record of Arthur's life and labours became a
myth on which the earliest and latest British poets alike
have loved to dwell and idealize, till men scarce believed
that he had any existence save in the realms of romance.
Long years passed away. The old order had changed and
given place to new more than once. The Britons had been
avenged, for the Saxons had passed under the power of the
Dane, and then rose again only to submit to the Normans.
Yet the Saxons were never so crushed as the Britons had
been, for the Teutons have a staying power and a power of
combination that seem to have been denied to the Kelts.
Only in Wales did the ancient race preserve their indi-
viduality. But a weird and troubled rule was that of the
Norman ; father fighting against son, and brother against
brother. It was in the year 1177 that Henry II., when on
his journey to Ireland to receive the submission of the
princes of that country, passed through Pembroke, and was
there entertained by some of the Welsh chieftains. Whilst
there "it chanced to him to heare sung to the harpe certaine
ditties of the worthy exploits and actes of this Arthur by one
of the Welsh bards, as they were termed, whose custom was
to record and sing at their feasts the noble deeds of their
' Mallory's King Arthur.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET, 59
ancestors, wherein mention was made of his death and
place of buriall, designing it to be in the monks' burial
ground at Glastonbury, and that betwixt two pyramids there
standing."^
King Henry made this known to his cousin, Henry of
Blois, who was at once Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of
Winchester, but no steps seem to have been taken in his
time to ascertain its truth ; and it was not till after his
death that, in the reign of Richard I., Henry de Soliaco,
nephew of the late king and Abbot of Glastonbury, insti-
tuted a search, the result of which has been described by
Giraldus Cambrensis, the historian of his time, who was
present when the grave was opened.
"At the depth of seven feet was a huge, broad stone,
whereon a leaden cross was fastened : on that part that lay
downward, in rude and barbarous letters (as rudely set and
contrived), this inscription was written upon that side of the
lead that was towards the stone —
' Hie jacet sepultus Rex Arturius in Insula Avalonia,"
and digging nine foot deeper his body was discovered in the
trunk of a tree, the bones of great bignesse, and in his scull
perceived ten wounds, the last very great and plainly scene.
His Queen Guinivere, that had been neare kinswoman to
Cador, Duke of Cornwall, a lady of passing beauty, likewise
lay by him, whose tresses of hair finely platted, and in colour
like the gold, seemed perfect and whole untill it was touched,
but then, bewraying what all beauties are, shewed itself to be
duste."
' These pyramids are minutely described by William of Malmesbury.
6o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The crosse of lead with the inscription, as it was found
and taken off the stone, was kept in the treasury or revester
of Glastonbury Abbey till its suppression in the reign of
Henry VIII. The bones of King Arthur and Queen
Guinivere his wife were translated into the great church, and
" there in a fair Tombe of Marble his body was laid, and
his Queen's at his feete, which noble monument among the
fatall overthrowes of infinite more were altogether raced"
(razed). ^
I know of scarcely anything more pathetic than the old
chronicler's account of that tress of golden hair, the sole
remains of the beauty that had captivated the heart of the
great king, and made his noblest knight to fall, and then —
the seeing it at a touch fall into dust. She, who had
mourned her sin at Amesbury, at last, by the loving hands
of those who had witnessed her penitence, was borne to rest
beside her rightful lord; and the golden tresses which, when
she had last seen him in life (as described or imagined by
our great bard of modern times), swept the dust at his
feet, now, after more than six hundred years had passed
away, faded into dust again when they had fulfilled their
mission of testifying to the main facts of the legend of
Arthur.
Nearly a hundred years again had passed when in the
year 1276 King Edward I. and his Queen Eleanor kept the
' Speed. I have followed Speed's description taken from Giraldus,
save where Speed, in defiance of all chronology, makes the finding of
Arthur to have been during Henry II. 's reign, under Abbot Henry of
Blois. Dates show that it was as stated above, during Richard I.'s
reign, under Henry de Soliaco. He evidently confuses the two Abbots
Henry.
KING ARTHUR IN SOMERSET. 6 1
festival of Easter at Glastonbury. It was during the Abbacy
of John of Taunton, a great benefactor to the Church in
buildings, books for the librar}', and vestments, that this
visit took place. So great were^the privileges of this place,
that even the king himself was laid under some restraint
while abiding in it. His deputy high marshal was not
allowed to exercise his office ; the king's judges were held
to have no authority ; and even a man who had incurred
the penalty of lasa majesias was not allowed to be punished.
The mausoleum of black marble was opened for their in-
spection ; the king's bones were seen, of gigantic proportion,
the thigh bone the width of three fingers longer than that
of the tallest monk present. The tomb was ordered to be
placed in front of the high altar ; the skulls of the king
and queen to remain outside for the adoration of the
people !
Leland, who saw the tomb, says: "At the head of Arthurs
tombe lay Henricus Abbas (Henry of Blois ?) ' and a crucifix;
at the feet lay a figure of Arthur ; a cross on the tomb, and
two lions at the head and two at the feet."
And here the hero's bones rested till the Tyrant King
scattered all such precious relics to the winds. His body
has not been allowed to rest in peace, though " his name
liveth for evermore." Nor is Arthur's fame confined to
England alone, for among the figures that keep watch and
ward round Maximilian's tomb at Innspruck is one of the
patriot king, and an exquisite photograph of him in armour,
as he is there portrayed, faces the writer as this attempt to
* Almost certainly Henry de Soliaco, in whose Abbacy the remains
were discovered. Henry of Blois was certainly buried at Winchester.
62 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
show the connection of Arthur's most heroic deeds with her
native county is being penned.
Authorities. — Gildas ; Geoffrey of Monmouth ; WiUiam
of Malmesbury ; Giraldus Cambrensis ; Caxton's
Mallory's King Arthur ; Leland ; Drayton's Poly-
olbion ; Speed ; Camden ; The Greatest of the
Plantagenets ; Our Ancient Monuments, and the
Land Around them, by C. P. Haines-Jackson ; and
lastly, oral legends.
,St. KeYJMATHE ViRQIN, of K'eYN3HA|4,
(October 8th, some time in the Fifth or Sixth Century.)
■:o:-
This saint, though like St. Dubricius, probably a native of
south Wales, deserves a niche in our Temple of Fame. It
was somewhere in the troublous times of the fifth or sixth
centuries, when the great Roman Empire was breaking up,
ere yet our county was the land of the Sumorscetas, that St.
Keyna, the daughter of Braglan or Braganus, Prince of
Brecknockshire, became a recluse, and fixed her home in
Somerset in a wood near Keynsham. The county was in-
fested with venomous serpents, and these, by her prayers,
were converted to stones.
Such is the legend. Geologists would give a different
account of those strange petrifactions with which the county
abounds.
In sober truth we may believe that she was a godly and
devoted woman, whose superiority in birth, her eminent piety
and her fuller knowledge, made her an authority in cases of
wounds and injuries ; and the remedies she used, some
simple secrets of the healing art, being administered by her
own hands, made the people look upon her as one furnished
64 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
with supernatural powers, and exaggerated her cures into
miracles of healing. It is said that she returned into her
own land and died there. Keynsham has already been
mentioned in the story of Bladud. It stands on the Avon,
not far from Bristol. Is she the same to whom the Cornish
well of St. Keyne is dedicated ? The story is told in one
of Southey's ballad poems.
Authority. — Butler's Lives of the Saints.
pHIL030PHEf^3 Of ^0JV[ER3ET.
GILDAS BADONICUS, CALLED GILDAS THE WISE, ALSO
GILDAS THE QUERULOUS.
(Born A.D. 520.)
A PERIOD of legends, myth, and uncertain tradition of more
than one hundred and fifty years, intervening between two
periods of authentic history, is a strange fact in the story of
our island. When we lose sight of it, it was Britain ; when
the curtain lifts, it is (almost) Saxon England. This strange
time, which has been turned to such good account by poets
and romance WTiters for more than a thousand years, was
from the year 420 to that of 599 inclusive. It was during
this period that our hero was born; the brave men of the
west, with their great leaders, had made a stand, and
stood like a rock which dashes back the waves of hostile
progress.
The culminating point of Arthur's life was his great
victory in a.d. 520, at Mount Badon, and it was in that
year that Gildas Badonicus, or Gildas of Bath, was born.
It might have seemed a bright omen to have first seen the
light at such a time, but ere he came to man's estate, the
6
66 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
bright gleam of hope with which Arthur's victories and
Arthur's greatness had imbued his countrymen had faded
away, and Arthur died fighting against his own people,
Somerset had, of course, from its position, borne the brunt
of the struggle in the western peninsula, but never while
Arthur lived did the heathen cross its boundaries ; neces-
sarily, however, it fell first to the Saxons, but not till they
too had embraced the Christian faith. Devon and Cornwall
did not form an integral part of the West Saxon kingdom
till, perhaps, the reign of Athelstan, in the loth century,
but with Arthur's death a dull despair fell upon the Britons,
and with this despair came the vices born of it. Gildas
was a witness of these troubles, and as he grew up he saw
the last faint struggles of a decaying state ; he saw, too, and
recognized the vices which were alike the cause and effect
of this state of things, but he had neither the courage nor
the energy to strive against them. His writings are chiefly
remarkable for two things — first, the melancholy, despairing
tone of every word in them, for, wiih the exception of the
" Lamentations of Jeremiah," they are perhaps the most
sorrowful wail that ever was penned ; secondly, the intimate
knowledge they show of the whole Bible.
Gildas, the son of British parents, and, it is said, of royal
blood, was brought an infant from Bath, where he was born,
to the monastery of St. Iltutus, in Glamorganshire ; but, as
he grew in years, Somerset, by the valiant defence it made
against the Saxons, being now considered safe from invasion,
he returned to his native county — the Gladerhaf of the
Britons — in order to complete his education at Ynis-wytren
(Glastonbury), the largest and most learned monastery of
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 67
the time. Here he took the vows and professed himself
a monk.
Whilst here, it is said that Guinivere sought refuge in the
abbey from her husband's indignation at the discovery of
her frailty. Arthur besieged the monastery, but, through
the mediation of the Abbot and Gildas himself, who was
probably a relation, he was persuaded to receive back his
wife and depart peaceably. But troubles thickened, and,
judging from the agreement of the legends and Gildas' own
charges against his countrymen, it is plain that the vices of
impurity and unchastity were rampant in the land.
On the other hand, from internal evidence alone, it appears
plain that he does scant justice to the bravery and resolution
that the Britons showed in their battles with the Saxons, for
when Gildas was writing, though an hundred years had
elapsed since their coming, and fresh swarms had poured in
every year, a large part of the county was still in possession
of his fellow-countr}-men. He speaks, too, of the foreign
wars — meaning the wars against the invaders, as distinguished
from the wars among the Britons themselves — having ceased,
so that the valour of Aurelius Ambrosius and his nephew
Arthur had won for them at least a temporary peace.
Of their brave endeavours to repulse the heathen, he
makes but this slight and thankless mention : " The poor
remnants of our nation, being strengthened, that they might
not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under the
conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who, of
all the Roman nation, was then alone in the confusion of
this troubled period by chance left alive. His parents,
who, for their merit, were adorned with the purple, had
68 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
been slain in the same broils, and now his progeny, in these
our days, although shamefully degenerated from the worthi-
ness of their ancestors, provoked to battle their cruel
conquerors, and, by the goodness of God, obtained the
victory."
There is more in this strain, so that, in spite of himself,
as it were, Gildas bears witness to the wonderful recovery of
the county from its first disastrous overthrow by the heathen.
But the ulcer that was eating away all that was brave and
fair was the sin of impurity, to which the wild and beautiful
romance of " King Arthur," by Sir Thomas Mallory — which
is but a collection and digest of other legends — bears such
grievous witness.
But, perhaps, after all, the most noteworthy characteristic
of Gildas' writings is his exhaustive acquaintance with Holy
Writ. He quotes, and often copiously, from almost every
book in it. In his works he refers to — sometimes extracting
long passages from — Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel,
Amos, Micah, and indeed almost all the prophets, as also
from the Gospels and Epistles. He shows, too, how he has
studied the ancient Fathers of the Church, and we find
passages from, and references to, Ignatius, Polycarp, Basil,
Bishop of Caesarea, &c. From each of these his gloomy
nature delights in drawing denunciations against sinners.
But Gildas' mournful diatribes had little or no effect ; it is,
perhaps, worth remarking that his copy of the Holy Scrip-
tures was not St. Jerome's (or the Vulgate).
For some time Gildas lived a hermit life on one, or,
perhaps passing from one to the other, on both of the two
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 69
islets in the British Channel, called respectively Ronech
and Echin, the Steep and Flat Holms of the present day;
these are, in truth, but a continuation of the Mendip range.
It was here he wrote his "De Excidio Britanniae."
But, as old age came on, he returned to the home of his
younger days at Glastonbury, where he died, and was buried
about the year 581, or possibly later.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury; Legends of
King Arthur ; Gildas' works.
Archbi3hop3 of Canterbury.
NATIVES OF SOMERSET, OR WHO HAD BEEN ABBOTS OF
GLASTONBURY.
ST. BRITHWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CAXTERBURV
(Abbot of Glastonbury, 670; Abbot of Reculver, date
uncertain ; Archbishop, 692-731).
Though the name of St. Brithwald has been removed from
the English calendar, it still remains in the Roman hagio-
logy on January 9th ; and, indeed, he well deser\-es to be
had in loving remembrance. It is curious that the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle speaks of him as the_/fr^/ English Archbishop
of Canterbury, and adds, moreover : " Before this the bishops
had been Romans, but from this time they were English."
Yet Deus-dedit or Adeodatus, the sixth Archbishop of Can-
terbury, was, it is said, an Englishman ; and Bede calls him
one of the South Saxons, meaning, probably, a Saxon of the
south of England. It had been the custom from the time
of Augustine, in order to prevent any break in the succes-
sion, for each archbishop, before his death, to nominate his
successor ; but Honorius, the fifth archbishop, died without
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 7 1
having taken this precaution, and a vacancy of a year and a
half occurred, until Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, consecrated
Frithona, a West Saxon, giving him the name of Deus-dedit.^
It is more than probable that Frithona, or Deus-dedit,
might take his place not only as first of the Saxon arch-
bishops, but first also of those educated at Glastonbury ;
for, as neither Malmesbury nor Peterborough were then in
existence, he being a south-country man, could scarcely have
owed his education to the Scotch schools of the north.
Little is known of Deus-dedit ; yet what is known marks
him as a man of patience and piety, large-hearted, and who
was held in high respect by his contemporaries. During his
episcopate, Wilfrid, the talented but turbulent Bishop of
Northumbria, lived; and he unwittingly bears witness to
the large-minded charity of the archbishop, so far beyond
the tone of mind of that day. When Wilfrid was elected
Bishop of York he refused to receive consecration from the
hands of Deus-dedit, because, forsooth, the archbishop held
covimunication with heretics — the meaning of which was that
the good archbishop set himself to promote the union of the
British and Saxon Churches, and declined to look upon
some immaterial points of difference as hindrances to inter-
communion. But, in spite of this, Deus-dedit's charity was
not to be overcome ; for on Wilfrid's return, after his
consecration by Agilberd, Bishop of Paris (with twelve other
' So says Churton, in his " Early English Church," and Dr. Hook, who
apparently follows him, but neither give their authority ; and he is not
called Frithona either by Bede or the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The late
Mr. Edward Solly most kindly sent me a quotation from Abp. Parker's
" De Antiquitate Britannicce Ecclesise," in which he says, speaking of
Deus-dedit : " Patria enim lingua Frithona vacatur."
72 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
bishops), he invited him to Canterbury, and at his death
confided his diocese to his care.
The greatest event in Deus-dedit's episcopate was the
hallowing of i^Iedehamstead, afterwards Peterborough,
Abbey, of which a long account is given in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle. Penda, the fierce King of Mercia, being
dead, the throne was filled by his sons Peada and Wulfhere
in succession. These young kings were both Christians, and
the one planned what the other carried out, viz., a grand
monastic school for the central kingdom, such as Glaston-
bury was for centuries for the south and west ; and for the
hallowing of this monastery Wulfhere would have the highest
ecclesiastic in the Church. So Deus-dedit was there as
archbishop, with his suffragans, Ithamar of Rochester, Wini
of London, Jaruman of Mercia, and Tuda of Lindisfarne.
Oswy, King of Northumberland, the Bretwalda, was there
also, and signed the charter as well as Wulfhere, the founder.
It must have been a magnificent gathering, even in those
rude and early days, and marks the fact that amid all the
divisions of the State the unity of the Church was a living
power.
In 604 or 605 Deus-dedit, the first native Archbishop
of Canterbury, died. Four years elapsed without a fresh
appointment, and then again Ithamar of Rochester came
to the rescue, and consecrated Damian ; but whether the
appointment was irregular, or whether — which is likely
enough — it was considered undesirable that the metropo-
litan of the English Church should be the nominee of a
Kentish bishop, Damian is not reckoned among our arch-
bishops. The latter was probably the reason ; for it would
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 73
manifestly have been undesirable that the metropolitan of
the whole of England should be nominated by the Bishop
or King of Kent, one of the smallest of the many kingdoms
into which the land was divided, and must eventually have
resulted in each petty state having an independent Church
of its own. This calamity — for such it would have been
— was averted by the wisdom of Oswy, the Bretwalda,
with the large-hearted co-operation of Egbert, King of
Kent.
They, acting together, appear to have summoned a council
of the Church; for they specially declare that they acted
with the consent of the English Church, and chose Wighard,
an Englishman, whom they sent to Vitahan, Bishop of Rome,
for consecration — the reason of which seems to have been
that, from various causes, the only bishop in England at
that time whose consecration was absolutely regular was
Wini, Bishop of Winchester ; and three bishops were, then
as now, considered necessary for a canonical consecration.
Even could they have sunk national jealousy so far as to
have summoned British bishops to their assistance, the same
difficulty would have occurred as took place after the separa-
tion of the United States from England. The first formality
after the consecration would have been the taking oaths of
obedience to the new archbishop, and this no British bishop
would, of course, have done.
Wighard then set out for Rome, but died almost imme-
diately upon his arrival ; and Oswald and Egbert, anxious
for no further delay, desired Vitalian to select a suitable
person and send him at once. A very interesting correspon-
dence remains between the Bretwalda and the Pope, showing
74 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
that the latter was fully worthy of the trust reposed in him.
He wrote thus to Oswy :
""We have not been able to find, considering the length
of the journey, a man docile and qualified in all respects to
be a bishop according to the tenour of your letters. But as
soon as such a proper person shall be found we will send
him, well instructed, to your countr}'."
Vitalian at last pitched upon Adrian, an African by birth,
Abbot of Nerida, near Naples ; but Adrian, who was of a
studious habit, knowing that a man of energy and action was
required for such a post, declined it, recommending his
friend Theodore of Tarsus. He, however, offered to accom-
pany Theodore, and to take his part in the work of building
up the Church in that distant land. Perhaps of all the
missions that were ever sent out to evangelize the world,
this was the most truly Catholic. Vitalian, the head of the
Roman Church, urges Adrian, an African, to go to " the
ends of the earth," and the two combined together to
persuade Theodore, a member of the Greek Church, to
undertake the office. He was consecrated by Pope Vitalian
in the year of our Lord 668, on Sunday, the 20th of March,
and on the 27th of May started with his friend for Britain.
Adrian became Abbot of Canterbury, and appears to have
devoted himself principally to the education of candidates
for the ministry. Both the archbishop and abbot were
learned men, well skilled in the Latin and Greek tongues.
Their schools were numerously attended, men of all ages
and degree being attracted to them by the fame of their
learning and piety.
Among these scholars was Brithwald, Abbot of Glaston-
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 75
bury. His position makes it almost certain that he must
have also been educated there, as we find among the
privileges granted by King Ina in later years one that
none but a monk of Glastonbury should be chosen to be
Abbot ; and this was probably only giving legal authority
to what was a custom of the place. It is as well here to
pause and endeavour to realize the energy and humility of
this man. Glastonbury was one of the oldest ecclesiastical
foundations in the world, the richest monastery in England,
the only one where the ancient inhabitants of Britain and
the new people knelt side by side ; yet Brithwald, in spite
of the opposition of both the King of Wessex and the
Bishop of Winchester, resigned this proud position to sit at
the feet of these new teachers. He became a simple monk
at Reculver, where Adrian had founded one of his schools,
and there he devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures
in their native tongue. Reculver had been a royal palace
before it became a monastic school. Eventually Brithwald
rose to become Abbot of Reculver ; and, without any great
stretch of imagination, we may suppose that he would invite
promising young men from the west country to come and
study the new learning, and then return to carry back what
they had gained and become teachers in their turn. It was,
in fact, in a small way, just such a revival of learning as took
place eight centuries later, when the taking of Constantinople
scattered the learned Greeks through Europe and revived
the study of the Greek language through the civilized world.
In 691 Theodore died, after a primacy of twenty-three
years, and all men turned their eyes to Brithwald as his suc-
cessor. The appointment of Frithona and Wighard had
76 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
broken through the tradition that none but a foreigner
could be metropoUtan, and the excellent work done by
the late archbishop^ and Abbot Adrian had made it still
more possible for a worthy successor to be found among the
native Saxons or English. So Brithwald was accepted by
the Church ; and as it was undesirable that he should be
consecrated by Wilfrid of York, lest any fancied superiority
should be claimed by the northern diocese, he sought con-
secration from the hands of Godwin, or Goudon, metropoli-
tan of France. Brithwald was elected with the concurrence
of Withred and Swebhard, kings of Kent, and on Sunday,
29th of June, A.D. 692, was consecrated. On Sunday, the
31st of August, he was installed in his cathedral, the eighth
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the second of the Saxon race.
This was very nearly twelve hundred years ago, and from that
time Augustine's chair has been, with few exceptions, filled
by Englishmen. After the Conquest, Lanfranc and Anselm
were brilliant exceptions, and Boniface of Savoy, in the
time of Henry III., was a less worthy successor, but he
was, I believe, the last foreigner intruded into the chief
seat of our Church.
The year after Brithwald succeeded to the primacy,
Withred succeeded to the whole kingdom of the Kentish
men. He held a great council at Baccancilde (Becken-
' To Theodore is said to be owing the di\-ision of parishes, and the
appointment of a priest, or parson, to each parish. Probably this is
saying too much, but he promoted the division of dioceses, which, as
we know from experience in the present day, has a wonderful influence
in promoting the increase of parochial clerg)-. At any rate, from his
time, and by his education of a learned clergy of native growth, our
Church became established, instead of being a missionary church pre-
sided over by foreigners.
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 77
ham), in Kent, at which the king presided, "and Brithwald,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Tobias, Bishop of
Rochester, and with them abbots and abbesses and many
wise men, assembled to consult about the bettering of God's
churches in Kent." King Withred made a noble opening
address, in which he clearly defined the relative limits of
the secular and ecclesiastical rights and duties.
It was during the primacy of Brithwald that the great
work of dividing the enormous diocese of Winchester —
whose limits were co-terminous with the ever-spreading king-
dom of Wessex — was carried out. Ina was then king of
Wessex, and he and Brithwald seem to have cordially
worked together, and assisted each other in their large-
minded projects for the religious and secular benefit of
the people committed to their charge. The first effect of
Brithwald's good offices seems to have been the healing of
the long-standing feud between Wessex and Kent. The
fierce king of Wessex, Coedwalla, had committed ravages in
Kent, which were retaliated by the burning of Mul, Moll,
or Mules, brother of the king, and twelve other men with
him, by the Kentish men, and this was an excuse for fresh
ravages by fire and sword ; but immediately on Brithwald's
becoming archbishop, we find that the men of Kent offered
a heavy money compensation, which was accepted by Ine,
or Ina, and peace was restored.
At this time Daniel was Bishop of Winchester. Another
diocese was formed, with Sherborne for its cathedral city,
to which Aldhelm was appointed, and a bishop was given
to the South Saxons, whose seat was at Selsey, though it
was eventually removed to Chichester.
78 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Ina's great object seems to have been to weld into one
the antagonistic races of Britons and Saxons ; and with this
object he passed a great part of his time in Somerset, where
the mingUng of the two races was beginning. Brithwald
cordially worked with him, and did his part by seeking to
promote the union of the churches. His intimate know-
ledge of the people must have been valuable to Ina, and
his efforts at conciliation were so successful that a large
number of Keltic bishops, both in the north of Britain and
Ireland, expressed their willingness to yield on the question
of the proper time for keeping Easter. The bishops in
Cornwall still retained their ancient British usage, but they
were met in a truly Christian spirit by Brithwald, who em-
ployed the pen of the eloquent Aldhelm to endeavour to
convince them that they should conform to the general
usage of the Western Church. His enactments with regard
to the keeping of the Lord's Day were strict enough to satisfy
the most rigid Puritan, his principal object apparently being
to secure to the slave one day of absolute rest. He was
anxious to abolish slavery altogether, and we hear of his
paying as much as three hundred soldi to redeem one from
servitude.
Deusdedit's primacy had been signalized by the hallowing
of the Abbey of Medehamstead, and now Brithwald's was
illustrated by a work of equal — perhaps greater — importance,
and which more nearly concerns us, viz., the enlarging, re-
building, and almost refounding of Glastonbury Abbey ; so
that Ina is often spoken of as the founder, as though it had
not existed for hundreds of years before his time.
The charters, given in William of Malmesbury's Chroni-
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 79
cles, which Ina and his successors granted to Glastonbury,
are said, by the learned of the present day, not to be genuine,
but to be interpolations of a later date ; in that of Ina he
speaks of the large lands granted by his predecessors, and
that it is with the permission of Brithwald and his suffragans
that he grants the charter, and the lands therein conveyed
by himself and his predecessors, to the monastery, with
certain privileges. But even supposing these not to be
genuine, one cannot doubt that when William of Malmes-
bury says, " What spendour he (Ina) added to the monastery
may be collected from the short treatise I have written about
his antiquities," that the monastery had existed, but perhaps
not under any specific rule. We must remember that
William of Malmesbury was a perfectly unprejudiced wit-
ness, his great object being to exalt his own monastery.
There can be no doubt, then, that Ina did not originate;
he only restored and added to an old foundation. But this
restoration and re-edification was done right royally, and
made Glastonbury — what it continued for centuries — the
richest monastery, and one of the most celebrated schools
for education, not only in England, but in Europe. We
shall see in the life of one of the greatest of Brithwald's
successors, St. Dunstan, the work that was carried on there
in later years.
But it is not alone the promotion of learning and disci-
pline within the Church, and the promoting the study of the
Scriptures in their native languages, that marks the period
of St. Brithwald's primacy. Under his fostering care the
Church of England began to exercise one of the highest
functions of a living church, by sending out missions to the
8o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
heathen ; and Winifrid, better known as Boniface, became
the Apostle of Germany.
Brithwald held the see of Canterbury thirty-seven years.
He was specially famed for his learning in the Scriptures.
He is credited with having originated the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, that most invaluable record of our early history.
He died simply of old age. He was the second archbishop
(Theodore being the first) who was interred within the walls
of the cathedral, the porch where former archbishops were
buried being full. Butler, in his "Lives of the Saints," calls
him "a living rule of perfection in the Church." Perhaps
the chief value of his biography consists in the clearness with
which it shows how far older the unity of the English Church
is than the unity of the kingdom.
Authoritip:s. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Bede; William
of Malmesbury ; Churton's Early English Church ;
Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury ; Stubbs' Consti-
tutional History ; Butler's Lives of the Saints.
KlNQ I]My\ IN pOJVIERgET.
INA AND ALDHELM.
(A.D. 688-782.)
-.v;-
It is impossible to make the story of King Ina in Somerset
as interesting or as picturesque as the companion sketches
of King Arthur on the one side, or King Alfred on the
other. We know at once too much and too little of him ;
myths and legends form no part of his story, and the details
of his career are so shortly told, that it is difficult to write a
connected and accurate life of him. Yet he well deserves a
place between those great heroes ; and his life, though not
as full of romantic vicissitudes, nor his character perhaps as
ideally perfect, deserves more than the passing mention or
utter neglect with which historians almost invariably treat
him. His rule was wise and beneficent, and he specially
attached himself to Somerset, This is so remarkable, that it
is believed by some that Ina was a native of our county ;
indeed, there is a sentence in one of his charters which
appears to allude to it as a well-known fact ; there is also a
tradition that his mother was of British race. If this were
7
82 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
SO, it would of course account for his great desire to unite
the two races.
It would be difficult to point out any reign or period in
which Church and State worked together so harmoniously
for the good of the people. King and bishop vied with
each other in their endeavours to promote the welfare of
the land ; and specially they gave their attention to healing
the wounds of that county which was the border-land and
meeting- point of the opposing races ; and by equahzing the
laws and restoring the ancient ecclesiastical foundations,
they sought to unite Briton and Saxon together, and make
them in truth one nation.
It is necessary to throw a glance back, to understand the
state of the country when Ina succeeded to the throne.
After Arthur's brilliant achievements were ended by internal
rebellion, the plague-cloud again descends. We have no
trustworthy or even probable account of anything that took
place. All we know is, that westwards, ever westwards —
as has been its destiny ever since — advanced the kingdom of
Wessex, the nucleus of our present enormous empire.
Of Kenric, one of Ina's predecessors, we read, '• he was
a great scourge unto the weak and overborne Britaines,
making conquests of their possessions and forcing them
even to the sea-shore, being a people allotted unto misery,
and by these strangers pursued so vehemently that lastly
they were drawn into the west angle of the island." ' Under
the fierce Coedwalla, the Britons of Gladerhaf appear to
have had a little rest, as he expended his energy on fighting
with the Jutes of Kent, first provoking cruel deeds, and
' Speed.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 83
then retaliating with acts of still greater ferocity. Coedwalla
at last embraced the Christian faith, and, penitent for
his many sins, gave up his kingdom, made a pilgrimage
to Rome, and being baptized there by the name of Peter,
died before he had laid aside his baptismal robe. He was
succeeded by Ina, who, though not the nearest in the
succession, was chosen king, and his whole reign justified
the choice. His aim — while manfully maintaining his right
to what his predecessors had won with the sword — was to
unite the conquered race and the conquerors in bonds of
amity and good-will. His unusually long reign of thirty-
seven years gave him great opportunities for this work ; and
the peace which he made with the men of Kent enabled
him to devote his attention to the western part of his
kingdom.
Aldhelm, his near kinsman, was his constant assistant ir»
this good work. It will be as well here to give a sketch of
his life and character, before we proceed to give any account
of their joint labours. William of Malmesbury mentions a
tradition that he was Ina's nephew, but adds, "I do not
choose to assert for truth anything which savours more of
vague opinion than of historic credibility. Aldhelm needs
no support from fiction, such great things are there con-
cerning him, so many which are beyond the reach of doubt."
Of course if Aldhelm were Ina's nephew, the probability
would be that he also was a native of Somerset ; but on this
subject I can but echo Malmesbury 's wise and moderate
words.
From the time of the withdrawal of the Romans, religion
and civilization alike decayed, and at times seem to have
84 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
languished almost to extinction ; but meanwhile, in Ireland
was a flourishing Christian Church, and it was natural that
the Kelts of the West, when they required learned and wise
teachers, should prefer to apply to them, rather than to the
intruding Roman priests who founded the Saxon Church.
So we find at this time, and for at least two hundred years
later, Irish monks and priests abounding in the western
ecclesiastical societies. It was in Somerset that the two
Churches — the ancient British Church and the Saxon
Roman Church — met, and it was here ultimately that they
coalesced, and the lion and the lamb lay down in the same
pastures.
In the early part of the seventh century, Maidulf, a monk
of the Scots in Ireland, called therefore indiscriminately an
Irish or a Scotsman, settled at Caer Bladon, in what is now
Wiltshire ; there he built a hermitage, and gathered a school
around him. Among his scholars was Aldhelm : he, when
he desired to profit by the new learning introduced by
Archbishop Theodore and his friend Abbot Adrian, went
to Canterbury and studied there, in the same way that we
have seen Archbishop Brithwald did at Reculver. It may
well have been that Brithwald and Aldhelm formed here a
friendship — for Reculver is not far from Canterbury — that
lasted their life-time ; at any rate, it is a striking fact to
notice that Ina's two great friends, the men who had
probably the greatest influence on his life, were students in
their mature years under the same teachers, and at schools
closely allied. After Aldhelm had devoted some time to
his studies, he returned to Caer Bladon, now called Ingel-
burne, as it passed under Saxon sway, but hereafter, from
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 85
the reverent love of Aldhelm for his old master, to lose
both designations in that of Maidelfsburg or Malmesbury.
Eleutherius, Bishop of Winchester, the only bishopric at
that time in the ever extending kingdom of Wessex, ap-
pointed Aldhelm Abbot of Malmesbury, and he immediately
set to work to make it a worthy rival of the great Keltic
Abbey of Glastonbury. Aldhelm is said to have been the
first Saxon who wrote Latin verses. He was also a musician
and a poet, as well as an author on other subjects. His
most popular work was the translation of the Psalms into
English verse. One specimen, modernized by Archdeacon
Churton in his history of the early English Church, will
serve to show its superiority over the feeble work of our
modern metrical versions :
Lord, to me Thy minsters are
Courts of honour, passing fair,
And my spirit deems it well
There to be and there to dwell ;
Heart and flesh would fain be there,
Lord, Thy life, Thy love to share.
There the sparrow speeds her home,
And in time the turtles come ;
Safe their nestling young they rear.
Lord of Hosts, Thine altars near.
Dear to them Thy peace, but more
To the souls who Thee adore.
These strains he would sing to his harp, and, because the
country people who came to Divine service would not
remain to the sermon, probably — though this seems to have
escaped his biographer — because, being Britons, they but
imperfectly understood the Saxon tongue, he took his stand
86 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
on the banks -of the Avon, and, possessing a fine voice, first
sang to them some trifling song, and then proceeded to sing
some of David's Psahiis, and so gathering his congregation
he took them into church/ But now came a change.
Eleutherius had been succeeded by Hedda, and, on his
death, it was determined to divide the vast diocese ; and
so Daniel was made Bishop of Winchester, and Aldhehu
was almost forcibly drawn from his cell and made Bishop of
Sherborne. He did much to reconcile the British and
Saxon churches ; and though, as was perhaps but natural,
he laid too much stress on the Roman customs, still he kept
the peace both ecclesiastical and political, and, as long as
he lived, Ina of Wessex and Geraint of Cornwall were
friendly potentates.
We have now brought the story of king and bishop to the
same point, and henceforth they worked together, and we
can in no way separate to one or the other the good works
they carried on together. The monastery at Glastonbury
was so enlarged and improved, that by some Ina is spoken
of as the founder ; but ages before Ina, Glastonbury had
proclaimed the truth. The first church founded there — the
Vetusta Ecclesia — was built, as tradition says, by Joseph
of Arimathea and his companions if not by some of our
Lord's immediate followers in the very early days of Chris-
tianity ; the second by St. David ; the third by twelve pious
men from the north of Britain ; the fourth and largest,
called the Major Ecclesia, was dedicated by Ina to the Holy
Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, and for the good of the soul
' It is worth remarking that the same plan is carried out in the
mission services of the present day.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 87
of Moel, brother of Credwalla, who was killed by the men
of Kent. It is highly probable that the large money com-
pensation paid by the Kentish men, an enormous sum in
those days, was devoted to building churches and monasteries
in Ina's native county.^ Ina's church, the Major Ecclesia,
stood at the east ; while the Vetusta Ecclesia, the ancient
church, stood at the extreme west. It has been before
stated, in the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, with what
sacred care this precious relic was preserved.
We do not know certainly that either Ina or Aldhelm
were natives of Somerset, but certainly it was Ina's chief
home, and on Somerset he lavished his royal bounty with
a magnificence we could not have expected in that rude age.
William of Malmesbury's account of a chapel forming part
of the abbey at Glastonbury reads like a supplementary
paragraph to the description of Solomon's Temple, or a
page from " The Arabian Nights," rather than sober truth.
He says : " The sayde king (Ina) did also erect a chapell
of gold and silver (to witt, garnished), with ornaments and
vesselles likewise of gold and silver ; to the building of which
' As monasteries, especially Glastonbury, will appear repeatedly in
these pages, the author wishes it to be understood that she has no
wish to ignore their mistakes or palliate their corruptions, which,
however exaggerated, undoubtedly existed ; but she wishes to
keep before the minds of her readers that they were the schools,
the colleges, the hospitals, the art and science schools, the relieving
offices, &c., &c., of that day : and that, till they were done away
with, endowed grammar schools and poor-laws were unknown, and
the latter, at least, certainly unnecessary. Moreover, before the in-
vention of printing, from the scriptorium of the monastery went forth
new and old books ; and it was in an abbey, and under monastic
patronage, that the first printing press was set up at Westminster, and
the first entire English Bible printed in Southwark.
88 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
chappell he gave 2640 pounds of silver, and to the altar
264 pounds of gold; a chaleis, with the patten, tenne
pounds of gold ; a censar, 8 pound and twenty mancas
of gold ; two candlesticks, twelve pound and a half of silver;
a kiver [? cover] for the gospell book, twenty pound and 60
mancas of gold ; vessels of water for the altar, thirteen
pound of golde ; a bason, eight pounde of gold ; an holy
water bucket, xx. pound of silver ; images of our Lord and
the Twelve Apostles, 175 pound of silver and 28 pounde
of golde ; a pall for the altar ; and ornaments for the monks
of gold and precious stones, subtilly compacted : all whiche
treasure he gave to that monastery." Such is the sober-
minded William of Malmesbury's record of Ina's liberality.
Ina then proceeded to endow this foundation " most plenti-
fully," and "he enriched it with vast possessions and granted
it special privileges."
Ina's charter to Glastonbury is thus given in Malmesbury's
Chronicle : —
" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Ina, supported
in my royal dignity by God, with the advice of my Queen
Sexburga, and the permission of Berthwald, Archbishop
of Canterbury, and of all his suffragans, and also at the
instance of the princes Baltred and Athelard, to the ancient
church, situate in the place called Glastonbury, do grant out
of these places, which I possess by paternal inheritance,'
and hold in my demesne, they being adjacent and fitting for
the purpose, for the maintenance of the monastic institution
and the use of the monks, Brente ten hides, Sowy ten hides,
Pilton twenty hides, Dulting twenty hides, Bledenhida one
' This seems to imply that Ina was a native of Somerset.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 89
hide, together with whatever my predecessors have con-
tributed to the same church ; to wit, Kenwalk, who, at the
instance of Archbishop Theodore, gave Ferramere, Bregarai,
Coneneie, Martineseie, Etheredseie ; Kentwin, who used to
call Glastonbury 'the Mother of Saints,' and liberated it
from every secular and ecclesiastical service, and granted
it this dignified privilege, that the brethren of that place
should have the power of electing and appointing their ruler
according to the rule of S. Benedict ; Hedda, the Bishop,
with permission of Coedwalla, who, though a heathen, con-
firmed it with his own hand, gave Lantokay ; Baltred, who
gave Pennard, six hides ; Athelard, who contributed Poelt,
sixty hides ; I, Ina, permitting and confirming it. To the
piety and affectionate entreaty of these people I assent, and
I guard by the security of my royal grant against the designs
of malignant men and snarling curs, in order that the
Church of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal Virgin
Mary, as it is the first in the kingdom of Britain and the
source and fountain of all religion, may obtain surpassing
dignity and privilege, and, as she rules over choirs of angels
in heaven, it may never pay servile obedience on earth.
Wherefore, the chief Pontitf Gregory assenting, I appoint
that all lands, places, and possessions of St. Mary of Glas-
tonbury be free, quiet, and undisturbed from all royal taxes
and works which are wont to be appointed, that is to say,
expeditions, the building of bridges or forts, and from the
edicts or molestations of all archbishops or bishops as
confirmed and granted by my predecessors in the ancient
charters of the same church. And whatsoever questions
shall arise, whether of homicide, sacrilege, poison, theft.
90 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
rapine, the disposal and limit of churches, the ordination
of clerks, &c., &c., they shall be determined by the decision
of the abbot and convent without the interference of any
persons whatever. Moreover, I command all princes, arch-
bishops, bishops, dukes, and governors of my kingdom,
as they tender my honour and regard, as they value their
personal safety, never to dare enter the island of our Lord
Jesus Christ and of the eternal Virgin at Glastonbury for the
purpose of holding courts, &c., &c.
" And I particularly inhibit by the curse of God any
bishop on any account whatever from presuming to take his
episcopal seat, or celebrate Divine service, or consecrate
altars, or dedicate churches, or ordain either in the church
of Glastonbury itself or its dependent churches. Moreover
let the aforesaid bishop be mindful every year, with his
clerks that are at Wells, to acknowledge his IVIother Church
of Glastonbury with Litanies on the second day after our
Lord's ascension."
The charter ' of this donation was written in the year of
our Lord's incarnation 725, the fourteenth of the indiction,
in the presence of the King Ina and of Berthwald, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury.
And now, having refounded Glastonbury to show his
goodwill to the ancient church of the county, he proceeded
to make a wholly new foundation at Wells. He founded
a collegiate church with canons and every requisite for a
grand service, and this he made a centre for active work.
There is no doubt that Ina intended it to serve as the seat
' It has before been acknowledged that these very early charters are
of doubtful authenticity.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 9 1
for a new bishopric, but whether he lacked funds — which
was hkely enough after his lavish expenditure at Glastonbury
— or whether, perhaps, he may have thought it undesirable
as yet to separate Somerset ecclesiastically from the rest
of his kingdom, he for the present made it subject to his
newly-created diocese of Sherborne, under the fostering care
of Bishop Aldhelm. The church at Wells was dedicated in
the name of St. Andrew, and so it has continued ever since.
In the bishop's gardens is St. Andrew's Well, which forms
the head waters of the city; and the quarry at Doulting,
seven miles from the city, whence the stone was taken for
building Wells and Glastonbury, also bears St. Andrew's
name. Indeed, so much is he the favourite saint of the
county, that, with the exception of the blessed Virgin, there
are more churches dedicated in his name than in that of any
other saint. It was two hundred years, however, before
Ina's foundation became a cathedral, when a further sub-
division of the diocese was made.
With one very short exception, Glastonbury and Wells
remained till the reign of Henry VIII., each doing the work
marked out for them. Glastonbury, the home of contem-
plative religion, was employed in teaching and training the
young and doing much for art and literature, whilst Wells
was the centre of active religious life, acting, before its
separation from Sherborne, as a sort of secondary cathedral
for the work of the western counties.
But whilst providing so bountifully for the Church, Ina
did not forget the State. He built a strong castle on the Tone,
thereby founding a town on that river, which became known
as Taunton. Taunton Deane is one of the richest vales
92 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
not only in Somerset but in England. Ina seems to have
resided much at Taunton, and made it the western capital
of his kingdom. He drew up a code of laws, called them
his Doom or Judgment, and promulgated them from Taun-
ton. In these, as in his ecclesiastical foundations, his great
object seems to have been that the Britons and Saxons
should have equal justice done them, and in particular he
desires that the Welsh {i.e. the British) living under his
government should retain their lands. Another of his laws
that deserves noting was the respect paid to the Lord's day,
and the benevolent desire to gradually abolish slavery
altoo-ether. It was provided that any master who made his
slave work on a Sunday was, for that cause alone, to lose
his right in him, and he might at once demand his freedom.
It is not wonderful that under Ina's able government,'
with the wise consideration shown to the feelings of the
ancient inhabitants, they should have submitted to him and
become good subjects. Of course, if Ina's mother were a
British lady, and he himself a native of Somerset, this would,
in a great measure, account for his desire to unite the two
nations, and also for his special love for Somerset. He
built country houses there in various places, but probably
most of them did not approach to what we should now call
a palace, but answered more to a gentleman's hunting lodge.
But at South Petherton there is a beautiful old mediaeval
house still known as King Ina's Palace. It is, of course,
of far later date than the seventh century ; but it perhaps
marks the spot where stood his principal residence in the
county he loved so well.^
I See Article No. 56, "King Ina's Palace,"
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 93
But perhaps Ina had bestowed too exclusive attention to
the western part of his kingdom, and now came encroach-
ments and disturbances on the east, for in his later years we
find him involved again in war with Sussex, and troubles
and sorrows arose on every side. Whether the loss of his
dear friend and coadjutor Aldhelm had anything to do with
the apparent decay of material prosperity cannot be known ;
we must pause, however, to notice the last days of this
excellent man.
Aldhelm was a bishop of the Apostolic type. He sedulously
visited all parts of his diocese, which at the west was but ill-
defined, but certainly included the greater part of Somerset.
At a council of the Saxon Church, which was held a.d. 70c,
Aldhelm was commissioned to write a letter to Geraint
of Cornwall, to exhort him to adopt the Roman rule for
Easter, &c. In this letter he refers to the unchristian hatred
shown by the Britons of West Wales (as the Saxons called
the western peninsula) to the Saxons. They would not pray
in the same church or eat at the same table with a Saxon.
They would throw the food a Saxon had cooked to the
dogs, and rinse the cup a Saxon had used Avith sand or
ashes before they would drink out of it ; if a Saxon went
to sojourn among them, they put him to a penance or
quarantine of forty days before they would show him any
kindness or act of good neighbourhood. Of this Aldhelm
complains, as a man of peace and charity might complain.
He acknowledges that the Welsh Christians held all the
doctrines of the Catholic faith, but tells them that their
want of charity will destroy the benefit they would other-
wise receive from it. His earnestness and Ina's measures
of conciliation seem to have had the desired effect.
94 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
It was in the year 709, as Aldhelm was making a visita-
tion of his diocese, that he was attacked by sudden illness.
Finding that his end was near, he desired his attendants to
remove him into the nearest village church, which was a
little wooden edifice at Doulting, near Shepton-Mallet, in
Somerset, where, commending his soul to God, he tranquilly
breathed his last.^
With Aldhelm's death Ina's prosperity seems to have
waned. Wars and rumours of wars troubled him. In 710
he had to fight against Geraint ; then with Ceolred at Wan-
borough, in Wiltshire. In 718 he lost his brother Ingild.
In 722 he was called again into Sussex to fight against the
South Saxons. While there Ealbert the Etheling, whom he
had before banished, seized the town of Taunton and held
the castle; but his Queen Ethelburga was equal to the
occasion. She drove him out and razed the castle to the
crround. In 726 Ealbert was killed by Ina whilst fighting
in Sussex.
And now we come to the closing scene of the great
king's reign. His wife Ethelburga was continually urging
upo°n him°the necessity of bidding adieu to earthly things,
and the king as constantly deferring the execution of her
advice ; at last she endeavoured to overcome him by strata-
gem. They had been holding high festival at one of their
country seats, and on their departure the queen gave express
' The wooden church in which St. Aldhelm died has been replaced
by a cruciform structure, of which the tower is thirteenth century, the
iiave transitional, and the chancel Decorated. Near the church stands
a fine barn, formerly belonging to the monks of GJ^f nb,^>-y- ^^ '^^
churchyard is a cross. Near the church is St. Aldhelm s ^^^ell, the
source of the River Sheppey. Here also are the quarries of which
mention has been made before.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 95
orders to one of the attendants to defile the palace in every
possible way, and, lastly, to put a sow with her young in the
very bed they had lain. Then, when they had proceeded
some way on their journey, she persuaded her husband to
return, saying that his denial would be attended with
dangerous consequences.
" Her petition being readily granted, the king was aston-
ished at seeing a place, which yesterday might have vied
with Assyrian luxury, now disgusting and desolate, and,
silently pondering over the sight, his eyes at length turned
upon the queen. Seizing the opportunity, and pleasantly
smiling, she said : ' My noble spouse, where are the
revellings of yesterday? Where the tapestries dipped in
Sidonian dyes ? Where the ceaseless importunities of para-
sites? Where the sculptured vessels, overwhelming the
very tables with their weight of gold ? Where are the
delicacies so anxiously sought throughout sea and land to
pamper the appetite ? Are not all these things smoke and
vapour? Have they nut all passed away? Woe be to
those who attach themselves to such, for they in like manner
shall consume away. Are not all these like a rapid river
hastening to the sea ? And woe to those who are attached
to them, for they shall be carried away by the current.
Reflect, I entreat you, how wretchedly will these bodies
decay, which we pamper with such unbounded luxury.
The mighty must undergo mightier torments, and a severer
trial awaits the strong." Without saying more, by this
striking example she gained over her husband to these
sentiments, which she had in vain attempted for years by
persuasion.
96 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
'' For after his triumphal spoils in war, after many succes-
sive degrees in virtue, he aspired to the highest perfection
and went to Rome. There, not to make the glory of his
conversion public, but that he might be acceptable in the
sight of God alone, he was shorn in secret ; and, clad in
homely garb, grew old in privacy. Nor did his queen, the
author of this noble deed, desert him ; but, as she had
before incited him to undertake it, so afterwards she made
it her constant care to soothe his sorrows by her conversation,
to stimulate him when wavering by her example ; in short,
to omit nothing that was conducive to his salvation. Thus
united in mutual affection, in due time they trod the
common path of all mankind. This was attended, as we
have heard, with singular miracles, such as God often deigns
to bestow on the virtues of happy couples." ^
One is rather apt to think that Ethelburga's eloquent
speech may owe something to William of Malmesbury's
own pen ; in fact, the whole story may have been a little
worked up in the course of three hundred years, but the
main fact is certain, that Ina and his wife ended their days
at Rome. They probably found a strong interest there in
watching over the English school that Ina had established
in that city, in advising and guarding the young Saxons sent
there to study, and in wisely laying out the sums which
came from England, the proceeds of a penny tax which Ina
had himself established upon every hearth, worth twenty,
some say thirty, pence, towards the expenses of this college.
That this tax degenerated into the oppressive burden of
Peter's pence, claimed as a right by the Popes, was not the
» William of Malmesbuiy.
KING INA IN SOMERSET. 97
fault of Ina. His school, or college, was founded for the
"higher education" of his younger subjects.
Such is, as far as can be gathered, the career of this
large-minded and pious prince. Though his life possesses
little of the legendary and dramatic effects which make
Arthur and Alfred's connection with our county so remark-
able, yet he appears worthy to take his place by their side.
Indeed, he forms a connecting link between the British and
Saxon occupation of the land, and deserved well of both,
as seeking to weld the differing races into one people. He
deserves more than the mere mention of his name, which
is all that most historians accord him.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury; Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle ; Speed ; Churton's Early English Church ;.
local histories.
8
3t. CoNQAI^ and CoNQI^EgBURY.
(Circa 711.)
According to ancient legend, Congresbury derives its name
from St. Congar, a religious hermit, son of one of the
emperors of the East. He is stated by Cressey, in his
Church History, to have stolen away privately in a mean
■habit from the imperial court of Constantinople, in order
to avoid a marriage enjoined by his parents. After travelling
through Italy and France, he came into Britain, and finding
this spot, in the dreary marshes of the Yeo— then part of the
kingdom of Ina— very suitable to his purpose, being sur-
rounded by water, reeds, and woods, he settled upon it,
built himself an habitation, and afterwards an oratory to the
honour of the Holy Trinity. King Ina bestowed on him
the little territory around his cell, wherein he instituted
twelve canons, and taught, according to Capgrave, both
English and Welsh, assisting the king, therefore, in his great
desire to unite the races.
After settling his priory he went on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, where he died. His body was brought back
and buried at Congresbury.
ST. CONGAR AND CONGRESBURY. 99
It is remarkable that St. Congar finds no place in Alban
Butler's " Lives of the Saints." Two reasons may be given
for this, of which the reader may choose which he prefers.
Butler, as an earnest, though most enlightened, member of
the Romish Church, may have declined to insert an obscure
member of the Eastern Church, or — he may have doubted
St. Congar's existence; for, alas ! modern etymology declares
that Congresbury takes its name, not from a Saint, but from
Koenig, King ; and that it is but another form of Kingstown,
or Kingston.
CONGRESBURY AND PUXTON.
But, besides its Saint, Congresbury, in conjunction with
the adjoining parish of Puxton, is remarkable for a peculiar
old custom, which was followed till within the last few
years. Two large pieces of common in these parishes were
called East and West Dolemoors, from the Saxon Dol,
share or portion. This land was divided into single acres,
each bearing a peculiar mark cut in the turf, such as a horn,
an ox, a horse, a cross, an oven, &c.
On the Saturday before Old Midsummer Day, the
several proprietors of contiguous estates, or their tenants,
assembled at these commons, with a number of apples
marked with similar figures, which were distributed by a
boy to each of the commoners from a bag. At the close of
the distribution, each person repaired to the allotment with
the figure corresponding to the one upon his apple, and
took possession of that piece of land for the ensuing year.
lOO MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Four acres were reserved to pay the expenses of an enter-
tainment at the house of the overseer of the Dolemoors,
where the evening was spent in festivity.
Authorities.— Capgrave; Rutter's Dehneations of
Somerset.
From the reign of Ina to that of Egbert is just a hundred
years. Somerset in that time had become Saxon, and was
assisting to build up the great kingdom of Wessex ; it now
formed, not a barrier, as in Arthur's days, but a connecting
Hnk between the opposing races which were gradually
assimilating and coalescing.
Hun, the J_(EyvDE^ oy the
AT THE BATTLE OF ELLANDUNE.
(A.D. 824.)
-:o:-
The Battle of Ellandune deserves record as one of "the
decisive battles of the world," for on its fate depended
which of the rival Anglo-Saxon dynasties should occupy the
throne of a united England. Egbert, fourth in descent
from Ingild, brother of Ina, became King of Wessex, after
a life of some vicissitudes. Chased into banishment by the
jealousy of Berhtric, the king, who dreaded his popularity,
he took refuge at the court of Charlemagne, and learned
from him the policy of uniting and building up, instead of
disintegrating, an empire. He was at Rome with him when
Leo III. crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the West.
Recalled to England on the death of Berhtric, he resolutely
kept before him the aim of uniting the jarring elements
which brought war and confusion into our county, and
forming a strong government and a united people. Every
state was at war with one or more of its neighbours, and
I02 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
wherever Egbert's kingdom was touched by another, he had
sooner or later to defend his territories ; but wherever he
turned his arms he was successful.
One kingdom alone could vie with his own, and that was
Mercia, and a desperate struggle soon took place between
the two states. At Ellandune, now Wilton in Wiltshire
(showing how far the Mercians were the aggressors), the
armies met, and Beornwulf, king of Mercia, was defeated
and fled. Shortly afterwards Egbert received the submission
of the other states, and from that time the ascendency of
Wessex was never disputed ; and so it is that, though as a
matter of fact the title is by no means strictly correct, yet
from 827, when the last state yielded to his dominion,
Egbert has been looked upon as the last of the Bretwaldas
and the first king of all England.
We may therefore consider that the Battle of Ellandune
was to the British Empire what Plassy was to our Indian
Empire. But what has all this to do with Somerset?
Ellandune is in Wiltshire. True, most true, but now for
the connection. Not far from Burnham, a town at the
mouth of the river Brue, on which Glastonbury also
stands, but on the opposite side of the river, is a place
called Huntspill ; this place is said to have taken its name
from Hun, the Alderman, or Ealdorman, of the Sumors^tas.
He led his men to the great battle of Ellandune— now
Wilton, near Salisbury— and there he fell : one of those brave
men who, all unconsciously, were building up the mightiest
empire on which the sun has ever shone. It was probably his
birthplace, and, after the great fight was over, we may
imagine his faithful Sumorssetans bearing back the body of
HUN, THE LEADER OF THE SUMORSiETAS. IO3
their brave leader to rest in his native place. It is all
we know of Hun — but his name, and his birthplace, and his
death, would not have been recorded, had he not been a
man to be both loved and feared in his day.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Freeman's Old
English History ; Murray's Handbook.
Ki^Q Alfred ip^ go^^^^^"^ ^^° '^"^
Leqend of ^t. Neot.
(A.D. 848-901.)
In the early history of Alfred, as well as in that of his father
Ethelwulf and his mother Osburga, are related various inci-
dents, which it is difficult to reconcile with known historical
facts. To make legend assist histor)', and out of apparent
contradictions to form a consistent whole, and at the same
time to mark the connection of the most picturesque inci-
dents in the life of the greatest of our kings, with Somerset,
is the object of this paper. The difficulties to which refe-
rence has been made, and which are slurred over or inade-
quately explained by historians, are as follows. First, the
personality of the young Sub-Regulus Athelstane, whose
disappearance after the battle of Sandwich in 85 1 is not
satisfactorily accounted for, and who is variously described
as brother or son of Ethelwulf. Secondly, the dropping
out of Osburga's name in histor>-, and its reappearance in
the tale of Alfred's first learning to read, and of his refuge
at Athelney in Somerset. (Historians, by the way, get over
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 105
this last difficulty by substituting his wife for his mother.)
Thirdly, the marriage of Ethehvulf and Judith, and conse-
quent rebellion of Ethelbald ; and, Fourthly, the identity of
Prince or King Athelstane with Alfred's friend and spiritual
adviser, St. Neot.
To make the story clear, it will be necessary to go back to
the days of the great King Egbert. Egbert had two sons :
the eldest — whose name presumably was Athelstane — died,
and the heir to the throne was Ethehvulf, who had been
brought up as an ecclesiastic, if not as a monk ; he had
been appointed, if not actually consecrated, to the Bishopric
of Winchester. On the death of his brother, however, a
release from his vows was asked and obtained. Ethehvulf
returned to the world, and married Osburga, daughter to
the king's butler, and was put in possession of the kingdom
of Kent (consisting of Kent, Sussex, and part of Surrey),
which was then looked upon as the appanage of the heir to
the throne. At the death of Egbert he succeeded to the
throne of VVessex and the over-lordship of the rest of Britain,
resigning Kent to his eldest son Athelstane.
I cannot resist here giving Ethelwulf's genealogy as it is
to be seen in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Ethehvulf was
the son of Egbert, Egbert of Elmund, of Eafa, of Eoppa, of
Ingild; Ingild was Ina's brother. King of the West Saxons,
he who held the kingdom thirty-seven years, and afterwards
went to St. Peter and there resigned his life, and they were
the sons of Kenred, of Ceolwald, of Cutha, of Cuthwin, of
Ceawlin, of Cynric, of Cerdic, of Elesa, of Esla, of Gewis,
of Wig, of Freawin, of Frithogar, of Brond, of Beldcg, of
Woden, of Frithowald, of Frealaf, of Frithuwulf, of Finn, of
I06 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Godwulf, of Geat, of Toetwa, of Beaw, of Sceldi, of Heremod,
of Itermon, of Hathra, of Guala, of Bedwig, of Sceaf, that is
the son of Noah : he was born in NoaUs ark ; Lamech,
Methusalem, Enoh, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainion, Enos, Seth,
Adam the first man, and our Father, that is Christ. Amen.
The young Sub-Regulus was, hke his grandfather, of
small stature, but he had withal a brave soul and a large
heart. The Danes were making their piratical raids on the
country. In 835 they had, in conjunction with the West
Welsh (the Britons of the South-Western Peninsula), invaded
Wessex ; they were put to flight by Egbert, but he died the
following year. From this period, year after year, we read
of the incursions of these barbarians. In 845 "the Army," as it
is always called in the Saxon Chronicle, landed at the mouth
of the Parret, near Bridgewater ; they were valiandy with-
stood by the Sumorssetans under their Ealdorman, and the
men of Dorset under Bishop Ealstan of Sherborne, and their
Ealdorman. The Danes were defeated, and the West
Saxons gained a complete victory.
But these ruthless invaders were repulsed at one point
only to appear again at another ; and in the year 85 1 they
appeared on the Kentish coast ; the young King Athelstane
flew to defend his charge. Willing to save his kingdom
from fire and sword, he fought the first naval battle on
record since the time of Carausius. He went out to meet
them on their own element, slew a great number of the
enemy, put the others to flight, and took nine of their ships.
But, alas ! in spite of his victory, we are told that for the
first time they wintered in Kent. Was it as a mark of
gratitude to the God of battles, who had given him this
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 107
great victory, or was it disappointment at the small results
of it, that caused Athelstane in the flush of his triumph to
dedicate himself entirely to God's service, forsaking the
world, its pleasures and its troubles, its duties and its
rewards ? He left his father, his kindred, his military glory,
and his succession to the Crown ; and retiring to the Abbey
of Glastonbury, chose for himself the humble and toilsome,
yet peaceful duties of a simple monk. In order to prevent
any special respect being paid to him on account of his
rank, he dropped his own name and assumed that of
Neotus. How Athelstane won over his father to consent to
his taking the vows from which Ethelwulf himself had been
released, does not appear ; he may possibly have stolen
away, and that may account for the mysterious silence which
history maintains with regard to him after his victory at
Sandwich. It may be that he pleaded earnestly with both
his father and mother, that he dwelt on the happiness of
giving up the world, and devoting himself in his youth to
the service of his Creator and Redeemer ; that he touched
probably upon the examples of his ancestor, Coedwalla, of
Ina and his wife Ethelburga, who gave up their thrones, and,
making a pilgrimage to Rome, there died. Such pleadings
may have had, and probably would have, great effect upon
Osburga and Ethelwulf And now Osburga disappears
from authentic history. What can be more likely — especi-
ally by the light of what followed — than that she, like Ethel-
burga, the wife of Ina, determined to retire from the world ?
And that she should feel specially drawn towards Somerset,
where her first-born had betaken himself, was only natural.
At the same time, her youngest son Alfred, a child of rare
I08 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
promise, was sent to Rome with an honourable escort of
both nobles and commons. Here he remained till after his
father's death. In 855 Ethel wulf himself set out in great
state for the Eternal City, and there can be little doubt that
he went with the idea of resigning the world, and re-dedi-
cating himself to a religious life. At Rome he would find
his little son, who, though receiving no special instruction,
must have had, from all he saw and heard, his remarkable
intelligence ripened and his mind opened by all the wonders
that he beheld.
But, in passing through France, Ethelwulf paid a visit to
the Court of Charles the Bald, emperor and king, and there
saw his beautiful and bewitching daughter. But she could
not be for him. Osburga was still alive ; he himself was—
all but— revowed to a monastic life. But he could not
forget her, and, as he continued his journey, he probably
warped his own mind by the specious argument that, as
Osburga was dead to the world, she was dead to him ; that,
as he had been released from his ecclesiastical, he might also
be from his matrimonial vows. He hastened on to Rome.
Did he equivocate ? Did he mystify Pope Leo ? or, did he
bribe him to ask no questions by offering to settle on the
Church the tenth part of the royal demesnes ? Certain it is
that he returned through France, and that he married Judith,
and carried her to England. The marriage was solemnized
by Hincmar, Bishop of Rheims. The laxity of the French
kings with regard to their marriage vows was so great that it
is likely enough that neither king nor bishop saw any reason
for objecting.
But the news of the old man's crime and folly had gone
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. I09
before hini.^ Ethelbald, who had looked upon his imme-
diate succession to the throne as certain and imminent,
found his father returning again to claim it, and as if to
justify his unnatural rebellion, was insulting his mother by
bringing another wife to take her place. He set up his
standard, and was joined by Ealstan, Bishop of Sherborne,
and Eanwulf, Earl of the Sumorssetans. Ethelwulf knew
himself to be verily guilty, and from the very weakness and
gentleness of his nature shrank from bringing on the land
the horrors of civil war ; he offered, therefore, as a com-
promise, to exchange kingdoms with his son, and he retired
to the little kingdom of Kent. One thing only was he
determined upon. The doting old man, probably incited
thereto by Judith, insisted on her holding the position of
queen, a dignity to which Osburga had never aspired, as it
was against the Anglo-Saxon laws. Ethelwulf survived his
ill-omened marriage only two years, and Ethelbald, treating
her former marriage as a thing of nought, took the shame-
less siren Judith as his wife.
Meanwhile Alfred remained at Rome; and when the
Pope heard of his father's death, he confirmed Alfred, who
was his godson, and at the same time, with a prophetic
instinct, anointed him king. It was probably after this that
Alfred returned to England, being then betw^een eight and
nine years old.
Osburga, in her retreat in Somerset, gathered her sons at
' It is fair to say that Osburga's dedication to a religious life and the
motiz'e for Ethelwulfs journey to Rome are purely conjectural ; but, if
this view is accepted, it would remove all the puzzling difficulties and
account for such loyal subjects as Ealstan and Eanwulf joining in Ethel-
bald's rebellion.
no MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
times around her, especially the two younger, Ethelred and
Alfred, and the impression of her teaching, and that of St.
Neot, was seen in the saintliness of Ethelred and the
.public and private virtues of Alfred's whole life. To this
time, then, we may refer the tale of Alfred's being incited to
read by his mother. Ethelbald, in his bold defiance of the
laws of God and man, she would weep over and pray for.
Ethelbert had succeeded to his brother's and father's king-
dom of Kent, and was therefore far removed from her ; but
to these younger ones she might devote herself, and she saw
in Alfred a character unsuited for the retirement of the
cloister, and yet far too lofty to spend his energies in nought
but hunting and fighting. So she encouraged him to study ;
and, though his difficulties at that time were great, more
especially in finding teachers, yet his energetic spirit over-
came them all. During the reigns of Ethelbald and Ethelbert
it seems probable that Alfred spent great part of his time in
Somerset, dividing his time between study, devotion, and
the chase, of which latter, like all his race— even the saintly
Confessor— he was passionately fond, and which he could
enjoy to the full on the Mendip hills or in the wild woods
of Exmoor.
But it is time to return to St. Neot— once Athelstane—
who was destined to have so great an influence on the life
of his more famous brother. At Glastonbury he studied
and prayed, and became famous for his learning and piety.
He would rise at the dead of night, and, leaving his hard
pallet bed, would offer praise and thanksgiving, mingled
with intercessions for his country and those he held dear ;
and, that none might know of these extraordinary devotions,
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET, III
he would change his garments, disguising himself as the
meanest of secular penitents. Thus watching till daybreak
in the church, he would then steal back to his cell and
resume his ordinary habit. Step by step he set himself to
climb the path of holiness ; he strove to gather from each
person with whom he came in contact the particular virtue
for which they were most esteemed. The fame of his piety
was so great that it reached to the bishop of the diocese,
who sent for him and insisted on his undertaking the office
of deacon; and after this he was appointed sacristan.
Before the usual time of probation he was raised to the
priesthood ; and he then, knowing it was the priest's office
to teach, went about amongst the people. They flocked to
him for advice, and none who sought him ever went away
empty. His sympathy, too, was ever ready to " weep with
those that wept," whilst at the same he " rejoiced with those
that rejoiced."
About this time occurred the first miracle we find recorded
in the life of this saint. It was the custom of the monks at
midday to retire to their cells for private prayer and medi-
tation; or it may be for sleep, as their night's rest was
disturbed by keeping " the hours." At this time no com-
munication whatever was allowed between the brethren.
Neot, who was the porter, and whose cell, therefore, was
nearest the monastery gate, was disturbed one day by a
violent knockmg ; on repairing to the gate to learn the
cause, he found a person, who might not be refused, in
haste for admittance. He hurried to the gate, but not
having with him his iron stool, which on account of his
small stature he used when celebrating mass, he could not
112 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
reach the lock. In great distress he hfted up his heart,
when the lock gently slid down to the level of his girdle,
and he was enabled to open it without further difficulty.
The lock ever continued in the same place, and people
flocked from all parts to see it in its new position. William
of Malmesbury, three hundred years afterwards, testifies to
having seen in loco both the lock and also the iron stool.
But again was the saint called, for the love of God and
the promotion of His glory, to tear himself from all he held
most dear ; he was selected as a missionary to the West
Welsh of Cornwall, to endeavour at once to reconcile the
British Church to the Saxon, and also to rouse the slumber-
ing faith of the people, who, cut off as they were in the
narrow peninsula from Briton and Saxon alike, had appa-
rently fallen into a state somewhat resembling the apathy
and semi-infidelity from which they were aroused in the last
century by the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield. He
was called upon by external authority to leave the glassy isle
which had been his home for so many years, and, taking his
pilgrim's staff, and accompanied by his faithful servant
Barius, he left the stately monastery embosomed in fair
orchards, looking bright and peaceful as it lay in the sheen
of the summer sun, with the (then) not far distant murmur
of the Severn sea,^ and made his way across the rich plams
of Somerset.
Thence we may follow him, climbing (it may be) the
glorious mass of Dunkery Beacon, glowing with its gorgeous
tapestry of purple heath and golden gorse, from whose sum-
- The sea at that part of Somerset has receded greatly within the last
few centuries.
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. I I3
mit the eye can discover sixteen counties ; one last loving
look he took over the fair kingdom of Wessex, and strained
his sight eastward towards his own dear land of Kent, though
in imagination only could his eyes pierce the distance. His
past life seemed spread out before him — the early days when
he was his father's heir, his young brothers growing up around
him — the troubles that gathered on his country — his famous
victory at Sandwich — then, gradually, his mind and eye
came home again to what had been his resting-place and
home of later years ; a happy time of praise, and prayer,
and earnest work ; and with one last loving, lingering
look at Glastonbury, that home of heroes and of saints, he-
resolutely turned away, and crossing the Exmoor Forest —
still, even now, the home of the red deer and the blackcock
— he passed the beautiful district of North Devon, and
made for the wild Cornish moors, where he settled, as
directed by a vision, on a spot formerly inhabited by the
good St. Guerryer, but henceforth through all time to be
known as St. Neots.
Here we must leave him,^ for the life of St. Neot is no
further connected with Somerset, save as it affects the life of
Alfred. The deaths of Ethelbald and Ethelbert placed Ethel-
red on the throne, and this drew Alfred from retirement ; for,
though he does not appear to have been appointed Sub-
Regulus of Kent, yet it became his duty to assist his brother
' Those who wish to continue the life and legends of St. Neot may-
consult Hunt's " Popular Romances of the West of England " ; Butler's
"Lives of the Saints"; Whitaker's "Cathedral of Cormv.'iH " ;
Gorham's " History of St. Neot " ; or, "The Lives of English Saints,"
published by Toovey.
114 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
in his defence of the country against the Danes. In one
year nine pitched battles were fought against these marauders.
But the greatest fight was that at Ashdown, or Essendune.
The combatants were parted by night coming on. As
morning dawned, Alfred was ready at his post, but the king
lingered at his devotions, nor would he hurry them, although
urged by a message from his brother that the heathen were
rushing forward with unbounded fury. The English were
giving way, and even bordering on flight, for the heathen
were pressing down upon them from the higher ground,
when the king himself, signed with the cross of God, un-
expectedly hastened forward, dispersing the enemy and
rallying his subjects. The Danes, terrified equally by his
courage and by the Divine manifestation, consulted their
safety by flight. Here fell Oseg their king, five earls, and
an innumerable multitude of common people. But the
struggle was too harassing to be continued, and Ethelred,
worn down with numberless labours, died and was buried
at Wimborne, in Dorset.
It was in the following year, 871, that Alfred, a youth of
twenty-one, succeeded to the toilsome labour of guiding the
helm of the State. Ardent, impetuous, even cruel— it is
said— in his vengeance on his enemies, yet with cultivated
tastes, he despised the slow minds and sensual habits of his
subjects, and took no care to conceal his contempt for them.
For nine years the struggle with the enemy was continued,
and at last was so far successful that the Danes left Wessex,
and, crossing the Thames, visited London, Mercia, and
East Anglia. And now came a pause and a period of com-
parative rest; but Alfred, instead of striving to heal the
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. II5
wounds of his suffering people, and comfort them in their
afflictions, showed naught but disgust at their ignorance and
their evil habits and coarse tastes ; he would not listen to his
subjects' complaints, nor help them in their necessities, or
grant them relief from their oppressors ; instead of this he
repulsed them, and paid no heed to their distress. It was
not unnatural that Alfred should compare, to their disad-
vantage, his own pure and stainless life with the low animal
pleasures of his people ; but he was not left without warn-
ing, and his impatience and self-righteousness were re-
buked.
It was some years since Alfred had visited his brother —
who now, indeed, by his retirement into Cornwall, was
removed farther from him— possibly he shrank from meeting
the stern and unsparing criticism of that true friend ; but at
last he betook himself once more to him for friendship and
counsel. In the interim St. Neot had visited Rome; he
had left his solitary cell and founded a monastery. It was
nine years since the brothers had met, and Neot, though
receiving Alfred honourably as his sovereign, and lovingly
as his brother, reproved him sharply, " for he grieved from
the bottom of his heart " for his sin, and his prophetic spirit
foretold what must befall him as a recompense for his pride
of heart ; nevertheless, he regarded not the reproof of the
man of God, and refused to receive his words. Yet his
conscience must have been awakened, for he went to his
house in awe and great fear, and from that time came
frequently to see the saint, and seek from him advice and
counsel. At last came the last earthly interview, and the
prophecy of final vengeance.
Il6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" Thou seest, O King ! " said St. Neot, " what now thou
sufterest from thine enemies, and thou shalt suffer more
hereafter ; for in thy kingdom thou art proud and tyrannical,
whereas before the eyes of the Divine Majesty thou oughtest
rather, with the King and Prophet David, to have shown
thyself meek and humble. Therefore, by a foreign nation
that knoweth not Christ, thou shalt be driven thence.
Alone shalt thou escape from thine enemies, and shall be
concealed under the hands of God, and so for thy sins shalt
thou remain many days. Nevertheless I have obtained for
thee, by my prayers, that if thou wilt turn from thme
iniquities God will yet have mercy on thee, and restore thee
to thy state and sceptre ; and behold I go the way of all
flesh, but when Divine Providence shall have fulfilled its
purpose concerning thee, and shall have rightly punished
thee for thy misdeeds, then be thou of good heart, and put
thy trust in Him who rulest all things, and pray for His
assistance, and Almighty God shall hear thy prayers and
restore thee again to thy place."
And so it came to pass ; Alfred had ahenated the love of
his subjects ; and when, in the year 878, the Danes made a
sudden irruption into Wiltshire and the adjoining districts,
some of the inhabitants submitted; others fled into the Isle
of Wight ; and Alfred, deserted by ah save a small band of
trusty^'followers, found himself driven to take refuge in the
marshes formed by the confluence of the Thone and the
Parret; and on a spot slightly elevated above the surround-
ing country, since called the Isle of Athelney, he took
refuge for several months. Yet in this, his deepest dis-
tress, William of Malmesbury tells us the people of
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. II7
Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somerset, "held fast by their
allegiance."
We are not told how he disposed of his wife, Elswitha,
and their children at this time ; but evidently for the greater
security — perhaps of both — he was alone, save for his aged
mother, Osburga. It is likely enough that the Danes had
destroyed the religious home in which she had taken refuge ;
at any rate, here we find her with him in Athelney. It was
perhaps before his mother joined him that the episode of
Alfred and the cakes took place, which has been repeated
ad nauseam — and yet which must be told again amongst the
legends of Somerset — though legend it scarcely is, for it
appears in the pages of that most scrupulously truthful of all
historians, Asser, in his Life of Alfred. We give it in his
own words : —
" At the same time the above-named Alfred, King of
the West Saxons, with a few of his nobles, and certain
soldiers and vassals, used to lead an unquiet life among
the woodlands of the county of Somerset in great tribu-
lation ; for he had none of the necessaries of life, except
what he could forage openly or stealthily, by frequent
sallies, from the Pagans, or even from the Christians
who had submitted to the rule of the Pagans, and, as
we read in the Life of St. Neot, at the house of one of
his cowherds.
" But it happened, on a certain day, that the country-
woman, wife of the cowherd, was preparing some loaves to
bake, and the king, sitting at the hearth, made ready his
bow and arrows and other war-like instruments. The un-
lucky woman, espying the cakes burning at the fire, ran up
Il8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to remove them, and, rebuking the brave king, exclaimed—
" ' Ca'sn thee mind the ke-aks, man ; an' doossen zee 'em bum ?
I'm bdun thee's eat 'em vast enough, az zoon az tiz the turn.' '
" The blundering woman little thought that it was King
Alfred, who had fought so many battles against the Pagans,
and gained so many victories over them."
Alfred bore her threats and abuse meekly ; it was part of
his penance, he thought, and the woman must have soon
learnt her mistake, if, as some say, her husband was the
swineherd Denewulf, who, after receiving some training and
education, became Bishop either of Sherborne or Winchester.
In the times when Alfred could scarce find a priest south of
the Thames who could read his own breviary,^ supposing
him to have been a pious and godly man, the thing is not
so extraordinary as it appears at first sight ; but all this was ,
mended in the king's later years.
Whilst Alfred remained in this enforced seclusion at
Athelney, he thought much, studied much, and prayed
much. The second book which he studied (the first being
the illuminated book of poems given him by his mother)
was a volume containing a selection from the Psalms, with
the daily prayers according to the ancient usages of the
Church ; and the perusal of this volume, which he always
carried in his bosom, afforded him, we are told, constant
comfort and support. But the time was now come when
' In a note to Dr. Giles' translation of Asser's " Life of Alfred," he
says the original is in Latin verse ; it may, therefore, be rendered into
English verse such as every housewife in Somersetshire would understand.
^''it must be remembered that the incursions of the Danes had
destroyed the Monastic Schools.
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. II9
this great and good man was to emerge from the fire of
affliction, and, hke gold seven times tried in the fire, was to
appear purified from earthly dross, and shining with a clear
and undimmed light in the world.
It became graduall}^ whispered about, amongst those who
remained faithful, where Alfred was ; and the men of
Somerset gathered around him. Then he built a fort at
Athelney, and from here he sallied out, when he had the
opportunity, and made frequent attacks upon the Pagans.
But as the numbers of his followers increased it became
more and more difficult to supply them with food, the
Danes having eaten up or destroyed all the produce of both
field and fold. Wild fowl and fish from the meres was all
that could be found, and that only in scant measure.
Now it happened one day that all his followers had
scattered themselves in search of necessary supplies, and he
and his mother were in the fort alone, when a poor man
came to the door begging an alms. They wondered much
how he could have found his way to this secluded and
jealously-guarded spot. Osburga told him that they were
as poor as he was ; but the king, who was reading, desired
his mother to give him bread. She answered that they had
but one loaf left to them, which would not suffice them for
provision for the day, yet he prayed her to give half of it to
the man, bidding her trust in Him who had fed the five
thousand with five loaves and two fishes.
As they were awaiting the return of their companions, both
Alfred and his mother lay down to rest, and as they slept
the same vision appeared to each of them. Cuthbert,
former bishop of Lindisfarne, appeared, and thus addressed
I20 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the king : " I am Cuthbert,^ if ever you heard of me ; God
hath sent me to announce good fortune to you ; and smce
England has nearly paid the penalty of her crimes, God
now, through the merits of her native saints, looks upon
her with an eye of mercy. You, too, so pitiably banished
from your native kingdom, shall shortly be again seated with
honour on your throne, of which I give you this extra-
ordinary token : your fishers shall this day bring home a great
quantity of fish in baskets, which will be so much the more
extraordinary because the river, at this time hard-bound with
ice, could warrant no such expectation, especially as the air,
now dripping with cold rain, mocks the art of the fisher.
But when your fortune shall succeed to your wishes, you
will act as becomes a king if you conciliate God, your
helper, and me, His messenger, with suitable devotion."
Saying this, the saint divested the sleeping king of his
anxiety, and comforted his mother also with the same joyful
intelligence. When they awoke, they repeatedly declared
that each had had the self-same dream, when the fishermen,
entering, displayed such a multitude of fishes as would have
been sufficient to satisfy the appetite of a numerous army.
But the vision was to receive a still more glorious fulfil-
ment. News was brought that Hubba, the fierce Danish
leader, with twenty-three ships, after much slaughter of the
Christians, had come from the country of Demetia (South
Wales,)^ and sailed to Devon, where, with twelve hundred
' It is remarked as a sort of confirmation of this legend that a church
in Wells is dedicated to St. Cuthbert, a north-countr>' saint. ( Vide
Freeman's "Old English History.")
= Asser. It should be noticed that Asser, himself a Briton, never of
course speaks of Wales or the Welsh, for he could scarcely allow them
to be foreigners. He generally makes no distinction, save that of
Pagans and Christians.
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 121
Others, he met with a miserable death, being slain while
committing his misdeeds, by the king's servants, before the
Castle of Cynuit (Knywith, on the River Taw), into which
many of the king's servants, with their followers, had fled
for safety. The Pagans, seeing that the castle was altogether
unprepared and unfortified, except that it had walls in its
own fashion, determined not to assault it, because it was
impregnable and secure on all sides except the eastern, as-
we ourselves have seen, but they began to blockade it,
thinking that those who were inside would soon surrender
either from famine or want of water, for the castle had no
spring near it.
But the result did not fall out as they expected ; for the
Christians, before they began to suffer from want, inspired
from Heaven, judging it much better to gain victory or death,
attacked the Pagans suddenly in the morning, and from the
first cut them down in great numbers, slaying also their
king, so that few escaped to their ships, and there they
gained a very large booty, and, amongst other things, the
standard called Raven ; for they say that the three sisters
of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobrok,^ wove
that flag, and got it ready in one day. They say, moreover,
that in every battle, wherever that flag went before them, if
they were to gain the victory a live crow (? raven) would
appear flying on the middle of the flag ; but, if they were
doomed to be defeated, it would hang down motionless.
And this was often proved to be so.
Great, therefore, was the dismay amongst the Danes when
they heard of this terrible disaster — of the loss of men and
' Leather breeches.
122 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
leaders; but, above all, of their magic banner. In a
corresponding degree were the hearts of the English raised.
And now awoke the cry for Alfred, their king ; he knew well
that this was the moment to take advantage of the Danes'
dismay ; and, besides, had not St. Cuthbert promised him
success ? So, sending his faithful followers secretly in every
direction to gather together the men of Hampshire, Wilt-
shire, and Dorset, he made a tryst to meet them with his
faithful Sumors^tas at " Petra ^gbryhta," Egbert's Stone,'
which was on the borders of Selwood Forest, which means
in Latin Si/va Magna, the great wood, but known in British
as Coit-Mawr.
Meanwhile, determining to do nothing rashly, he would
learn something of the state of the Danes and the watch
they kept ; so disguising himself as a glee-man, and takmg
his harp (of which he was as fond as King David), he started
alone for their camp, which was in another part of Selwood
Forest. He easily gained admittance, and, assuming the
character of a Danish scald or bard, delighted these fierce
men by singing them their favourite war-songs. Whilst he
stayed there for some days, he went from tent to tent
watching and carefully noting their entrenchments, the
position of their leaders, the careless watch they kept, &c.,
&c. Having carefully observed all that he required to
know, he made his way back to Athelney, and, assembling
his companions, pointed out the indolence of the enemy,
and the easiness of their defeat ; he then joined the rest of
his army at ^Egbryht's Stone. It was now nearly Whitsun-
tide; and from thence he went to Iglea, or Iley. Here
» Now called Brixton Deverill.
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 1 23
they halted for the night, and, as Alfred lay in his tent, his
anxious mind not letting him rest, St. Neot appeared to
him; his form was as an angel of God; his countenance
beaming with glory ; his raiment white as the driven snow.
He thus addressed him : '■ Rise up in haste and prepare
for victory. When thou camest hither I was with thee — I
supported thee. Now, therefore, on the morrow, go forth,
thou and thy men of war, to the fight, and the Lord shall
be with you — even the Lord strong and mighty — the Lord
mighty in battle, who giveth victory to kings. And, behold,
I go before you to the battle, and thine enemies shall fall
by thy arm before mine eyes, and thou shalt smite them
with the edge of the sword."
The Danes were at Ethandune (we do not know for
certain the exact spot ; three places are mentioned by
different authors, but all agree that it was not in Wiltshire,
but on the borders of Somerset), and were in careless
security ; so rapid and energetic had been Alfred's move-
ments that he himself brought the tidings of the rising.
The morning mist hung over the camp ; not a watch-dog
barked ; not a note of alarm was given, while troop after
troop of Saxons filed silently over the hill. Alfred made a
stirring address to his people, promising them the success of
which he had been assured. The word was given, and
down rushed his men upon the foe. The Saxon army was
as nothing to the great Danish host; but God and the
Saints fought for the Christians against the heathen Danes.
As the battle was doubtful, St. Neot himself appeared; he
seized the standard ; he fought by Alfred's side ; he secured
the victory. Thousands upon thousands fell, and the
124 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
terrible carnage had not ceased when the sun went down.
The name of Slaughterford marks the spot where the
battle was fiercest. Never again was St. Neot seen on
earth !
After the conflict was over, the scattered remnants of the
Danish army gathered together under Guthrum and took
refuse in their entrenchments. Here they were blockaded
by Alfred during fourteen days. No succour could reach
them from their countrymen, and at last, being well-nigh
hunger-starved, they were compelled to accept such terms
as Alfred imposed. They asked for peace, and Alfred
granted it on such conditions as they had never accepted
before— viz., that they should give such hostages as the
king pleased; while he should give them none in return.
After which the Pagans swore that they would immediately
leave the kingdom ; and their king, Guthrum, promised to
embrace Christianity and receive baptism.
But Alfred, though victorious, could not expel the Danes
from England. He ceded East Angha to them, and they
were to hold it as vassals under Alfred, so that it would be
to their own interest to keep the country free from fresh
marauders ; and those who would not submit to Christian
baptism left the kingdom, and Guthrum and thirty of his
chiefs were to be baptized at once.
Three weeks passed, while Guthrum and his thirty
selected followers were placed under instruction in order to
prepare for holy baptism. Then at Aller, not far from
Alfred's refuge at Athelney, Alfred presented his conquered
foe as a candidate for baptism. Bishop and priest, and the
mingling crowd of Saxons, Britons, and Danes, so lately
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 1 25
foes, were there. The church doors opened, and a length-
ened procession passed in, two and two.
Foremost, with every eye upon them, came the majestic
figures of the two kings. Alfred led the Danish chief, and
stood at the font as his godfather, and witness of his vows.
When asked to name his son in the Faith, Athelstane was
the name he chose, and so, bathed in the waters of purifica-
■ tion, and signed with the sign of the cross, he rose up, no
longer Guthrum, but Christian Athelstane. That name,
dear to Alfred as his brother, his teacher, his deliverer, he
now chose as the name of his reconciled enemy, trusting
that it might bring a blessing upon him.
In like manner were his thirty warriors admitted into
Christ's Church, and then they turned and took the oaths
of fealty to England's sovereign. Twelve days did Guthrum-
Athelstane and his followers wear the white robes of their
baptism, and the chrisom cloth or white fillet which was
bound round their heads at confirmation, a rite which then
followed immediately after baptism. And during those
twelve days of retirement and holy quiet, we may suppose
that Alfred often instructed his godson in Christian truths,
in Christian graces, and in Christian duties. Then, when
the twelve days' " retreat " was over, Alfred took his guests
and friends to his palace at Wedmore, and there he held the
christening feast with holy and chastened joy ; and there
they loosed the chrisom, and laid aside their baptismal
garments.
It was at Alfred's palace at Wedmore that the treaty was
signed which gave peace to England for many years. By
this agreement, Guthrum-Athelstane and his people were to
126 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
cross the Thames and Hve in East Angha, subject to Alfred
and his laws, but all those Danes who refused to give up
their heathen gods had to cross the sea, and it is said they
joined the host of Hastings, which went to ravage the fair
lands of France. And Alfred sent his new subjects to their
homes with great gifts.^
Alfred did not forget his " Isle of Refuge ; " he built at
Athelney a fair monastery on the side of his fort, and •
thither we may well believe he would retire at times for rest
and repose from the toils and troubles of sovereignty. In
order to defend the island, and yet render it attainable, a
bridge was built between two heights, and at the western
end of the bridge was constructed a tower of beautiful
work, and in this monastery he collected monks of all kinds
from every quarter. John, a priest and monk (an old Saxon
by birth— meaning that he came from Saxony on the
Continent), was first abbot. It seems that this motley
assemblage of monks brought from different nations did not
live well together, and two monks of Gaul laid a wicked
plot to murder their abbot and bring his name into disgrace.
This abominable scheme was, however, happily frustrated
by his attendants being roused by the scuffle, and coming
to his aid.
We must remember the state of fearful ignorance into
which the country had fallen, and in inviting learned monks
over from other countries, Alfred's object was to provide fit
teachers in the monastic schools for his subjects.
' There is still shown at Aller a large ancient font, which was dug
out of a pond in the vicarage garden, and is now replaced in the
church ; it is said to be the same in which Guthrum and his followers
were baptized.
KING ALFRED IN SO-MERSET. 1 27
One interesting memorial of Alfred's residence in Athelney
still remains. In the seventeenth century an ornament
made of gold and enamel was found there, entire and
uninjured. It bears an inscription, "Alfred het meh
gewircan," "Alfred caused me to be worked." It is now
preserved at Oxford in the Ashmolean Museum.
Alfred's will once more connects his name with Somerset,
that land which, though neither the place of his birth nor
his death, yet seems in a special manner to have been his
school in self-denial and tenderness ; and as though from it
and the bitter though loving discipline he there underwent,
he went forth armed and equipped for the grand life which
was thenceforward to be devoted to God and his country.
In his will, which, according to the custom of those times,
he brought before the Witenagemot to be ratified during
his life — probably about the year 8S5 — he makes mention
of a great number of slaves, particularly on his estates at
Cheddar and Domerham in Somerset, whom he had raised
to the condition of free tenants, only making his petition to
them, that they would, after his death, continue to cultivate
those lands, with his son Edward for their landlord, rather
than take to a new occupation.
From the peace of Wedmore, in 878, the glories of
Alfred's reign may be dated. It was not that he had no
troubles, anxieties, cares and sorrows ; but that all worked
together for good, his own good and that of his people.
His life was henceforth one of constant progress towards
the complete and full perfection to which he more nearly
attained in his life than any other king in any age or place.
But all this belongs to general history, and not in any
128 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
special way to Somerset. But when we know all that he
accomplished, it is difficult to beheve that Alfred finished
his course at the comparatively early age of fifty-two.
It is scarcely possible to bring this legend to a close
without comparing and contrasting the lives of the two
great heroes, British and Saxon, who, alike in their patriotic
struggles against foreign invasion and heathenism, yet were
in their results so different. Arthur's brilliant career lighted
up with a glorious blaze the expiring struggles of a decaying
cause, while Alfred's represented a young and vigorous
nationality, throwing off the evils that beset it, and rising
stronger from each contest. A blessing rested on his
work, and with the one exception of Edwy, his successors
down to Ethelred had glorious and successful reigns.
Both Arthur and Alfred alike made Somerset their rallying
point, and the fairest and most graceful legends connected
with the career of each have their local habitation in our
county.
There is a curious myth with regard to AUer, a tradition
of a terrible dragon which had its den on the south side of
" Aller" Hill. This dragon devastated the neighbourhood,
and the countryside was in constant dread of its attack;
but at length an Aller man with a spear killed it, and this
' spear is still to be seen in Low Ham Chapel.
The spear is really an arrow or dart of a very light wood,
and covered with a patterned textile fabric. It is about
nine feet long, and has been feathered with double feathering.
I never saw anything quite like it— says the Vicar of
Muchelney. Might not the dragon— he suggests— be the
Danes, whose army, conquered at Edyngton, were baptized
KING ALFRED IN SOMERSET. 1 29
at Aller, i.e. what was left of it ? If so, the spear, one would
suppose, must have belonged to Alfred.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury; Asser's Life;
Lives of St. Neot ; Histories of Glastonbury ; A. S.
Chronicle, &c., &c. ; Butler's Lives of the Saints ;
Dugdale's Monasticon; Lives of English Saints
(published by Toovey).
10
Archbishops oy Cai^terbury
CONNECTED WITH SOMERSET.
-:o:-
ST. ATHEOL
(Abbot of Glastonbury, 905 ; First Bishop of Wells, 909 5
Archbishop of Canterbury, 914-)
Alfred the King was dead. He died in the year 901, and
his son Edward was chosen by the Witan to succeed him :
but he was not permitted to mount the throne peaceably ;
for Alfred's elder brother, Ethelred, had left a son, and the
hereditary right, as we understand it, was undoubtedly his
But no such right existed in those days. The Witan selected
from the royal family the one who it was believed would fill
the throne most worthily, and it was not to be supposed
that their choice would fall on any one but the son of their
late almost idolized monarch.
But Ethelwald would not acquiesce in his exclusion ; he,
however, took the surest way of proving the wisdom of his
rejection by not only stirring up the flames of civil war, but
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 131
actually claiming help in liis attempt from the Danes. For
some years the strife continued, but at last, in a hardly-
contested battle fought somewhere in Kent, Ethelwald was
slain, and Edward's sovereignty secured.
It was a natural consequence of all these political troubles
that the Church should suffer not only in her material
wealth, but in her organization. Bishoprics fell vacant and
were not filled up. But now that peace was restored,
Archbishop Plegmund, the friend and adviser of Alfred in
his literary labours, determined, with the co-operation of the
king, to make further ecclesiastical divisions of the ever-
growing kingdom of Wessex. Roman authorities say that
he was driven to do this by the threats and edicts of Pope
Formosus ; but this is palpably false, for Formosus died in
896, and the ecclesiastical districts were not subdivided,
nor the vacant sees filled, till 910. It was in 902, the year
after Alfred's death, that Ethelwald, Bishop of Sherborne,
died; in 908 died Denewulf, of Winchester; so that the
whole kingdom of AA'cssex was left without a bishop. Then
King Edward, by the advice of Plegmund the archbishop,
called a council of the senators of the English, and therein
it was agreed to fill up the vacant sees, and at the same
time appoint others, so following the divisions of the shires
or earldoms. To use William of Malmesbury's own words :
" The King and the Bishops chose for themselves a salu-
tary council, and according to our Saviour's words, 'The
harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are (ew,^ they
elected and appointed one Bishop to every province of the
Gewissoe, and that district which two formerly possessed,
they divided into five." " In one day he ordained in the
132 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
city of Canterbury seven bishops to seven churches. Frith-
stan to Winchester; Athelstan to Cornwall; Werstan to
Sherborne ; Athelm to Wells ; Aidulf to Crediton in
Devonshire ; also to other provinces he appointed two
bishops — to the South Saxons Bernegus, a very proper
person, and to the Mercians Cenulph, whose see was at
Dorchester in Oxfordshire."
Though Canterbury in the Saxon times had scarcely as
magnificent a cathedral as now, still there is no doubt that it
was a stately structure ; and it must have presented a solemn
and splendid spectacle when Plegmund and his suffragans
received the seven newly-appointed bishops at the altar and
consecrated them to their high office. With the exception
of Winchester, which was an old foundation, it is remark-
able that Wells alone retains the name and seat of the
bishopric then appointed. Sherborne has given place to
Salisbury, Crediton to Exeter, St. Germans, the Cornish
see, after having been suppressed for several hundred years,
has revived again, but at Truro, and Selsey has become
Chichester-
Wells was a fit and natural seat for a bishopric, for Ina's
foundation of secular canons stood ready to hand, and
needed but a bishop to make the chapter complete. For a
short time in the reign of Richard I., Glastonbury was
joined to it, and ultimately Bath was raised to the dignity
of a city, and incorporated as one diocese with Wells ; but
since the year 909, now nearly a thousand years ago, Wells
has remained the chief cathedral city of Somerset.
It is little enough we know of the first Bishop of Wells.
He was almost certainly a native of Somerset, and owed his
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. I33
education to Glastonbury, of which he rose to be abbot ;
and it was from there that he was transferred to Wells by
Plegmund, to organize and preside over the new diocese.
Out of the seven bishops consecrated together on that day,
he was selected, and, it is said, by Plegmund himself, to be
his successor.
He was the second Archbishop of Canterbury who had
been Abbot of Glastonbury. The fact of the little we know
of some of these early archbishops is thus explained by Dr.
Giles, in his translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It
is considered probable that to Archbishop Erithwald we
owe the commencement of these chronicles, so valuable in
themselves, and so carefully kept by successive archbishops.
A copy called the Plegmund or Benet MS., from its being
preserved in Corpus Christi College (formerly Benet Col-
lege), Cambridge, is believed to have been written by or
under the superintendence of that archbishop. It is a
curious fact that his name is never mentioned except when
inserted by a different hand. St. Athelm seems to have
followed his predecessors in this divine "repression of
himself," and so we hear little or nothing of his doings. In
fact, like a true saint, his "life was hid with Christ in
God."
So complete is this suppression of their own individuality
that it is actually uncertain whether Athelstane was crowned
by St. Athelm or St. Wulfhelm, for curiously enough the
death of Edward the Elder and Archbishop Athelm
occurred in the same year ; but the probabilities seem
rather in favour of the coronation being the last public act
of Athelm's archiepiscopate.
134 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Athelstane's coronation seems to have been a function of
rather uncommon magnificence. He was in the prime of
life — ^just thirty years of age — tall and of slender make,
with long fair hair plaited with threads of gold, and his
features were very fine. He probably inherited his mother's
beauty, which had captivated his father's heart in his
younger days ; yet he was no effeminate dandy, but a great
and wise king, who had enlarged his mind by foreign travel.
He had been in Scandinavia, where he had learned the
Norse tongue and become acquainted with their manners
and customs, a knowledge which would be useful to him in
dealing with the Danes and Northmen who inhabited a
large part of the east and north of England. His corona-
tion took place at Kingston-on-Thames — the king's town.
Over a sacred stone or fragment of rock a platform was
erected, on which the king stood, and he was thus crowned
by the archbishop, in sight of all the people. The Mer-
cians, as well as the people of Wessex, owned him for their
king, and he was looked upon as Basileus or Bretwalda
over the other parts of Britain, even of those who still
possessed kings of their own. In fact, to Athelstane, rather
than to his great-great-grandfather Egbert, belongs the title
of first king of all England.
One most imjiortant part of the ceremony was the adm.in-
istering and taking the oath to govern according to law.
The coronation service was nearly the same as that in use
at the present day. The oath administered by Athelm was
almost certainly the same as that taken by Ethelred :
" In the name of Christ I promise three things to the
Christian people my subjects.
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. I35
" I St. That the Church of Christ and all the Christian
people shall preserve their peace under our auspices.
" 2nd. That I will forbid rapacity and iniquities of every
description.
" 3rd. That I will command equity and mercy in all
judgments, that to me and to you the gracious Lord may
extend his mercy."
This oath, which was faithfully kept by Athelstane, was
shamefully broken by Ethelred.
There is a Latin MS. of the Gospels still to be seen in the
Cottonian Library of the British Museum, which belonged
to Athelstane, and on which he was probably sworn ; it was
used at the coronation of Charles I.
Soon after this high ceremonial Athelm must have
yielded up his spirit. He is said to have been an uncle
of St. Dunstan, and to have exercised a powerful influence
over his mind, but date renders this at least doubtful. One
would fain know more of these ancient fathers of our Church;
we know but that "they are numbered with the Saints," and
that Athelm bears a name without reproach.
His figure, as first bishop of the see, appears on the very
beautiful pastoral staff presented in 1882 to Lord Arthur
Hervey, the present Bishop of Wells.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury ; Dr. Hook's
Lives of the Archbishops ; Dr. Stubbs' Constitutional His-
tory.
136 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
WULFHELM.
(Bishop of Wells, 914 ; Archbishop of Canterbury, 925,
Died, 940.)
I have been unable to find anything relating to Arch-
bishop Wulfhelm's early life or parentage. He was
consecrated by St. Athelm as his successor at Wells, and
selected, it is said, by him to follow him at Canterbury.
It was during his episcopate at Wells that the invasion
by the Danes occurred, of which an account is given in the
next paper. It must have been, therefore, a time of peril
and anxiety, but it shows the more Christian feeling that
existed between the Saxon and the British Churches that the
great King Edward should condescend to the humihation of
paying a ransom in order to save the life of a British bishop.
The year 925 was a year to be marked in Anglo-Saxon
story. Edward the Elder died, and Athelm, the Arch-
bishop, did but survive him long enough to crown his son
and successor, and then he too passed away, and Wulfhelm
of Wells was raised to Augustine's chair. It is added in the
Chronicle that in the same year St. Dunstan was born. In
the life of Dunstan reasons will be given why this is probably
a mistake.
In 927 Wulfhelm went to Rome to receive the pall and
confirmation of his appointment as archbishop. During
the period of Wulfhelm's archiepiscopate one of his duties
must have been to marry some of Edward the Elder's
numerous family, to whom, with the exception of the young
Prince Edwin, Athelstane proved himself a kind and loving
brother. It was in memory of this young prince and his
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 1 37
tragic end that Athelstane founded the Abbey of Muchelney,
in Somerset, not far from Langport. The ruins are most
interesting at the present day, though, of course, they are of
a much later date than the time of which we write. Edwin
was accused by envious tongues of having plotted against
his brother's crown and life, as believing that he had a
better right to the throne, Athelstane's mother having been
of humble birth. Athelstane said that he would not be
guilty of his brother's blood, but would trust him to the
judgment of God. He placed him, with a faithful friend
and servant, in an open boat without oars, and sent him
out to sea. The boat drifted to the coast of France, with
the attendant in it, but Prince Edward, in his impatient
despair, had thrown himself into the sea. Athelstane
discovered too late that he had been imposed upon by a
false tale, and underwent a seven years' penance, and built
other monasteries besides that of Muchelney, as a sin offer-
ing for his crime.
But it does not appear that Wulfhelm was an ardent
friend of monasteries ; for in the laws which he passed after
the great battle of Brunanburgh or Brumby, for the regula-
tion of the Church, there are many enactments with regard
to parish churches, but nothing is said of the religious
houses. The position of the clergy was assured. Priests
were esteemed as holding the rank of thanes or gentlemen.
A Saxon ceorl or franklin, if he were not rich enough to
possess about 500 acres of land, a seat at the town gate {i.e.
in the grand jury), and a place in the Witenagemot, // he
had a church on his estate with a bell tower, could obtain the
rank of a thane. There can be no doubt that such a law
13S MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
as this would have great effect in increasing the number of
parish churches.
Athelstane renewed the gift of his predecessors, of a tenth
of the crown lands to the Church. Trials by ordeal were
regulated, but not encouraged. The coinage was carefully
attended to, the archbishop having the power of coining;
but the money was stamped with the King's, not the Arch-
bishop's, head. In all these enactments Archbishop
Wulfhelm, from his position, must have borne a chief part.
Of Wulfhelm's, then, as of Athelm's, personal character-
istics, we know little or nothing ; but judging him by the
work done — and we know who says, " by their works ye
shall know them " — we must believe him to have been a
wise and conscientious man, labouring for the good of the
Church and the people entrusted to his charge, and working
harmoniously with one of the wisest and greatest of our
kings.
Our next biography will not be the shadowy and impalp-
able presentment which is all we can furnish of the lives
and characters of St. Athelni and Archbishop Wulfhelm,
We shall have to consider next the life of a man who was
the central figure of at least four kings' reigns — the much
vilified and misunderstood St. Dunstan.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; William of
Malmesbury ; Palgrave's Anglo-Saxons ; Churton's Early
English Church ; Dr. Hook's Lives of the Archbishops.
The J_4Andinq of the Dane,s at
Watchet.
(A.D. 918.)
The Danes, who were such fearless sailors and fierce
warriors, and were withal so prudent and cunning, made,
about the beginning of the tenth century, such constant
descents upon our coasts that, when there is any uncertainty
with regard to dates, it is sometimes difficult to know
whether the same story is being told with a difference or
whether it is a record of two distinct invasions. There was
certainly an invasion of the Danes in 910, which sailed up
the Severn mouth from Brittany, but we are told they all
perished; again in 911 we hear of their attacking Mercia,
and of the death of Earl Ohter among others : but it was
in 918 that the great western invasion took place, which is
told alike in prose and verse. " In this year (918) a great
fleet came over thither from the south, from the Lidwiccas
(Brittany), and with it two Earls Ohter and Rhoald ; and
they went west about till they arrived within the mouth
of the Severn, and they spoiled the North Welsh every-
where by the sea-coast where they then pleased. And
I40 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
in Archenfield they took Bishop Camleac,' and led him to
their ships, and then King Edward ransomed him after-
wards with forty pounds. Then after that the whole army
landed, and would have gone once more to plunder about
Archenfield. Then met them the men of Hereford and
of Gloucester, and of the nearest towns, and fought against
them and put them to flight, and slew the Earl Rhoald and
a brother of Ohter, the other earl, and many of the army ;
and drove them into an enclosure, and there beset them
about, until they delivered hostages that they would depart
from King Edward's dominions. And the king had so
ordered it that his forces sat down against them on the
south side of Severn-mouth, from the Welsh coast westward
to the mouth of the Avon eastward ; so that on that side
they durst not anywhere attempt the land. Then, neverthe-
less, they stole away by night on some two occasions, once
to the east of Watchet, and another time to Porlock. But
they were beaten on either occasion, so that few of them
got away, except those alone who there swam out to
the ships. And then they sat down, out on the island
of Bradan-relice (Flat Holms), until such time as they were
quite destitute of food ; and many men died of hunger.
Then they went thence to Deomod (South Wales), and then
out to Ireland, and this was during harvest." Such is the
short and unembellished account of this invasion and its
repulse by the brave Sumorsoetas unassisted. Tradition,
however, gives the name of their leader, to whose prowess
and encouragement their brave resistance was probably
owing ; and poor Chatterton commemorates him in one of
" Of Llandaff.
THE LANDING OF THE DANES AT WATCHET. I4I
his wonderful imitations of the antique. It is thus intro-
duced in Evans's old ballads : —
A Song to tElle, Lord of the Castle of Brystowe
IN Daies of Yore.
[About the year 920 ^lle was governor of the castle of
Bristol, and gained many signal victories over the Danes,
particularly at Watchet. The following song was made to
the memory of this chief by Thomas Rowlle, a Carmelite
friar, and father-confessor to William Canynge, founder
of St. Mary Redcliffe Church. It was written in the year
1468, and the original is now in the hands of Mr. Barret,
surgeon, in Bristol.]
O Thou (or whate remaynes of thee)
^Ue, the darlynge of futuritye !
Lette thys mie fonge bolde as thie courage bee,
As everlaftynge to pofteritye !
Whanne Dacyas fonnes, with hair of blood-red hue,
Lyke kynge-coppes braftynge with the mornynge dewe.
Arraung'd in drear arraye
Upon the lethale daye,
Spredde, farre and wyde, on Watchet's fhore ;
Thenne dydft thou brondeons ftonde,
And, with thie burlye honde,
Befpryngedde all the mees wythe gore ;
Drawn by thyne anlace fell,
Down to the depthes of hell
Thoufands of Dacyans went ;
Bryftowans, menne of myghte,
Ydared the blodie fyghte,
And acted deedes full quent.
O thou ! wher'ere (thie bones att reft)
Thie fpryte to haunte delyghteth beft,
142 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
^Vhether on the blod-embrued playne ;
Or where thou keen'ft from far
The blatant cryes of warre,
Or feeft feme mountayne made of hepes of flayne.
Or feeft the hatchedde ftede
Yprauncynge o'er the mede,
And neigh to be amongeft the poyntedde fperes ;
Or, in black armour, ftalk'ft arounde
Embattelede Briftowe, once thie grounde,
And glow'ft ardorous onne the caftle fteers ;
Or fierie round the mynfterne glare ;
Let Briftowe ftille bee made thie care :
Guarde it from fomenne and confumynge fyre,
Lyke Avon's ftreame encyrque it rounde ;
Ne lette a flamme enharme the grounde
Tyll ynne one flame all the whole worlde expyre.
GODA, EARL OF DEVON.
(A.D. 938.)
" A.D. 988. This year was Watchet ravaged, and Goda,
the Devonshire thane, slain, and with him much slaughter
made. And this year departed the holy Archbishop Dunstan,
and passed to the heavenly life."
So says the Saxon Chronicle, and there is no more to add
to it. A horror of great darkness settled upon the land ;
the Saxons, in their turn and for the like sins, were delivered
over to their enemies as, just five hundred years before, had
the Britons been to them.
The Time3 of ^t. Dun^tan.
HIS LIFE AND LEGENDS.
(A.D. 915 or 925-988.)
There is perhaps no character in Enghsh history so
generally misunderstood, and yet who is so completely
the dominant figure, in a picture of any given period, as
St. Dunstan is in the times in which he lived. Born, it is
said, in 925, the first year of Athelstane's reign — though
it is more than probable that the date errs by at least ten
years, and that the real date of his birth was 915 — he lived
in seven, and perhaps eight, kings' reigns. Before Athel-
stane's death he had made his mark; in the reign of
Edmund the Pious or Magnificent ' he was a trusted friend
and councillor ; while in those of Edred, Edgar, and Edward
the Martyr, he held a position which we can only compare
to a prime minister in our own day. During the short
reign of the weak and foolish Edwy he was batxished, but
returned triumphantly after his death, and retained his
ascendency till the murder of the young Edward, and the
' Not as we understand the word ; but as, indeed, its derivation
implies, the doer of great deeds.
144 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
consequent accession of the unhappy Ethelred. Then,
appearing for a moment as the gloomy herald of the crimes
and misfortunes of that miserable reign, he retires heart-
broken from the stage where he had played so brilliant
a part ; and though he lived ten years longer, a period
sufficient to show that his prophetic words were in course
of fulfilment, he took no further part in secular affairs : thus
closing, as so often happens, a life of singular renown and
success in an old age of disappointment, if not of failure.
It was undoubtedly owing to the ascendency of this
remarkable man that the sun of England's prosperity did
not set with the violent death of Edmund the Pious ; for,
with the exception of Edgar, his successors were feeble
monarchs, and the shortness of their reigns, their weak
health or extreme youth, would have made it impossible for
them to do any good work for England. Then, far more
than now, the well-doing of a country depended almost
entirely upon the personal character of the one who, in
whatever cajiacity — whether as sovereign, or as the king's
councillor and adviser — held the reins of government.
Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstane, and Edmund, were
men of high character and exceptional ability; they were
their own ministers. Then, just as the sceptre was about to
fall into weak or incompetent hands, it was, if not grasped,
at least guided, by the wise statesmanship of the great
Somerset Churchman.
Dunstan was born of noble parents ; his father, a thane
named Heorstan, his mother Cynethrith, had their home
near Glastonbury: and, passing there the earliest years of his
life, it seems always to have lain nearer to his heart than any
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 45
Other place. When quite a child he was taken by his father
to the abbey, probably that he might be trained in the
monastic school. The child was laid in his bed, and, his
imagination being excited by all he had heard of the
sanctity of the place, he saw a vision : an old man ap-
peared, clothed in white, who conducted him to all the
spots hallowed by ancient memories. These were then but
vacant places, with here and there a fragment of antiquity,
for Glastonbury, like other religious houses, had suffered
much from the incursions of the Danes, and the grand
structure reared by Ina was, in a great degree, in ruins,,
though the church and some of the monks' dwellings still
remained.
But, as the child was viewing the desolation, the scene
changed: a splendid monastic pile appeared before him, and
so clearly was the vision photographed upon the child's
brain, that in years to come he was enabled to reproduce ia
substantial form " the airy fabric of a dream."
We must now picture to ourselves the young visionary a
schoolboy at Glastonbur}', for though, in a great degree, a
ruin, Glastonbury had never renounced its high functions as
a nursing mother of the Church. Its work of education
appears never to have been interrupted, and most of the
prelates and Church dignitaries of the south of England had
been brought up there. The abbey was chiefly filled with
Scottish monks from Ireland, for at the time when England
had been so desolated by the Danes, Ireland, hidden in the
shadow of her greater sister, was comparatively free from
invasion. And there piety and learning flourished when it
had well-nigh died out in England; so that when Alfred had
II
146 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
said he could find no priest south of the Thames who could
read his own service-book, it was from Ireland that the
torch of learning was re-lighted, and the chairs of the pro-
fessors in the monastic schools were filled. These, then,
were Dunstan's teachers, and under them he studied eagerly,
■nay, vehemently, and, as he painfully strove to overcome
the difficulties that learning presented in those days, he
seems to have overshot the mark, and was attacked with
brain fever. His favourite studies were the same that had
roused Alfred's dormant intellect, viz., the poetic legends
and magic songs of the olden times. As a child he was
singularly weak in body, but his mind was preternaturally
active. The effect of a fever upon so delicate a frame and
so excitable a mental organization reduced him to the*verge
of the grave, his strength failed, and his teachers and com-
panions alike never looked to see him leave his bed alive.
Suddenly he arose, apparently in a trance. He directed his
steps towards the monastery church. The great doors were
closed, but by some other entrance he ascended a flight of
steps which led to the roof Proceeding cautiously along
the beams, he dropped unhurt into the aisle below. Dun-
stan recovered, and when restored to health related how he
had risen from his bed by command of an angel, that fiends
had encountered him in his path, but that he put them to
flight, and, borne on the wings of a protecting spirit, was
wafted down from the fearful height to the pavement of
the church. It was undoubtedly a case of sleep-walking,
produced by the excited state of his brain.
The effect of this serious illness was so far good that it
caused his friends and tutors to decide that he must have
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 47
change of scene and rest from study. It was arranged,
therefore, by some of his relations high in birth and place that
he should spend some time at court. Probably the fever
had left an irritability of brain which caused him easily to
give and take offence, and this wonderfully precocious boy
contrived to make enemies at court, and enemies who hated
him with so bitter a hatred that nothing but his blood would
quench their ill-will. Athelstane was a great and wise prince,
but no sovereign can avoid at times being influenced by those
that surround them, and whisperers and backbiters, mingling
together truth and falsehood, persuaded the king that the
boy was a sorcerer.
One can scarcely wonder in so rude an age that the igno-
rant and ambitious men who composed the king's court
should think that Dunstan's varied accomplishments were
something superhuman. A musician of no mean order, a
painter, a sculptor, and, for those days, a marvellous mecha-
nician, a worker in metals, iron and steel, silver and gold,
he was also an exquisite caligraphist, and illuminated
daintily the MSS. that he wrote. By some he is believed
to be the inventor of that elegant toy, the ^olian harp, for a
legend was carried from one to another in his lifetime that
when he hung his harp on the wall it produced sweet sounds
of itself without human agency. All this might perhaps
have been pardoned in one who intended to enter the
ministry or to bury -his accomplishments in the monastic
cell ; but Dunstan had no thought of taking holy orders,
although it is evident that his two episcopal uncles, Athelm
of Canterbury and Alphage of Winchester, had educated him
with that idea.
148 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
But Dunstan's position at court became insupportable.
He could not brook the coldness of the king in addition to
the slights and injuries of his enemies. He left, therefore,
but was followed, pulled from his horse, bound hand and
foot, trampled on, and finally thrown into a marshy pool.
He was rescued by some passers by, who carried him to a
neighbouring village, where he was nursed until he recovered
from the effects of the assault which he had sustained.
Naturally enough, he was now disgusted with a court life,
and he proceeded to Winchester to visit his uncle, the bishop
of that see. But, alas for Dunstan, here he met his fate !
His accomplishments, combined with his high birth and his
near relationship to their bishop, made him welcome at the
houses of the best families in the neighbourhood. In one
of these he met with a lady in every way suitable, in age,
rank, and position, to be his wife, and formed a passionate
attachment to her. On a person of his excitable tempera-
ment a happy marriage would probably have had a most
salutary effect ; but it was not to be. At this time the idea
was spreading in the Western Church that marriage was not
honourable in all j that there was some special virtue in
celibacy ; and, recognizing his talent, his uncle desired
earnestly to secure him, heart and soul, to the service of the
Church. He strove, therefore, by every possible argument
to persuade him that to suffer any earthly affection to come
between him and an entire surrender of himself, body and
soul, to God's work, would be a deadly sin.
The struggle was a fearful one. Devotion, obedience,
ambition, on one side : the overpowering first love of a
passionate nature, and the craving for all that a loving
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 49
woman could be as comfort and rest to a perturbed and
fevered spirit, on the other. Mind and body both gave way
under the strain, and once again he was attacked by brain
fever. They persuaded him that it was a visitation of God
to wean him from earthly delights ; and so, at last, he
yielded. He gave up all that could make his life sweet, and
bright, and beautiful ; he cast his earthly affections behind
him, as the temptation of the evil one, and set his mind
steadily to the career of a monkish ecclesiastic.
There can be little doubt that this second attack of fever
had a permanent effect upon his brain, and that from that
period he was at times afflicted with a partial insanity. His
mind, shrewd and clear on most points, was disordered by
the idea of the personal presence — sometimes in bodily
shape — of the arch enemy, constantly haunting him. He
had not yet succeeded in wholly overcoming those desires
for earthly happiness he had been taught to regard as temp-
tations of the evil one ; so, not satisfied with the ordinary
austerities of the monastic rule, he returned to Glastonbur}'
and there dug himself a hole in the ground. Here, with
just a covering overhead, he would work, and watch, and
pray, but could not lie down, and it was here he fought out
the struggle in his mind, and here that he had what we may
entitle
DUNSTAN'S PERSONAL CONFLICT WITH
THE DEVIL.
In the place of discipline and self-torture that he had
chosen, his sole recreation was toiling with his hammer and
anvil at the forge ; and here he shaped out pieces of wrought-
150 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
iron of marvellous beauty ; and still, as he watched, and
prayed, and worked, would the demon haunt him and tempt
him ; but still Dunstan gained the better in the strife by
"fast and vigil, watch and prayer." ^
The demon, however, though he retired baffled again and
again, determined upon one last attempt. It was night, the
fire had died down, and Dunstan's work at the forge had
ceased. The evil spirit was on the watch, but this time he
disguised himself in the form of a beautiful woman. And
now, like the serpent in " Paradise Lost," the tempter placed
himself close to the ear of Dunstan, and so managed that if
he looked up to the opening in the roof, he must see her
wanton beauty. She began to suggest evil thoughts, she
lured him with forbidden pleasures. Nearer and nearer
came the fiend, closer and closer pressed the fierce tempta-
tion. His usual " Avaunt thee, Sathanas ; get thee behind
me ! " availed nothing. He tried to occupy his mind with
earnest prayer ; but meanwhile his hands were not idle, he
was replenishing the dying embers. The flame leaped up ;
the tongs with which he took the pieces of red-hot iron from
the fire were themselves getting red-hot. Then, when the
demon pressed nearer still, and, placing her face quite close
to the ear of the saint, wanton words and shameful sugges-
tions were breathed so near to him that he scarce knew
whether the temptation proceeded from within or from
without, suddenly he seized the tongs, and, catching hold
' This period of his life reminds one strangely of the exquisite and
powerful tale of La Motte Fouque, "Sintram and his Companions " ; and
yet historians, if they comment at all upon what they are pleased to call
" this ridiculous story," can find nothing more appropriate to say than a
sneer or a point blank accusation of falsehood.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 151
of the demon's nose, held her, in spite of her howHngs and
fiendish shrieks. When at last the iron cooled and the evil
creature was allowed to go, she fled away, with shrieks that
echoed and re-echoed in the darkness of the night. The
demon was conquered, and Dunstan was never again
assaulted by the personal attacks of the evil one.
In this wild story I can see nothing to ridicule. I believe
it to be absolutely true, only that the demon was that worst
fiend in human shape — an abandoned woman, wrought
upon probably by Dunstan's enemies to try and overcome
his virtue, and so wound him in the tenderest part. It is
likely enough, with his highly-wrought imagination, that he
in good faith believed her to be a demon in disguise, and
she, with her beauty destroyed for ever, and utterly disgraced
and discomfited, could have been in no haste to make pubhe
her defeat, and so willingly countenanced the legend by her
silence. Such seems to be the natural explanation of the
story.
It was about this time that Ethelfleda, a noble lady, was
attracted by the renown of Dunstan's holy life. She was
living in seclusion, as became a widow. She sought his
conversation, and he became her spiritual adviser and
friend. She reconciled him to the king, and, dying shortly
afterwards, bequeathed to him the whole of her great wealth ;
but Dunstan immediately distributed not only this legacy,
but also his own patrimony, among the poor.
Athelstane died in the year 940, and his half-brother,
Edmund the Etheling, succeeded to the throne. He was
only eighteen years of age, yet his valour, his piety, and his
152 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
wisdom earned for him the titles of " the Magnificent " and
" the Pious," this latter affix bearing witness probably to his
liberal restoration of monasteries.
Dunstan had not yet assumed the monastic habit. It
may be that, till the strange conflict and victory we have
described, he could not trust himself 3 but now, perhaps in
consequence of the king's desire that he should accept the
abbacy of Glastonbury, he proceeded to Fleury, near Rouen,
and there studied the Benedictine rule, which had not yet
been introduced into England. There he took the vows
and assumed the dress of the order, and there it seems
most probable that he was ordained deacon, priest {nay, it
may even be, as he was destined to be a mitred abbot), and
bishop also.
On his return he was appointed chaplain to King Edmund,
and now there seemed a possibility of the vision of his
childhood being realized ; for the king desired to rebuild
Glastonbury, in fact to refound it, and make it the first and
greatest Benedictine abbey in England. It eventually became
perhaps the greatest in Europe. Edmund did not live to see
his great work completed, but before he died gave a charter
to the abbey, in which singular privileges were granted to it.
This was done in the year of our Lord 944, and was written
in letters of gold in the book of the Gospels, which he pre-
sented to the same church elegantly adorned. But Edmund's
great deeds were ended, and the prosperity of England for a
time obscured, after a short but brilliant reign of six years
and a half.
It was in the year 940, the same year that Edmund
ascended the throne, that, on account of his misdeeds, a
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 53
robber named Leofa was banished the kingdom. Years
passed on, and he may have thought his crimes forgotten,
or that his person would not be recognized ; at any rate,
emboldened by an audacious spirit, he presented himself at
a banquet held by the king on the Feast of St. Augustine,
the apostle of the English, at his palace at Pucklechurch, in
Gloucestershire ; for it was the custom of the Anglo-Saxon
kings on high festivals to dine in public, and it would seem
that none were turned away. Leofa had the insolence to
take his seat at the banquet, and then draw attention to
himself by proceeding to quarrel with the king's sewer. He
drew his dagger upon him, which the king noticing, threw
himself between them, and seized the robber by his hair ;
but Leofa dragged the king above him to the ground, and
ere he could extricate himself and rise, the miscreant plunged
the dagger into his breast.
All present were seized with fury at the crime. They
removed the lifeless body of their lord, but when indeed
they saw that he was dead, they rushed upon Leofa, and,
with a just revenge, tore him limb from limb; yet neverthe-
less before they could overcome him he wounded several of
them. A messenger was sent at once to Glastonbury to tell
the woeful tidings to the abbot, but he was met by Dunstan
himself speeding towards Pucklechurch in all haste and
great anxiety. The saint was hurrying on to warn the king
of impending danger. But when the messenger told him he
was the bearer of heavy tidings, " Alas ! " he said, " I know
it ; the king is dead !" And when the bearer had shown the
manner of his death, he told how that in his cell at Glaston-
bury he had seen a devil dancing before him in insolent
154 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
mockery, and that from his gesticulations of delight he knew
that evil had befallen the king. It was in weeping and
mourning that Dunstan arrived at Pucklechurch. One
only thought would comfort him, and that was that the
body of his friend and sovereign should rest at Glastonbury,
awaiting the resurrection of the just. With great state and
magnificence they bore him thither. His tomb was made
in the north corner of the tower. The village where he was
so foully murdered was made an offering for the dead, that
the spot where he fell might minister aid to his soul ; and
there prayers and alms were offered for the soul of King
Edmund, that he might have peace. "^
Edmund left two sons, Edwy, or Eadwig, and Edgar, both
so young that the Witan passed them over, and, as in the
case of Alfred, chose the brother to succeed instead. Edred
also was young, and weak and sickly in health ; " but," says
Mr. Freeman, " his reign was an active one, and things were
wisely managed; for Abbot Dunstan was his chief adviser."
He was at once Prime Minister and Chancellor. The funds
also were in his hands, and the royal treasures were kept
at Glastonbury ; and under Dunstan's advice the king gave
largely to churches and monasteries. For fear it should be
supposed that Dunstan was self-seeking and avaricious, while
Edred was weak and superstitious, it is necessary occasionally
to remind our readers that endowing a monastery meant
endowing a college or school, for poor as well as rich ; it
meant the endowment of a library, a scriptorium (or room
for copying old books and writing new ones — answering to
an author's study, a printing and publishing ofifice in one),
' William of Malmesbury.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 155
a hospital, a school of art, a relieving ofifice for the poor,
making wholly unnecessary the machinery of the modern
Poor Law. It meant placing certain lands under the highest
known cultivation, and, unless when attacked by heathen,
preserving them from devastation in time of war. The
wealthy and great could therefore hardly make a better use
of the funds they allotted for charity than by founding
one of these schools for devotion, learning, art, literature,
science, and industry. To say that these institutions were
sometimes corrupt and abused, is but to say that they were
human.
Edred reigned but nine years, and died at Frome in 955.
He was buried at Winchester. He was succeeded by his
nephew Edwy, the story or legend of whose life has been
repeated by historians, ad nauseam, to show the cruelty and
unscrupulousness of Dunstan. In any way to understand
the whole affair, it is necessary to explain the state of the
Church at that time. Ecclesiastics were divided into seculars
and regulars. The regulars lived by some monastic rule,
and owed obedience to their superiors ; the seculars lived
sometimes together in what are now called clergy-houses,
sometimes alone in their parishes, much as our clergy do
now^, owing obedience only to the bishop of the diocese.
A great controversy arose between the two parties, and
contention ran high. It was a time of great trouble. The
Danes and Northmen were devastating every part of Northern
Europe, and it was in a period of like distress that St. Paul
had counselled celibacy ; and so earnest men, finding how
careless and worldly were the lives of the clergy, how igno-
rant they were, how engrossed with the things of this world,
156 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
tried to wean them from earthly things, to detach them from
bonds which necessarily secularized them, and to enforce
upon them the rule of St. Benedict.
Dunstan was the first Benedictine abbot in England, and
he pushed forward the reforms he thought absolutely neces-
sary to purify the Church, in conjunction with Archbishop
Odo, with the intense and feverish eagerness which was
part of his nature. He had trampled on his own natural
affections, and he endeavoured to impose on others only
what he had himself done. Yet we find that, after he
became himself archbishop, he allowed the secular clergy,
when reasonable, to keep their wives ; and he permitted the
canons to remain at Canterbury, though at Worcester and
Winchester the bishops resorted to acts of persecution to
turn their cathedral foundations into monasteries.
It is, of course, true that harsh, possibly even unjustifiable,
acts were done during the carrying out of this great reforma-
tion ; but when the corruption is great the knife must cut
deep, and festering sores require searching remedies. Party
spirit ran high, and, as we see, alas ! in our own day,
opposing schools of thought in the Church say bitter things
of each other, instead of " provoking " only " to love and
good works ; " and so it has come to pass that this great
man's memory bears an undeserved burden of reproach to
the present day, and that the wise King Edgar, his partner
in the work, has been vilified in every possible manner by
the seculars, in revenge for the stern justice that they
received.
William of Malmesbury, one of the most careful and
conscientious of historians, affirms that several of the scan-
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. I57
dalous tales relating to Edgar rest on no better foundation
than ballads, written with no other purpose than that of
traducing his character as a friend of monasteries — utterly
valueless, therefore, as history.
But we are anticipating. The usual story of Edwy and
Elgiva is one of these ballad-myths, and it is now quite
impossible to discover the true version. Thus much is
certain, that Edwy was a dissolute youth, who fell into the
hands of the seculars, and that they filled him with prejudice
against Archbishop Odo and Abbot Dunstan. He therefore
bitterly resented their forcing him back to his coronation
festival, which he had insultingly left, for the company of his
so-called wife, Elgiva, and another woman, represented by
one side as her mother, by the other as a woman of more
than doubtful character. Edwy, however, took his revenge :
he banished Dunstan, the greatest statesman of his day.
Odo, however, continued the struggle, and though the story
of his cruelty to Elgiva is utterly apocryphal and absurd, the
power of the Church seems to have been strong enough to
separate the lovers, who were apparently too near of kin by
canon law.
It is said that when Dunstan quitted his beloved home
at Glastonbury, a loud, fiendish peal of laughter echoed
through the sacred building. "Thou shalt have more
sorrow at my return than thou hast now joy at my depar-
ture ! " exclaimed the abbot, addressing himself to the
unseen demon.
But now everything went wrong. The Mercians revolted*
and chose the younger brother Edgar as their king, and all
the land north of the Thames ceased to acknowledge Edwy
158 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
as their lord, "shocked with which calamity, he died in 958,
and was buried in the new minster at Winchester. But
when Dunstan learned that he was dead, and that the devils
were about to carry off his soul in triumph, by his prayers
he obtained his release."' It was probably before Edwy's
death, while Edgar was only King of Mercia, that he recalled
Dunstan and made him Bishop of Worcester. In the same
year he made him Bishop of London, and in the following
year (859) " Odo the Good,"^ Archbishop of Canterbury,
died, and Dunstan succeeded him.
And now Edgar was king of the whole country. He was
acknowledged as Basileus, or lord of Britain, but he is better
known by the more honourable title of " Edgar the Peace-
able ; " and his reign, the culminating point of Anglo-Saxon
rule, owed, under God's blessing, its glory and its peace to
the wise counsels and statesman-like qualities, shown alike
in government of Church and State, of Archbishop Dunstan.
Edgar was only sixteen when his brother's death raised him
to the throne of united England. It seems likely that he
was crowned King of Mercia at Kingston-on-Thames, or
some other place, by Dunstan in Edwy's lifetime, and that
there was no talk of repeating the ceremony when Edwy
died. The account the Saxon Chronicle gives of him in one
of the fragments of ancient verse is as follows : —
' A curious colloquy between the abbot and the devils on the subject
may be found in Osberne's Life of Dunstan, Anglia Sacra, William of
Malmesbury.
^ Such was the title given him by his contemporaries. He only
followed the recognized rule in separating Edwy and Elgiva ; and
Elgiva's death is attributed by Eadmer, the writer nearest their own
time, to the Mercians.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN,
159
" In his days
it prospered well,
and God him granted
that he dwell in peace
the while that he lived ;
and he did as behoved him ;
diligently he earned it.
He upreared God's glory wide,
and loved God's law,
and bettered the public peace,
most of the kings
who were before him
in man's memory.
And God him eke so helped
that kings and earls
gladly to him bowed,
and were submissive
to that that he willed ;
and without war
he ruled all
that himself would.
He was wide
throughout nations
greatly honoured
because he honoured
God's name earnestly,
and God's law pondered
much and oft,
and God's glory reared
wide and far,
and wisely counselled,
most oft, and ever,
for God and for the world
of all his people."
" One misdeed he did," we are told ; " he loved foreign
vices." " But," it concludes with, " God grant him that his
good deeds be more availing than his misdeeds for his soul's
protection on the longsome course."
And now that Dunstan was archbishop, two of his friends
and pupils, Oswald and Ethelwald, were bishops respectively
of York and Winchester; and the three friends, with the
co-operation and support of the king, proceeded in their
great designs for purifying and evangelizing the Church and
nation. In the course of his administration forty monasteries
were built or restored, and most of them richly endowed.
All, or at least the greater part, of these were of the Bene-
dictine order.
But lest it should be thought that the great prelate's sole
object was to magnify his order, it is well to record how
sternly he reproved vice. Edgar had carried off by force
from the monastery at Wilton a beautiful damsel named
l6o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Wulfrida ; when next Dunstan came into the royal presence
he refused to give his hand to the king. "I will never be
a friend," he said, " to whom God is an enemy." Edgar
fell on his knees, and acknowledged his faults ; and Dunstan
enjoined him a penance during seven years. For seven
years he was never to wear his crown, thereby acknowledg-
ing his offence before his subjects. He was to fast strictly
twice a week, to endow a convent of nuns at Shaftesbury,
and to send a copy of the Scriptm-es into every county into
which the Saxon monarchy was divided. Historians sneer
at the not wearing his crown for seven years as being a
mere pretence of ostentatious penitence, but they carefully
omit the other provisions.
All Dunstan's reforms partook of this practical character.
His rules for the guidance of his clergy were such as these :
" That every priest was to do his duty in his own parish,
and not to interfere with any other ; not to administer the
Lord's Supper in a private house, except in case of sick-
ness ; that every parish priest should preach every Sunday
to his people. That parents were directed to bring children
to the font within six weeks of their birth ; to teach them,
as soon as they can learn, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, and not to keep them too long unconfirmed by the
bishop."
In regard to the education of the young, every priest
who keeps a school is to understand some handicraft him-
self, and, while he diligently teaches his pupils, must take
care to teach them some craft which may hereafter be
profitable to the Church. When Dunstan enjoins works of
penance, or acts of repentance to the rich, he bids them
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. l6l
build churches and give lands to them, or repair public
ways, or build bridges over deep waters or arches over
miry ground, or give alms thankfully of their goods to needy
persons, widows, orphans, and strangers; or set free their
own slaves, and redeem those of other people. But this was
not to stand in place of fasting and mortifying their bodies.
In some of his counsels Dunstan shows a pleasant wit.
" Let no priest," he says, " be a singer at the ale, nor in
any wise play the jester to please himself or others, but be
wise and grave, as becometh his order. Let him not love
woman's company too much, but love his right wife, that is,
his Church. And let him not be a hawker or hunter, or
player at the dice, but play on his books, as befits his order."
Side by side with Dunstan's earnest but kindly words, let
us place an address put forth by King Edgar to the people
during his seven years' penance. He begins by stating the
necessity for the great reformation which was being carried
on by Dunstan and his coadjutors, and after a preamble of
some length in which he magnifies his own office, he then
accuses the bishops of not having looked well to their
charge, or " such horrible and abominable things as are
spoken of the churches had not come to our ears. Further-
more, how great negligence is there in the divines, when in
the holy vigils they will scarce vouchsafe to be present;
when at the holy solemnities of the divine service they seem
to be gathered together to plaie and to laugh rather than to
sing. That which good men lament, and evil men laugh at,
I will speak with sorrow (if so be it may be spoken), how
they flow in banquettings, in drunkennesse, in chambering
and wantonnesse ; that now, clearkes' houses may be
12
1 62 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
thought to be brothell houses of harlottes and an assembly
of players. There is dice, there is dancing, singing, there
is watching till mydnight, with crying and shouting. Thus
the patrimonie of kinges, the almesse of princes, yea (and
that is more) the price of that precious blood is over-
throwne."
After much more in this strain, he proceeds in more
impassioned language to appeal to the example of great
reformers of ancient times. " Where," he says, " is the
sworde of Levie ? the spirit of Moyses ? . . . the dagger
of Phineas ? . . . the spirite of Peter ? . . . Endeavour to
imitate, ye priests of God. It is time to rise against them
that have broken the law of God. I have Constantine's,
you have Peter's sword in your hands : let us joyne right
handes, let us couple sword to sword, that the leapers
[lepers] may be cast out of the Church. Goe to, carefully, I
beseech you, lest it repent us to have done that that we
have done, and to have given that we have given, if we shall
see that not to be spent in God's service, but on the riotous-
nesse of most wicked men through unpunished libertie.
" Let the reliques of saints which they scorne, and the
reverende altars before which they rage, move you. Let
the marvellouse devotion of our ancestors move you, whose
almes the clearkes' furie abuseth.
'- My great-grandfather's father Ethelwolfus (as you
know) gave the tenth part of all his lands to churches and
abbies. My great-grandfather Alfred, of holie memory,
thought not meete to spare his treasures, his patrimonie, no
costes nor revenues, that he might enrich the Church : my
grandfather the olde Edward, how much he gave unto the
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 163
Church your fatherhood is not ignorant. It becometh you
to have in remembrance with what giftes my father and
uncle enriched Christe's altar.
" O Dunstane, father of fathers, behold, I pray you, the
eyes of my father shining on thee from the brighte coast of
heaven, heare his complaining wordes with a certain pittie
thundering in thine eares. Thou, O my father Dunstane !
Thou gavest me wholesome counsell to build abbeis and
churches, thou wast my helper and fellow- worker in all
things. Thee I elected as a shepherd, father, and bishop
of my soule, and keeper of my manners ; when did I not
obey thee? What treasures did I preferre before thy
counsells ? what possessions despised I not, thou com-
manding me ? If thou thoughtest meete to give any-
thing to the poore, I was ready. If thou judgest anything
to be given to churches, I deferred not. If thou com-
plainedst anything to be wanting to monkes or clearkes, I
supplyed. Thou saidst Almes was everlasting, and none to
be more fruitful than that which was given to abbeyes and
churches wherewith God's servants may be sustained, and
what remaynest may be given to the poore."
There is still more in this impassioned strain of
eloquence, entreating Dunstan and his coadjutors, Ethel-
wold of Winchester, and Oswald of Worcester, to take
speedy means to clear the Church from the foul stains
that corrupted her.
One at least of Duncan's reforms should commend itself
to the present age, and that was the measures he took to
moderate the excessive drinking which was already the
national vice. Stowe says "the king therefore, by the
164 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
counsel of Dunstan, put down many ale-houses, and would
suffer but one in a village or town, except it were a great
borough ; he ordained certain cups with pins or nailes, and
made a law that whosoever drank past that mark at one
draught should forfeit a certain payne (penalty)."
Earnestly and piously, then, and for the most part wisely
and kindly, labouring with his tutor and coadjutors for
what they believed to be the welfare of both Church and
State, for the maintenance of religion and the establish-
ment of good morals, did Edgar pass the seven years of
penance imposed upon him. And now the time wast past,
he was released from the stern discipline of the Church, and
restored to his customary state and dignity ; and to mark
the period, it was determined that he should be crowned
with great pomp at Bath. It is, as has been said before,
probable that Edgar was crowned, in his brother's lifetime,
King of England north of the Thames. And if, as we
may suppose, the ceremony was performed at Kingston-on-
Thames, on Edwy's death no second coronation was
deemed necessary. Now Dunstan would mark his restora-
tion to favour and the removal of the penalty by this
sacred rite, and so, on Whit Sunday, in the Abbey Church
at Bath, Edgar was croAvned Basileus of the British Isles.
What caused Bath to be chosen in preference to Win-
chester, then the capital, not only of Wessex but of all
England, is not explained ; it was probably owing to
Dunstan's love for his native county. But whatever the
reason may have been, the fact is certain, and with great
state and magnificence the ceremony of coronation was
performed by Dunstan himself
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAX.
i6s
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in one of those fragmentary
ballads which are inserted at intervals, describes the cere-
mony thus : —
A.D. 973.
Here was Edgar
ruler of Angles
in full assembly
hallowed king
at the old city
Akemanscester, '
but it the islanders,
beorns, by another word,
name Bath.
Then was much bliss
on that blessed day
to all occasioned
which children of men
name and call
Pentecost's day.
There was a heap of priests ;
of monks a large band
as I have heard of sage ones
gathered
and then agone was
ten hundred years
told in numbers
from the birth-tide
of the glorious King,
Pastor of light,
but that there remaining
then still was
of yearly-tale,
as writings say,
seven and twenty.
So nigh had to the victor-lord
a thousand run out
when this befel.
And himself, Edmund's
offspring, had
nine-and-twenty,
guardian 'gainst evil works,
years in this world,
when this was done
and then in the thirtieth, was
hallowed ruler."
This, the only coronation that ever took place in
Somerset, was of extraordinary magnificence, and Edgar,
by far the most powerful of any of the Saxon monarchs,
chose Bath as the scene of his hallowing, or consecration.
William of Malmesbury says he was crowned with great
pomp at Bath, survived only three years, and was buried at
Glastonbury. According to our method of counting, we
should say he died in the third year. His coronation was
in 973 ; in 974 the record is a blank — England was in that
' Aquce, water ; inann, station ; cester, camp.
1 66 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
happy state it had no history; but in 975 Edgar, like the
rest of the royal family of Wessex, passed away at an early
age. Alfred himself was but fifty-two, and his son and grand-
son, Edward the Elder and i\thelstane, both of them died in
the full vigour of manhood ; but from Athelstane to Ethelred
the Unready, with the one exception of Edgar, the sovereigns
died either by violence or disease after very short reigns.
And Edgar was only thirty-two when his summons came.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives two poetic versions of
his death, in the year 975 :
" Here ended
the joys of earth
Edgar, of Angles king,
chose him another light,
beauteous and winsome
and left this frail,
this barren life.
Children of men name,
men on the earth,
everywhere that month,
in this land,
those who erewhile were
in the art of numbers
rightly taught,
July month,
when the youth departed,
on the eighth day
Edgar, from life,
bracelet -giver to heroes.
And then his son succeeded
to the kingdom,
a child im-waxen,
of earls the prince,
to whom was Edward name.
And him, a glorious chief,
ten days before,
departed from Britain
the good Bishop,'
through nature's course
to whom was Cyneward name.
Then was in Mercia,
as I have heard,
widely and everywhere,
the glory of the Lord
laid low on earth :
many were expelled
sage servants of God ;
that was much grief
to him who in his breast bore
a burning love
of the Creator in his mind.
Then was the Source of wonders
too oft contemned ;
the Victor-lord,
heaven's Ruler.
Then men his law broke through
and then was eke driven out
beloved hero
Oslac from this land,
o'er rolling waters,
' Of Wells.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN.
167
o'er the ganet's-bath ;
hoary-haired hero,
wise and word-skilled,
o'er the waters throng
o'er the whale's domain
of home bereaved.
And then was seen,
high in the heaven,
a star in the firmament,
which lofty-souled
men, sage-minded,
call widely.
cometa by name :
men skilled in arts,
wise truth-bearers.
Throughout mankind was
the Lord's vengeance
widely known,
famine o'er earth.
That again heaven's Guardian^
bettered. Lord of angels,
gave again bliss
to each isle-dweller
through earth's fruits."
The other version is more concise :
A.D. 975. The 8th before the Id
Here Edgar died
ruler of Angles,
West Saxon's joy
and ^Mercian's protector
Known was it widely
throughout many nations.
' Thoet ' offspring of Edmund
o'er the ganet's-bath
honoured far.
es of July.
Kings him widely
bowed to the king
as was his due by kind.
No fleet was so daring,
nor army so strong
that 'mid the English nation
took from him aught
the while that the noble king
ruled on his throne."
One by one, all the great Church-statesman clung to
were torn from him, and though each loss made a fresh
wound, yet he turned ever from celebrating the obsequies
of one friend to fresh loving service to the living. Edgar
was buried at Glastonbury, a place dear to both, and in
which Dunstan's visits for devotion and rest had kept up a
keen and fresh interest. But hardly had Dunstan paid the
last rites to his friend, when he found it necessary, as the
man of highest mark in the realm, to plunge again into
secular matters ; for Elfrida, the " fair and false," was doing
her utmost to get her own son Ethelred chosen as suc-
cessor by the Witan instead of Edward, who, as the eldest-
1 68 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
born, was his father's heir. It ahiiost seems as if the old
struggle between the regular and secular clergy was at the
bottom of the attempt to place the younger instead of the
elder brother on the throne, and it seems probable that
Elfrida bid high for the support of the seculars. But
Dunstan was too prompt and powerful, and he and Oswald,
Archbishop of York, so worked with the Witan that Edward
was chosen king, and hallowed by Dunstan at Kingston-on-
Thames.
And now Elfrida — who has much to answer for, even to
the present day, in the ill repute which has ever clung to
step-mothers — tried a more subtle way of ruining the lad,
whose inheritance she coveted for her own child. She pre-
tended great love for him, and succeeded in sowing discord
between him and his great minister; and Edward, bewitched
by her blandishments, we are told, "conducted himself
with becoming affection to his infant brother and step-
mother ; he retained only the name of king, and gave them
the power." ^ The seculars triumphed, with the following
result, so says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle :
" In his days whom Edgar, king, ordered ere-
for his youth while
God's gainsayers the holy bishop
God's law broke Ethelwold to stablish ;
Eld fere, ealdorman and widows they plundered,
and others many, many times and oft :
and rule monastic and many unrighteousnesses,
quashed, and evil unjust deeds
and minsters dissolved arose up afterwards,
and monks drove out and ever after that
and God's servants put down, it greatly grew in evil."
' William of Malmesbury.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 69
Here seems to be the place, in order of time, to put the
legend of
KING EDWARD'S HUNT AT CHEDDAR/
It was in the year 975 that the young King Edward went
to the royal palace or hunting seat at Axbridge, to enjoy
the pleasures of the chase, of which he, like all the rest of
his race, was passionately fond. Here was a forest well
stored with game, and " sometimes, for the sake of hunting,
the king spent the summer about the forest of the Mendips,
wherein there were at that time numerous stags, and several
other kinds of wild beasts, for, as we read in the life o.f
St. Dunstan, King Edward, who sought retirement at
Glastonbury, came to the said forest to hunt, Axbridge
being then a royal borough.
" The king, three days previously, had, probably at
Elfrida's instigation, dismissed Dunstan from his court
with great indignation and lack of honour ; which done,
he proceeded to the wood to hunt. This wood covers a
mountain of great height, which, being separated at its
summit, exhibits to the spectator an immense precipice and
horrid gulph, called by the inhabitants ' Chedder Clyffs.'
When, therefore, the king was chasing the flying stag here
and there, on its coming to the craggy gulph, the stag rushed
into it ; and, being dashed to atoms, perished. Similar ruin
involved the pursuing dogs ; and the horse on which the
king rode, having broken its reins, became unmanageable,
' The story is told by some of King Edmund. But the MS. still
extant at Axbridge must, I think, be accepted as proof that young
Edward was the hero of it.
lyo MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and in an obstinate course carries the king after the hounds :
and the gulph lying before him, threatens the king with
certain death — he trembles, and is at his last shift. In the
interval his injustice recently offered to St. Dunstan occurs
to his mind. He wails it, and instantly vows to God that
he would as speedily as possible recompense such injustice
by a manifold amendment, if God would for the moment
avert the death which deservedly threatened him. God,
immediately hearing the preparation of his heart, took pity
upon him, inasmuch as the horse instantly stopped short ;
and, to the glory of God, caused the king, thus snatched
from the perils of death, most unfeignedly to give thanks
to God.
" Having returned to his house, that is, to the borough
of Axbridge, and being joined by his nobles, the king
recounted to them the cause of the adventure which had
happened, and commanded Dunstan to be recalled with
honour and reverence ; after which he esteemed him as his
most revered friend."
The king with such humility begged pardon of the prelate
for the way in which he had treated him, that, after their
interview and reconciliation, Dunstan was found in tears ;
and when questioned why he was weeping upon what should
have been a joyful occasion, he said that he foresaw — with
that prophetic power which he so often displayed — that such
extreme humility betokened an early death.
There was an uneasy feeling throughout the county, and
in the year 976 there was a famine in the land ; a comet
appeared, and men thought it betokened the evils that were
coming upon the country. With the death of Edgar and
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 171
the sinister influence at court, Dunstan's power diminished,
and the great fabric of the unity of the empire, built up so
carefully by the great king and his greater minister, showed
signs of tottering, and rents and fissures appeared in the
edifice. The Earl of Mercia and others, now that Edgar
was gone, tried to reinstate the secular clergy and turn out
the monastics ; and, under the influence of his step-mother,
the young king seems to have sided with them. On the
archbishop's side were Ethel win, Earl of East Anglia, and
Brythnot, Earl of Essex, ^ that brave and pious patriot who,
in the next reign, died fighting valiantly for his country
asrainst his kinsmen the Danes. " We will not suffer the
monks to be expelled," said they ; " it is the same thing as
to expel all religion from the country ! "
A full synod was now convened at Winchester, and
William of Malmesbury relates how the image of our
Saviour speaking decidedly confounded the canons and
their party. This, if it really took place, was probably the
contrivance of some over-zealous partizan ; but it appears
to have been regarded as a trick, for it produced no effect :
but in 978, a Witan being assembled at Calne, in Wiltshire,
they were about to pronounce in favour of the expelled
clergy against the monks, when the floor gave way, and the
\vhole assembly fell with it, into the space below. Some
were severely bruised or had their limbs broken, and some
did not escape with life. Dunstan alone was unhurt, left
* The story of Brythnot's death belongs neither to the history of
Somerset nor the life of Dunstan, and cannot, however beautiful it is,
find a place here. It may be read in Palgrave's " Anglo-Saxons " or
Churton's "Early English Church."
172 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Standing on a single rafter, which retained its position.'
" This miracle," writes William of Malmesbury, " procured
the archbishop peace on the score of the canons ; all the
English, both at that time and afterwards, yielding to his
sentiments,"
But now came the crowning grief of Dunstan's life. Blow
after blow had descended upon him, in God's providence.
He had only to attach himself to any one, and lo ! the desire
of his eyes was taken from him ; and now this, his youngest
pupil and royal friend, who was to him as the child of his
old age, he too was to go. Vainly had Dunstan warned the
kingly boy of the danger of trusting to the deceitful woman,
his step-mother; but he appears to have dearly loved his
younger brother, who, on his side, was much attached to
him: and one day, when engaged in hunting in Dorsetshire,
he stopped at Corfe Castle, where Elfrida and her son
resided. The story is well known : the wicked woman
handed him a cup of spiced wine, but as he stooped from
his horse to take it from her hand, while he saluted her, the
dagger of an attendant pierced him through. In the eager-
ness of the hunt he had separated from his companions, but
' It is strange that not only Hume but Sharon Turner and Southey
have followed the impossible supposition that this was a trick of Dun-
stan's. If it was, as Fuller well observes, Dunstan was a better
contriver than Samson. Strangely enough, a precisely similar accident
happened in the latter part of the last century to the excellent Chief
Justice Sir Eardly Wilmot at a county assize. The floor gave way,
many were bruised and maimed, some were killed. The judge was
left "with his seat sticking to the wall like a martlet's nest." The
good man wrote an admirable letter to his family on the occasion, which
may be seen in the life of him by his son. (C burton's " Early English
Church.")
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN.
173
now, feeling himself wounded, he put spurs to his horse ;
but one foot slipping, and faint with loss of blood, he was
dragged by the other foot in his stirrup through the trackless
paths and recesses of the wood, while the crimson stains
gave evidence of his death to his followers. He was then
ingloriously interred without royal dignity at Wareham ; for
they envied him even holy ground when dead as they had
envied him the royal dignity while living. Thus says the
Saxon Chronicle : " This year, 979, was King Edward slain
at eventide at Corfe Castle, on the 15th before the Kalends
of April, and then was he buried at Wareham, without any
kingly honours."
" There has not been 'mid Angles
A worse deed done
than this was
Since they first
Britain land sought.
Men him murdered
but God him glorified.
He was in life
an earthly king :
He is now after death
a heavenly saint.
Him would not his earthly
kinsmen avenge,
but him hath his heavenly Father
greatly avenged.
The earthly murderers
would his memory
on earth blot out,
but the lofty Avenger
hath his memory
in the heavens
and on earth widespread.
They who would not erewhile
to his living
body bow down,
they now humbly
on knees bend
to his dead bones.
Now we may understand
that men's wisdom
and their devices
are like nought
'gainst God's resolves." '
' It seems here worth remarking that the first of these ballads, which
appear among the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, is in 937, on Athelstane's
victory over the Danes at Brumby. Seven follow in quick succession,
the last of the eight being the one above on Edward's death ; after
which there are only three scattered at intervals of some length : and if,
as has been said in the life of Brithwald, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
174 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
This last blow seems to have broken the old man's heart.
As archbishop, it was his duty to place the crown on Edward's
successor. Had there been a worthy member of the family
of mature age, it is tolerably certain that the weak child, in
whose interest this fearful crime had been committed, would
have been passed over ; and, as in the case of Alfred and
Edred, one better fitted to govern would have been placed
on the throne — but there was none, and Dunstan, in bitter-
ness of spirit and grief of heart, performed the ceremony.
" But when placing the crown upon his head, he could not
refrain from giving vent with a loud voice to that prophetic
spirit which he had so deeply imbibed. ' Since,' said he,
'thou hast aspired to the kingdom by the death of thy
brother, hear the word of God. Thus saith the Lord God,
the sin of thy abandoned mother, and of the accomplices
of her base design, shall not be w^ashed out but by much
blood of the wretched inhabitants ; and such evils shall
come upon the English nation as they have never suffered
from the time they came to England till then.' "
Dunstan's former prophecies had been fatally correct, and
never was prophecy more speedily and completely justified.
The very next year the south, east, and west were ravaged
by the Northmen. One only consolation was granted to the
mourning prelate : not only he himself, but his and the young
King Edward's bitterest enemies joined in the honour paid
to his remains. Alf here, Earl of Mercia, had ever been one
were written, or what we should call edited, by the archbishop of the
time being, all these eight ballads were probably from Dunstan's pen.
They are full either of fire or tenderness as the case may be. It would
also account for the extraordinary silence with regard to Dunstan in
these Chronicles.
THE XniES OF ST. DUXSTAN. I75
of Dunstan's strongest opponents ; he had even gone the
length of pulhng down the monasteries and driving out the
monks in his earldom, and William of Malmesbury accuses
him of having to do with the young king's murder. But
now, whether in consequence of miracles reported to have
been done at his tomb, or urged by the remorse which must
have followed on any connection with so foul a crime, thus
much is certain, that Alfhere the earl joined the archbishop
in fetching the body of the late king from Wareham and
bearing it with much solemnity to Shaftesbury, where it
was interred with royal pomp. After this Dunstan retired
altogether from public life. Once only do we hear of him
again, and then in a strangely different manner from what
we should expect.
Year after year the country was ravaged by the Danes,
and no effectual resistance was offered. It is one of the
saddest times that occurs in English story. Nature itself
appeared to give signs of sympathy with the terror that fell
upon the country. A bloody cloud was seen ofttimes in the
likeness of fire, and it was mostly apparent at midnight, and
so in various beams was coloured ; when it began to dawn,
then it glided away. But no dawn shone upon the lurid
glare which lighted up the land. Ethelred had arrived at
the age of seventeen, but though utterly powerless against
his country's enemies, he could use his arms against his own
people. It was the year 986. Some quarrel had arisen
between him and the Bishop of Rochester, the particulars
of which are not known, and Ethelred led an army against
that city.
Dunstan roused himself. He desired him to desist from
176 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
liis fury, and not to irritate St. Andrew, under whose
guardianship that bishopric was, for as he was ever ready
to pardon, so was he equally formidable to revenge. This
message having no effect, he sent him ^100 as a bribe that
he should raise the siege and retire. Ethelred, with a
meanness almost inconceivable, took the aged archbishop's
money and retreated. Dunstan, astonished at his avarice,
sent messengers to him with the following words : " Since
you have preferred silver to God, money to the apostle, and
covetousness to me, the evils which God has pronounced
will shortly come upon you ; but they will not come while I
live, for this also hath God spoken ! "
There was a pause. The year 987 stands in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle with no record against it ; then, in 988, the
great enthusiast, ecclesiastic, and statesman passed away,
following those he had loved so truly and served so well.
In the same year his own fair land of Somerset was attacked
by the Danes, the little port of Watchet ravaged ; but the
Danes could not effect a lodgment, and were compelled to
retire, the earls of the West county manfully fighting for their
people and themselves. Goda, the Devonshire thane, was
slain, but the Danes were repulsed. It was the last success
of the Saxons for many a long year. Dunstan was dead —
and Ethelred was king — and the county was the prey of the
. heathen.
It needs an abler hand than the author's to draw
Dunstan's character, with its strength, and its weaknesses,
and its abundant contradictions. He was gifted with a
vivid imagination, a deep enthusiasm, a severe purity : yet
he preserved through life a childlike credulity, a passionate
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. 1 77
love for his friends, and a tender care and affection for
children. To all this was joined a brilliant intellect, a
wonderful power of organization, and the rare gift of being
able to imbue others with his own enthusiasm. All this
was combined with intense love of art, and great manual
dexterity. He was a practical musician, and did much with
his own hands to improve the art of organ-building; he
was a painter, sculptor, and worker in metals, and— if the
ballads in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in his time were his
work, he was no mean poet ; in fact, it would be difficult or
well-nigh impossible to find another so marvellously gifted
in mind and body. Dr. Stubbs, to his memorials of Dunstan
taken from various sources, prefixes an introduction in
which he gives an account of the several lives of the saint,
and what the authority of each is worth. He gives an
ideal sketch of the means by which the various tales and
legends connected with him were preserved, and here we
find that several picturesque legends have been omitted,
which would, however, unduly swell the already lengthened
story of his life. He says : " We can then, without any
great stretch of imagination, see the white-haired old bishop,
during the ten years of retirement from public life, sitting
with the children of his household, his councillors, and
guests, by the fire in winter, and telling the little ones the
story of his childhood, as he told the elders the history of
St. Edmund of East Anglia, King and Martyr, which
had been told to him, when a boy, by the king's armour-
bearer.
" To this direct source, it may well be, we owe our
knowledge of the names of his parents, Heorstan and
13
lyS MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Cynethrj'this, his brother Wulfric, and his kinsmen Elphege
and Kinsige ; the legend of the unfaiHng barrel of meal,
which marked the occasion of King Athelstane's visit to his
men at Glastonbury, the mention of the Irish teachers, the
narrow escape from the falling stones at Winchester and
Glastonbury, the story q{ King Edmu7id s ch'SJiQ 2^1 Cheddar,^
and all that is of local and of permanent interest in the
early part of the story.
" In particular we must assign to Dunstan himself most
of the marvellous tales of his first biographer, the child's
dream at his first visit to Glastonbury, his walking in his
sleep to church and climbing the mason's ladder, his dream
of his friend Wulfred, his vision of the mystic dove at
Ethelfleda's death, the mysterious music of his harp as it
hung against the wall, and the noble words which formed
themselves in his mind as he heard it, All these stories
bear the impress of the same mind, a mind slightly morbid
and very sensitive, but pure and devout, void of grossness
and grotesqueness.
" They seem to be stories for the children, told by one
who had a strong belief in dreams, and to be magnified and
made important in the repetition, chiefly on account of the
fulness of the narrator.
" Who guided the state of things during the childhood
of Ethelred we do not know, but it is to this period that
the letter of Abbo belongs, and the picture of Saint
Dunstan's daily occupations drawn by the Saxon Priest.
' As I have before explained, different authors tell the story of
Edmund and of his grandson Edward. It is probable that Dr. Stubbs
did not know of the Axbridge MS.
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. I79
His chief employment was on the Divine Service, Prayer
and Psalmody, and Holy Vigils ; now and then he resumed
the employments of his youth, exercising his old skill in
handicraft, in the making of musical instruments, like the
organs which were kept at Malmesbury, or the bells that
were known at Canterbury as his own work ; the early hours
of the morning he gave to the very needful task of correcting
the faulty MSS. in the library. Even after he had retired
from political life, leaving Ethelred to mismanage his king-
dom as he chose, the great domains of his church afforded
him abundance of public work : it was his delight to make
peace between man and man, to receive and assist the
widows and fatherless, pilgrims and strangers of all sorts.
As an ecclesiastical judge he never stayed hand against
unlawful marriages,' or in the maintenance of ecclesiastical
order. He was an admirable steward of the Church's wealth,
a founder and endower of new churches, and indefatigable
of instruction, gathering together the young and old, men
and women, clerk, monk, and layman, to listen to his
teaching. And thus all this English land was filled with
his holy doctrine, shining before God and man, like sun and
moon.
' On one occasion an offender who had contracted an unlawful mar-
riage, finding nothing would induce Dunstan to admit him to communion
unless he should put her away whom he had so married, he applied to
the Pope, and by using bribes obtained a letter entreating and com-
manding the archbishop to dispense with his fault and grant him
absolution. "God forbid," said Dunstan, " that I should do it ; if he
shows me that he repents his crime, I will obey the Pope's instructions,
but while he lies in his guilt, he shall never insult me by a triumph over
the discipline of the Church. I will forfeit my life sooner " (Churton's
" Early English Church ").
l8o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" When he was minded to pay to Christ the Lord the
due hours of service, and the celebration of the Mass, with
such extremes of devotion he laboured in singing that he
seemed to be speaking face to face with the Lord; even if
just before he had been vexed with the quarrels of the
people. Like St. Martin, he constantly kept eye and hand
intent on heaven, never letting his soul rest from prayer."
Such was the character given of this great, wise, and, I
dare to say, holy man by those who knew him best. To
say that at times he erred, that he pursued what he con-
sidered the more excellent way, with an earnestness that —
it may be now and then — approached to harshness (though
nothing approaching to cruelty ever took place under his
control, and the severe measure which was dealt out to the
seculars never took effect in any part of his own diocese),
is but to say that he was human. His work in the State
may be judged by the prosperity of those kings who trusted
themselves to his personal guiding, and by the terrible
change when that guiding was put aside. With Edgar he
had striven to weld the jarring elements of which the
various races in England were composed into one har-
monious whole ; but when the master-hand was withdrawn,
the fabric so carefully built up fell to pieces again, and it
needed the crushing force of the Norman Conquest to make
England one country, instead of separate earldoms loosely
held together under one king. The terrible misfortunes
that well-nigh broke the heart of the country after his death
show by the force of contrast what he had done for England
in his life, and it is surely time that this, one of the
greatest of English statesmen, should receive somewhat of
THE TIMES OF ST. DUNSTAN. l8l
the honour that is his due, and that Somerset, in particular,
should be proud to recognize him as one of the most worthy
of her sons. From his skill in working in metals, Dunstan
was chosen by the Goldsmiths' Company as their patron. A
large picture representing his temptation hangs in their hall.
His name is happily retained in the Calendar, on May 19th.
There are eighteen churches dedicated in his name.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; William of Mal-
mesbury ; Stowe ; Butler's Lives of the Saints ;
Churton's Early English Church; Palgrave's Anglo-
Saxons ; Green's History of the English People ;
Annals of England ; Dr. Stubbs' Life and Works of
St. Dunstan, &c., &c.
MUCHELNEY AbBEY.
-.•0.--
MucHELNEY Abbey IS situated in the marsh lands of Somer-
set, not far from Langport. It, like Glastonbury, was an
island rising out of watery meadows ; this, its name, " muckle-
eye," or great island, implies of itself A member of the
Somerset Archaeological Society says : " Those who have
been under the painful necessity of passing through it in the
winter will not soon forget the passage, the water probably
running through and through their carriage for a mile or
more. Those who have had the better fortune of passing
through the parish in spring or summer will not soon forget
the apple-blossoms and the bowery elms on the road between
the village and the church and abbey.''
The abbot's house is now a farm-house, and remains of
the abbey buildings may be found built up or in parts
of other buildings. The principal remains are of the
fifteenth century, but some few are of an earlier date.
With its ecclesiastical remains, its village cross, and ancient
houses embowered in orchards, it is a place of no ordinary
beauty and interest. The abbey church, which must have
stood side by side with the parochial church,, is entirely
MUCHELNEY ABBEY. 1 83
gone, and only its site traced out some thirteen years ago
by diligent search. To the writer it owes much of its interest
to the fact of the Vicarage of Ilminster having been a de-
pendency of Muchelney. In some mysterious way, when
Muchelney shared the fate of the other monasteries, Hmin-
ster became independent, and has remained so ever since.
It is " a pecuhar " : the vicar is his own ordinary, nor can
the Bishop of Bath and Wells hold a confirmation or exercise
any function in the church without the consent of the incum-
bent. The legend of the foundation of Muchelney is as
follow^s : —
LEGEND OF MUCHELNEY ABBEY.
(Founded after the year A.D. 933.)
Muchelney iVbbey, in Somerset, and Milton Abbey, in
Dorset, were both founded by King Athelstane, it is said,
as part of his penance for the share he had in the death
of his young half-brother, Edwin the Atheling. The story
may take its place among our legends. Edward the elder
left behind him a large family of sons and daughters, who
were carefully and wisely brought up by their eldest brother,
Athelstane. Athelstane's mother was Egwina, a shepherdess;
but though he was flouted at times for his mother's low
extraction, there seems no reason to suppose that his birth
was not legitimate, the more that he was always treated by
his grandfather Alfred as his father's heir. But there were
those who said that the young Edwin, the eldest son of a
second wife, should have been king.
184 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The boy — for he was Httle more — was at Oxford, at the
school founded by Alfred by the advice of his elder brother,
Athelstane or St Neot ; and there young and foolish com-
panions appear to have tried to make him restless and
dissatisfied, and to fill his mind with discontented ideas
with regard to his supposed rights. At last one of these,
angered perhaps that the young prince refused to listen to
his treasonable suggestions, and afraid, it may be, of his
betraying his teaching to the king, took advantage of his
position as cup-bearer to the king to insinuate doubts as to
his brother's loyalty into Athelstane's mind. He declared
that the young prince had joined in a plot to murder the
king and seize on the crown. No proof w-as offered, but the
poor lad was seized and hurried into a boat with his own
personal attendant, and, being taken out to sea, was left to
the mercy of the winds and waves, or, as Athelstane said, to
the judgment of God. Had the young Athehng been patient,
his innocence would have been made clear; but, deserted
as he was, in a small boat without oar or rudder, in an
agony at his awful position, while stretching out his hands
to the retreating vessel he either overbalanced himself and
fell, or threw himself into the sea. His companion drifted
in the boat to the coast of France; then, upon declaring
who he was, he was taken before Ogina, wife of Charles the
Simple and sister of both the king and the young prince,
who sent him back to England, his safety, it was supposed,
being sufficient proof of his innocence, and he stoutly
affirmed that of his unhappy master.
Athelstane, conscience-stricken, commanded the treach-
erous and false cup-bearer to be put to death, and, as a
MUCHELNEY ABBEY. 1 85
proof of his lifelong repentance, built these two fair abbeys
as an atonement for his own fault and in remembrance of
the sad fate of his young brother.
Authorities. — William of Malmesbury ; Somerset Arch-
aeological Society.
Ethelqar.
(Bishop of Selsey, 9S0 ; Archbishop of Canterbury, 988, 989.)
:o:-
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 988 : " This year was Watchet
ravaged, and Goda, the Devonshire thane, slain, and with
him much slaughter made. And this year departed the holy
Archbishop Dunstan, and passed to the heavenly life, and
Bishop Ethelgar succeeded after him to the archbishopric ;
and little while after that he lived, but one year and three
months."
Such is the record of the short-lived archiepiscopate of
Archbishop Ethelgar ; and thankful must he have been to
have been called so early to his rest. We proceed to give
such account of him and his times as we can gather from
other sources. When Dunstan was appointed Abbot of
Glastonbury by King Edmund, with power to restore the
abbey from the ruin into which it had fallen through the
Danish ravages, one of his first objects was to gather around
him men eminent for learning and piety, who would go forth
to restore and build up the ecclesiastical foundations that
had been destroyed or injured. Among these, perhaps the
most famous was Ethelwold, who was made first Abbot of
ETHELGAR. 187
Abingdon and then Bishop of Winchester ; the bishopric
of Winchester being then the most important next to the
archbishop's see. And, as it often happens in our own day,
pupils of a beloved master constantly carry his principles far
beyond his own teaching or intentions ; ^ so Ethelwold. He
earnestly worked with Dunstan in his great and much-needed
reforms, but he insisted, with a severity never carried out by
Dunstan himself, on the clergy in his diocese separating from
their wives. This Dunstan had not done. It is true he
discouraged the marriage of the clergy, and sought to impose
the Benedictine rule upon them, but he did not cruelly and
wantonly sever ties which were far older than any formed
by monastic rule. In his own see, Dunstan permitted the
seculars to live as they had been accustomed to do; but
Oswald, Archbishop of York, and Ethelwold, of Winchester,
turned out the secular or parish clergy unless they would
turn monks, thus repudiating their wives and branding their
children as illegitimate. But Ethelgar, one of Dunstan's
suffragans, consecrated and appointed by himself to Selsey
(afterwards Chichester), would not do this : though a Bene-
dictine himself, he acted charitably and considerately toward
the clergy. On the death of Dunstan he was chosen arch-
bishop. The year of his archiepiscopate was one of the
most calamitous in English history. It marks the utter
break up of the prosperity which had existed almost without
intermission since the peace of Wedmore, in the year 878 —
when the Danes were wholly subdued by Alfred — to the
accession of Ethelred in 978, exactly a hundred years. Since
' As witness the followers of Wesley, or, later still, those of Dr.
Arnold.
1 88 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
then ten years had elapsed, which were sufficient to show
the truth of Dunstan's prophecy of the miseries that should
befall the country under Ethelred's unhappy rule.
Ethelgar, like Dunstan, was a Sumorssetan, and the year
of the death of one and the accession of the other was
marked by a fresh invasion of the Danes and the harrying
of their native county. Surely Ethelgar must have welcomed
the death which removed him from these miseries. But the
loss to the county was great ; for he was succeeded by one
of those weak characters who, perhaps, cause more ill even
than men utterly bad and worthless.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; Hook's Lives of
the Archbishops ; Churton's Early English Church.
^IQEI^IC OP^ ^IRICIU3.
(Abbot of St. Augustine's ; Bishop of Ramsbury, in
Wiltshire; Archbishop of Canterbury, 989-993.)
Another student of Glastonbury, another pupil of St.
Dunstan, raised by successive steps to Augustine's chair.
So much of his master's spirit he had caught, that he was
not only learned himself, but promoted learning in others.
But it is impossible, in spite of his learning and his virtues,
not to feel heartily ashamed of having to place him in our
portrait gallery, for it is agreed on all hands that to him we
owe the cowardly advice to buy off the Danes, instead of
boldly attacking them. He was educated at Glastonburj',
and apparently under Dunstan, who thought so well of
him that he appointed him Abbot of St. Augustine's, and
from thence was by the same prelate translated to the see
of Ramsbury, which, after existing for 150 years, was sup-
pressed in 1058, but transferred to Old Sarum, or Salisbury,
in 1075.
What caused Sigeric to be selected for the archbishopric
in those troublous times we have no means of knowing.
Dunstan had mingled little in public affairs since Ethelred's
ipo MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
coronation, and one of the last acts of his Hfe was to pay
the sum of ^loo to buy off Ethelred from ravaging
Rochester; but Dunstan never would have counselled so
pusillanimous an action as paying money to buy off a
foreign enemy. Ethelgar had been little more than a year
in Augustine's seat when he died, and Sigeric was appointed
in his stead. He was, moreover, not only ecclesiastical, but
temporal, head of Kent, being also the chief magistrate in
that county ; and it may be that, in this double capacity, he
noted so grievously the miseries brought upon the county by
the incursions of the Danes, and the weak government of
Ethelred, that he thought any means allowable that would
give a small breathing time to the unhappy county. Perhaps,
too, he argued with himself that what Dunstan had done for
Rochester, and even the great King Edward the Elder had
done to save Bishop Camleac of Llandaff from the
northern pirates (with the result, however, that though the
bishop's life was saved, the pirates immediately landed, and
would have ravaged the county but for the brave opposition
of the men of Hereford and Gloucester), could not be
wrong. But they were special cases, and no precedents.
It was in 990 that Sigeric w^as consecrated. He went to
Rome for his pall. In such days of " trouble and rebuke"
one would think such a journey might well have been
omitted. On his return he found things worse than ever.
Ipswich was ravaged, and Brithnoth, or Brythnot, Earl of
Essex, the great Christian and patriot, was slain at Maldon,
while fighting to prevent the Danes carrying off the treasure
they had forced from the weak hands of the king and arch-
bishop. He would be no party to this miserable expedient.
SIGERIC OR SIRICIUS. I9I
which was as futile as' contemptible. The last words of the
good earl were : "I thank Thee, O Lord of nations, for all
the joys I have known on earth : now, O mild Creator, have
I the utmost need that thou shouldest grant grace unto my
spirit, that my soul may speed to Thee with peace, O King
of Angels, to go into Thy keeping. I sue to Thee that
Thoii suffer not the rebel spirits of hell to vex my parting
soul." An aged vassal stood over his corpse and encouraged
the rest not to turn foot. " Our spirit shall be the hardier,
and our soul the greater," he said, "the more our numbers
are diminished." Had Shakespeare heard these words
when he put the magnificent speech we all know into the
mouth of Henry V. ?
The enormous amount that was paid to the Danes, con-
sidering the value of money, is simply marvellous ; and yet
there can be no sort of doubt on the subject, though, con-
sidering the difference of the value of money in those times,
the amounts seem fabulous, and one wonders where the
gold came from. The first instalment proposed by Sigeric
was ^io,ooo; the second, ;^i6,ooo; then _;2{^24,ooo; then
^30,000. After the death of Archbishop Elphege ^48,000
was paid, the amounts increasing with every demand. At
last Ethelred had to flee the county, and on his return one
of the first things he did was to pay the Danes ;^2 1,000.
When Ethelred and Edmund Ironsides were both dead, the
first tribute levied by Canute amounted to the enormous
sum of jQ"] 2,000 — a tribute almost insupportable, says Sir
Francis Palgrave. Truly Sigeric's weak and cowardly advice
bore terrible fruit.
One cannot help supposing that the archbishop must
192 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
have bitterly regretted the advice he had given, and it is in
connection only with this bitter shame of Ethelred's reign
in England that he is remembered ; for, alas ! how true are
Shakespeare's words —
" The evil that men do lives after them ;
The good is oft interred with their bones."
So it is with Sigeric. If he is mentioned at all in history it
is only for his weak and pitiable advice to Ethelred ; yet it is
hard upon him, for Sigeric's memory should be held in
honour for his learning and his liberality. He collected a
valuable library, which he left by will to the cathedral;
moreover he employed and encouraged ^Ifric, his successor,
to write homilies and sermons which the unlearned clergy
might read to their flocks. By his will he left some em-
broidered palls to Glastonbury, his early home. He died in
994. His primacy was a troubled time, and perhaps it is
scarcely fair to deal so hardly with his memiory. To a man
of peace and learning, any way that would keep the homes
of both free from these savage marauders seemed right.
But the best patriots know that the way to preserve peace
is to be always ready for war. Sideric's cowardly advice was
the remote cause of the death of his successor.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; William of
Malmesbury ; Churton's Early English Church ;
Annals of England ; Hook's Archbishops of Can-
terbury.
ELfEyvH, Elpheqe, or^ Aj^pheqe.
(Bishop of Winchester; Archbishop of Canterbury; Saint
and Martyr; A.D. 953-1012.)
■:o:-
In our Church Calendar the 19th of April is inscribed with
the name of Alphege, Archbishop ; and there are few that
better deserve loving and reverent remembrance than the
martyred bishop, who, though not actually dying for the
Christian faith, yet, like a good shepherd, " gave his life for
his sheep."
Nestling at the foot of Lansdowne, near Bath, lies the
parish of Weston, and here was born, in the year 953,
Elfeah, or Alphege. His parents were noble and virtuous ;
they gave him a good education ; but, fearing the snare of
riches, he renounced the world, and devoted himself to a
rehgious life when still young, and this he did in spite of his
mother's tears, though in other respects a most dutiful son.
He first professed himself a monk in the monastery of
Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, and this has led to his being
claimed as a native of that county ; then, sighing for a still
stricter life, he built himself a cell in a desert place belong-
14
194 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
ing to Bath Abbey. Here his saintly hfe could not be hid,
and he was consulted by all who were anxious for instruc-
tion in the path of perfection ; at last he was chosen and
forced to accept the office of Abbot of Bath. He had
shrunk, with a pious humility, from undertaking the post,
but when appointed he introduced at once a better dis-
cipline, and put a stop to irregularities which had arisen.
He was accustomed to say that it would have been better to
have remained in the world than to be an imperfect monk,
and that to wear a saintly habit without the spirit of a saint
was to act a lie, which insults but cannot impose upon
Almighty God.
It was in 9S4, when barely the canonical age, that his
great fellow countryman, St. Dunstan, gave him a still
wider sphere of usefulness (being encouraged thereto by a
vision of St. Andrew), and appointed him Bishop of Win-
chester. At this time Winchester was not only the capital
of the old kingdom of Wessex, but of the whole of England;
its bishop therefore ranked next in position to the arch-
bishops, and it still remains, after London and Durham, the
highest in rank and largest in revenues.
Compelled to relinquish the monastic life, Alphege still
adhered strictly to the monastic rule, and his hfe was one
of continued self-discipline. His charity to the poor was
so great that it is said not a beggar was to be found in the
whole diocese of Winchester. For thirty-two years he
governed wisely and well this important see, but in 1006,
on the death of Archbishop yElfric, he, who had shrunk
from each successive step in his elevation, was compelled to
accept the burden of the highest office in our Church. It
ELFEAH, ELPHEGE, OR ALPHEGE. 1 95
has been said that Dunstan himself pointed to him as his
successor, but three others intervened before he was chosen,
and we may be sure that if the miserable King Ethelred
had any part in the election, a friend and pupil of Dunstan
would not have been selected.
In 1009, on his return from Rome, whither he went to
receive the pall, he held a great national council for the
reformation of abuses and the restoration of discipline.
Among other regulations he confirmed the ancient law,
which still holds its place in our Prayer-book, for the ob-
servance of Friday as a fast day.
But now St. Alphege was to rise to a still higher honour,
and to win the glorious crown of martyrdom. The time
of his archiepiscopate was perhaps the darkest hour of
England's misery and degradation — it was during the latter
years of Ethelred's disastrous reign. England was over-
flowed, as with a flood, by hordes of savage Danes, and,
" From the fury of the Danes, good Lord, deliver us," was
one of the ordinary petitions in the litanies of the Church
in those days.
It was in the year loii that the king and his Witan sent
to " the army" — so the Danish force is always spoken of in
the Saxon Chronicle — and " desired peace." They promised
to pay tribute in money and food on condition that they
ceased from plundering. They had overrun seventeen
counties, and " all these misfortunes befel us through unwise
counsel, that they were not in time offered tribute or
fought against, but when they had done the most evil then
peace and truce were made with them ; and, nevertheless,
for all the truce and tribute, they went everywhere in bands,
196 INIYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and plundered our miserable people, and robbed and slew
them. And then in this year, between the Nativity of St.
Mary (i8th of September) and St. Michael's-mass (the 29th
of September), they besieged Canterbury, and got it through
treachery, because Elfmar betrayed it, whose life the Arch-
bishop Elphege had before saved. And then they took the
Archbishop Elphege, and Elfward, the king's steward, and
the Abbess Leofana (of St. Mildred's), and Bishop Godwin
(III. of Rochester), and when they had thoroughly searched
the city then went they to their ships, and led the arch-
bishop with them.
' Was then captive erewhile saw bliss,
he who erewhile was in that hapless city
head of the English race whence to us came first
and Christendom. Christendom and bliss,
There might then be seen 'fore God, and 'fore the world.'
misery, where men oft
And they kept the archbishop with them so long as until the
time that they martyred him."'
We are told that when the Danes broke into the city his
faithful monks detained the archbishop in the church,
thinking that his life might there be more safe ; but when he
heard of the dreadful slaughter they were making among
his people, he broke from his friends, and, rushing out
amongst them, begged the lives of his flock, entreating that
they would rather turn their fury upon him. He was im-
mediately seized, and treated with the utmost barbarity ;
not content with making him spectator of the burning of his
cathedral, and the decimation of his monks and citizens,
' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
ELFEAH, ELPHEGE, OR ALPHEGE. 1 97
they tore his face, they beat and kicked him unmercifully,
they laid him in irons, and confined him several months in
a filthy dungeon.
But now the Danish army became infected with some
grievous epidemic, and their consciences or their superstition
affrighting them, they imagined that their treatment of the
saint was the cause of their being so afflicted, and they went
to the dungeon and drew him out. I'he archbishop prayed
for them, he gave them bread that he had blessed, and the
sick recovered and the plague ceased. For a time their
hearts were touched ; the chiefs thanked him and consulted
about setting him at liberty, but their covetousness prevailed,
and they offered him freedom for the enormous ransom of
three thousand marks of gold. But the county had been
laid waste ; the army had made terrible exactions upon the
impoverished people. Alphege refused to allow such treasure
as remained to be used for his ransom ; it belonged, he
said, to Christ's Church and to Christ's poor. He forbade
a collection to be made for the purpose of purchasing his
freedom, saying that the people had already been sufficiently
plundered.
Again they bound him, and on Easter Sunday brought
him before the commanders of the fleet, which then lay at
Greenwich ; they threatened him with torments and death,
unless he paid the money they demanded. They were
assembled at a banquet, and had drunk deeply, for wine had
been brought them from the south. The archbishop was
brought out to them, and as he approached, they, still
thinking they could obtain their will, shouted, "Gold,
Bishop ; give us gold, gold ! " Alphege remained calm and
iqS jiyths, scenes, and worthies of somerset.
unmoved, and Avas constant in his refusal; but they, furious
with their disappointment, and maddened with wine, flung
at him their battle-axes, cast the bones and horns of oxen
at him until he sank to the ground, bruised and battered,
wounded, yet not dead ; then one, a Danish soldier, whom
he had lately baptized, moved wiih a savage sort of pity,
put an end to his sufferings with his battle-axe, " so that
with the blow he sank down and his holy blood fell on
the earth, and his holy soul he sent forth to God's king-
dom."
Whether ashamed of their own unprovoked barbarity, or
actuated by some latent feeling of compunction, or w^hether
his body, which he had refused to allow the ransom to be
paid for in his life, was purchased by Christians after his
death, the Saxon Chronicle does not tell us ; but William of
^Malmesbury attributes their change of behaviour to a
miracle, such as the loving exaggeration of those days
attributed to popular saints, and as Malmesbury was born
nearly a hundred years after these events happened, there
was time for the wonder to grow. He says, " After he was
murdered God exalted him, insomuch, that when the Danes
who had been instrumental to his death, saw that dead wood
besmeared with his blood miraculously grew green again in
one night, they ran eagerly to kiss his remains and to bear
them on their shoulders. Thus they abated their usual
pride, and suffered his sacred remains to be carried to
London." Here his body was borne the next day to St.
Paul's by the pious care of Bishops Ednoth of Dorchester
and Elfhun of London, and the townsmen received it with
all reverence, and buried it in St. Paul's Minster. " When
ELFEAH, ELPHEGE, OR ALPHEGE. I99
the tribute (eight and forty thousand pounds) was paid, and
oaths of peace were sworn, then the army separated widely,
in like manner as before it had been gathered together.
Twenty-one years had passed away ; the weak and wicked
Ethelred had gone to his account, and his brave son, Edmund
Ironsides, had also passed away, being betrayed by the traitor
Edric. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury near his grand-
father, king Edgar. Canute the Dane was king in England;
he had embraced the Christian faith, and now he granted
the prayers of the monks of Canterbury and restored the
remains of their martyred archbishop to their keeping. So
with solemn reverence they took the body of the saint from
its temporary resting-place, and, placing it in a magnificent
barge or ship, the king himself steering the vessel, the
Archbishop Ethelnoth, with his suffragan bishops, earls, and
very many clergy and laity, carried his remains over the
Thames to Southwark ; there the holy body of the martyr
was delivered to the care of " the archbishop and his com-
panions, and they then, with a worshipful band and sprighdy
joy, bore him to Rochester. Then, on the third day, came
Emma the lady, with her royal child Hardicanute, and they
all, with much state and bliss, and songs of praise, bore the
holy archbishop into Canterbury, and then worshipfully
brought him into Christ's Church (the cathedral) on the
third before the Ides of June. Again, after that, on the
eighth day, the seventeenth before the Kalends of July,
Archbishop Ethelnoth, and Bishop Elfsy (of Winchester),
and bishop Buthwine (of Salisbury), and all those who were
with them, deposited Saint Elphege's holy body on the
north side of Christ's altar, to the glory of God and the
200 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
honour of the holy archbishop, and the eternal health of all
who there daily seek to his holy body with a devout heart
and with all humility. God Almighty have mercy on all
Christian men, through Saint Elphege's holy merits." '
Such is the story of one of the chief worthies of Somer-
set. His name has been well-nigh forgotten, in spite of its
remaining in our Prayer-book. It is said that when Lanfranc
and Anselm revised the Saxon Calendar and turned out the
names of Saxon saints because, forsooth, they were unknown
to these foreigners, that it was Anselm's petition that the
name of Alphege should be retained : for when Lanfranc
argued that he was not really a martyr, as not dying for the
faith, Anselm maintained with greater charity that as he
gave his life for the lesser cause that the poor should not be
overburdened, he most certainly would have laid down his
life for the greater cause, the faith of Christ.
The day is now remembered and kept in memory of one
of England's greatest statesmen, but it would be well when
paying him due honour to link with his memory the holy
man in whose name it has been dedicated for so many
centuries. One can only regret that the story of his life
seems in no special way to be connected with Somerset,
though we may rejoice in the fact that it was the land of
his birth.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; William of Mal-
mesbury.
' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
E[THEX.NOTH 0Y\ AqEX^JMOTH.
(Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 1020-1038.)
■.•0;-
" Ethelnoth was," says William of jSIalmesbury, " the
seventh monk of Glastonbury who became Archbishop of
Canterbury." He then proceeds to enumerate them : first,
Brithwald ; second, Athelm (first bishop of Wells) ; third,
his nephew Dunstan; fourth, Ethelgar, first abbot of the
new minster at Winchester, and then bishop of Winchester ;
fifth, Siric, who when he was made archbishop gave to this
his nursing-mother seven palls, with which upon his anni-
versary the whole ancient church is ornamented ; sixth,
Elphege, who, from prior of Glastonbury, was first made
abbot of Bath, and then bishop of Winchester; seventh,
Ethelnoth.
It was during the absence of Canute in Denmark, in the
winter of 1019-20, that Archbishop Living or Elfstan died :
and it almost seems, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as if
Canute hastened his return on account of his death. He
had come with forty ships to see that all was well in his native
country, and also to show them something of the greatness
and riches of his new kingdom. After his return, Ethelnoth
202 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the monk, who was dean of Christ Church, Canterbury,
though a west county man and educated at Glastonbury,
was chosen archbishop. He was consecrated at Canterbury
by Wulfstan, archbishop of York.
That Canute was a heathen when he fought with Edmund
Ironsides for the kingdom, the half only of which he
obtained, and that by the treachery of the infamous Edric
Streone, is certain ; also that, within a comparatively short
time, he professed himself a Christian seems absolutely
true, but I have not found any record of his baptism.
Thus much we know, that he connived at, if he did not
actually order, the assassination of Edmund Ironsides ; that
he endeavoured to rid himself of his sons ; and that, at first,
he mightily oppressed the Saxons. It is very possible that
his baptism may have been part of the contract made with
Richard, Duke of Normandy, when he demanded his sister
Emma, the widow of Ethelred, in marriage ; if so, he must
have been received into the Church by Living or Elfstan,
Ethelnoth's predecessor, who also crowned him : but the
only fruits he showed of his conversion was the building
and having consecrated the minster at Assingdun, and he
seems in no way to have reformed his life or character till
some years later. From all that we can gather, there can be
little doubt that the change in this great sovereign from
a fierce barbarian and tryant to a Christian king was,
under God's blessing, owing to the influence of Archbishop
Ethelnoth.
" At that time," says William of Malmesbury, "there were
in England very great and learned men, the principal of whom
was Ethelnoth, archbishop after Living. He was appointed
ETHELXOTH OR AGELXOTH. 203
primate from being dean, and he performed many works
truly worthy to be recorded, encouraging even the king
himself in his good actions by the authority of his sanctity,
and restraining him in his excesses. It was in 1021 or 1022
that Ethelnoth travelled to Rome to obtain the Pope's con-
firmation of his appointment as archbishop, and to receive
the pall from his hands. He was received by Pope Benedict
" with much worship," he blessed him, and with his own
hands put his pall upon him. This was on the nones of
October. " And," says the Saxon Chronicle, " the archbishop
soon after, on the self-same day, sang mass therewith, and
then thereafter was honourably entertained by the same
Pope, and also himself took the pall from St. Peter's altar,
and then afterwards blithely went home to his country."
He had with him as a companion Abbot Leofwine of Ely,
who had been unjustly driven out from his abbacy. He was
able, however, to clear himself from the charges laid against
him, and the Pope commanded that he should be reinstated
in the presence of the archbishop and those with him.
But, learned and pious as Ethelnoth undoubtedly was, he
was not, of course, free from the superstitions of his time,
and we find him paying the enormous sum of one hundred
talents of silver and one talent of gold at Pavia — some say
to the Pope himself — for the arm of St. Augustine of Hippo.
This precious relic was presented by Ethelnoth to the
church at Coventry. What was the reason that Coventry
was selected to receive so costly a gift does not appear;
possibly one reason may have been that just at this time the
church of Canterbury was receiving relics, infinitely more
precious than those of any foreign saint could be, viz., the
2 04 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
remains of the martyred Archbishop Elphege. It was in
1023 that Canute, seeking, apparently, to atone for the sins
of his countrymen, took a prominent part, in conjunction
with Ethelnoth, in restoring the body of St. Elphege to the
church over which he had presided. The account of the
translation of Archbishop Elphege's body is given in his
story. It must have been a supreme satisfaction to
Ethelnoth, himself a Sumorsaetan, to preside over this
magnificent function in honour of his predecessor and
fellow-countryman.
On the 8th of June, the 17th before the kalends of July,
Archbishop Ethelnoth, Bishop Elfsy of Winchester, and
Bishop Brithwine, of Sherborne, deposited St. Elphege's
body in the cathedral of Canterbury.
In 1 03 1 Canute went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and after
remaining there some time, and atoning for his sins by giving
alms to the several churches, he sailed back to England,
taki?ig Defwiark on his way. How Denmark could be on
his way one does not exactly see. Of course it is possible
that he may have returned by land to the north of Europe,
where he may have taken ship to Denmark, and so returned
to England. On leaving Rome for his rather erratic journey
home, he transmitted a letter by the hands of Living, Abbot
of Tavistock, and afterwards Bishop of Crediton (who, pre-
sumably, was going by a shorter and more direct route), " to
exemplify his reformation of life and his princely magnifi-
cence." The letter is too long to give i?i extenso ; but it is
charming from its affectionate and homely style. It is thus
addressed: "Canute, King of all England, Denmark, Norway,
and part of the Swedes, to Ethelnoth, metropolitan, and
ETHELNOTH OR AGELNOTH. 205
Elfric, Archbishop of York, and to all bishops, nobles, and
to the whole nation of the English." He tells them his
purpose in going to Rome, and how he met there at
Eastertide the Emperor Conrad, from whom he received
magnificent gifts, and he took the opportunity of desiring
from him that his subjects might be free from vexatious
imposts and obstacles on their way to Rome. To the Pope
" he expressed his high displeasure " at the immense sum
of money demanded from the archbishops when, according
to custom, they sought the apostolical residence " to receive
the pall." These were brave words from the king of the
North to the mighty Bishop of Rome. But he gained his
point, " and it was determined it should be so no longer."
It is evident that this most interesting letter, which is given
in full by William of Malmesbury, was addressed first to
Ethelnoth, as the chief person in the country during the
king's absence.
In 1032 Canute took a journey to Glastonbury, that he
might visit the remains of his brother Edmund, as he used
to call the " Ironside," and pray over his tomb. One can
imagine that if, as is hinted, Canute was in any way acces-
sory to his death, the thought of the peace they had sworn
together, and then the cruel treachery by which Canute had
profited, must have weighed upon his conscience as he
understood more and more what Christianity was and what
it enjoined ; and he probably, therefore, went to Glaston-
bury to pray for forgiveness for the crime in which he had
participated. He offered at the tomb a magnificent pall,
interwoven, as it appeared, with parti-coloured figures of
peacocks.
206 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
At this time Ethelnoth obtained from the king a new
charter confirming all the immunities and charters that had
been granted by his predecessors. After a preamble, this
charter goes on to say : " I, Canute, King of England, and
governor and ruler of the adjacent nations, by the counsel
and decree of our Archbishop Ethelnoth, and of all the
priests of God, and by the advice of our nobility, do, for
the love of Heaven, and the pardon of my sins, and the
remission of the transgressions of my brother King Edmund,
grant to the Church of the holy Mother of God, Mary, at
Glastonbury, its rights and customs. . . . Moreover, I inhibit
men especially by the authority of the Almighty Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, and the curse of the eternal Virgin,
and so command it to be observed by the judges and
primates of my kingdom . . . from entering on any account
that island ; ^ but all causes, ecclesiastical as well as secular,
shall await the sole judgment of the abbot and convent in
like manner as my predecessors have ratified and confirmed
by charters. . . . The grant of this immunity was written
and published in the JVoodefi Church, in the presence of
King Canute, in the year of our Lord 1032, the second
indiction."
The mention of the little wooden church, the Vetusta
Ecclesia, is specially interesting ; for we may feel quite sure,
as Mr. Freeman, says, that even if the charter is a forgery,
the fact of the ancient wooden church being in existence is
no myth, as it is just a fact "about which a forger would
take care to be accurate."
But Ethelnoth was not content with advising the king to
' The Isle of Avalon,
ETHELNOTH OR AGELNOTH. 207
do good to his own subjects and his own branch of the
Church ; for, " by the advice of the said archbishop also,
the king, sending money to foreign churches, very much
enriched Chartres, where at that time flourished Bishop
Fulbert, most renowned for sanctity and learning. Among
his other works, a volume of epistles is extant, in one of
which he thanks that most magnificent King Canute for
pouring out the bowels of his generosity in donations to the
Cliurch of Chartres."
Four years after his return from Rome, in 1036, Canute
died, and was buried at Winchester. He was taken ill at
Shaftesbury, and, sending for his friend the archbishop,
appears to have given him his last instructions. After the
weak and short-sighted policy of those times — a policy
copied from the French kings, but which invariably led
to disaster — Canute desired that his dominions should be
divided between his three sons, Sweyn, who was to possess
Norway, and Harold and Hardicanute, the one to have
Denmark and the other Britain. The people of England
desired to have either one of the sons of Ethelred, or, if not,
at least Hardicanute, who was the son of Emma, on the
throne ; but Harold, in spite of the people's wish, and
apparently in opposition to his father's bequest, seized
VVessex in addition, having been chosen by the Witan
King of Northumberland and Mercia. Now, Wessex was
held by Queen Emma and Earl Godwin for Hardicanute, who
lingered in Denmark. Ethelnoth refused to ratify Harold's
usurpation ; for his election was not sanctioned by legisla-
tive authority. He therefore refused to bestow the regal
benediction. He placed the crown and the sceptre on the
2o8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
altar, and said to Harold : " I will neither give them to
thee, nor prevent thee from taking the ensigns of royalty ;
but I will not bless thee, nor shall any prelate hallow thee
on the throne." ' Harold tried threats, prayers, bribes — all
in vain ; and, being unable to obtain the sanction of the
Church, he lived as one who had abjured Christianity.
The whole story with regard to Canute's sons is very
confused. Both Sweyn and Harold 'Were considered illegi-
timate ; some even doubted whether they were Canute's
sons at all, though apparently he had no doubt on the
subject. But though it is not easy to say where the right
lay, one thing is certain, that Ethelnoth acted conscien-
tiously, and was not to be moved by threats or blandishments
from what he considered the right. Canute's reformation of
character was accepted, and bore good fruit in his own day,
but his early sins were the cause of the distress and bad
government of the next few years ; for is it not true that
sooner or later " God requireth that which is past " ? ^ And
Canute's dynasty came to an end six years after his own
death.
The latter part of Ethelnoth's life must have been sorely
troubled by the anarchy and horrible cruelties that stained
the reigns of Canute's successors. Queen Emma, the wife
of two kings of England, was driven away over sea, but
not till after the mysterious murder of the Atheling
Alfred, her son by Ethelred, who had been enticed to
England for his destruction. Who was answerable for this
horrible crime, the murder of the innocent Atheling and his
companions, is a moot point. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
' Palgrave's "Anglo-Saxons." - Eccles. iii. 15.
ETHELNOTH OR AGELNOTH; 209
positively charges Earl Godwin with this piece of atrocious
wickedness. If so, it must have been with the intention
of currying favour with the brutal Harold. We may well
believe that Ethelnoth's righteous soul was vexed even unto
death by these terrible acts of heathenish barbarity performed
by professing Christians; and in the next year (103S) Ethel-
noth, " the good archbishop " (as he is emphatically called),
died. So greatly was he beloved, and so terrible was the
state of the county under the semi-heathen and brutal sons
of Canute, that Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey in Sussex, "desired
of God that He would not let him live any while after his
beloved father Ethelnoth ; and accordingly, as if in answer
to his prayer, seven days after, he departed this life. Their
deaths were followed immediately by Elfric, Bishop of East
Anglia, and Briteagus of Worcestershire. And so the country
seemed forsaken of its wisest and its best.
Such is the record, as we have been able to gather it,
of one who, among the many great, wise, and holy men
who for well-nigh thirteen centuries have held the office
of Archbishop of Canterbury, is specially called " the good
archbishop."
Authorities. — Anglo - Saxon Chronicle ; William of
Malmesbury ; Palgrave's Anglo-Saxons.
15
Mof^TyVCUTE
AND THE LEGEND OF WALTHAM CROSS.
(A.D. 1042.)
Hardicanute the King was drinking at the wedding feast
given by Osgood Clapa on the occasion of the marriage
of his daughter Goda to Tofig the Proud, a powerful Dane
and the king's standard-bearer. The potations were pro-
longed deep into the night. In the midst of the revel
Hardicanute dropped speechless upon the ground, and
shortly after expired. " Clapham," or Clapa's Home, was
probably the scene of this feast and of Hardicanute's death.
In King Canute's time Tofig had been moved to build
a minster at Waltham, in Essex, where he had great
possessions, as also at Montacute — then called Lutegars-
bury — in Somerset. The name of Montacute was not given
till the time of the Normans, and is said to have been
derived from the sharp-pointed hill — Mons Acutus. At the
top of this hill Tofig discovered a large crucifix, and this
was found to possess the power of working miracles. Tofig
determined then to transfer it to his new monastery at
MONTACUTE. 211
Waltham. We may suppose that the people of Somerset
would not like parting with this wonder-working cross, and
so Tofig had to have recourse to some device for getting it
away. He placed it then in a new cart drawn by oxen, and
off they were to start on their long journey ; but the oxen
sided with the men of Somerset, and by no means wished to
bear away the holy cross. So Tofig tried whether mentioning
the names of any celebrated shrines would move the oxen.
Canterbury was named, they would not move. Our own
Glastonbury was tried, but still they did not stir. Other
sacred shrines were mentioned, but without effect. But
when Waltham was spoken, off set the oxen most briskly.
How many days it took to get from Lutegarsbury to
Waltham, and how many relays of oxen it took, the legend
does not say. My own opinion is that the oxen having
gathered in some mysterious way the distance they had to
travel, determined on trying the effect of passive resistance,
but that, when the word Waltham was spoken, a judicious
application of the goad stirred them up.^
How much of this story may be true cannot now be
known. All that is certain is that Tofig took possession
' It IS, I think, palpable that as a rule legends and myths are sacred
things to me, but the whole story in the first place seems merely a poor
travesty of the Philistines sending back the Ark in the sixth chapter of
the First Book of Samuel ; and, secondly, I cannot forgive Tofig for
taking away the wonder-working relic from Somerset and depositing
it m his new foundation in far away Essex. Possibly my indignation may
be roused by the fact that the beautiful old chimes of Glastonbury,
which for many years have remained silent and uncared for in the
Cathedral Church at Wells, are now in the great show at South
Kensington to emphasize the antiquity of the Old London Street,
those very chimes being the only thing ancient about it. When will the
people of Somerset be roused to take pride in their own antiquities ?
212 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
of some time-honoured relic and despoiled Somerset — as his
compatriots had so often done before — for the sake of a far-
away monastery which he had founded ; that he there
built a glorious church, and there placed the wonder-
working rood, and that from that day it was called Waltham
Holy Cross. This foundation Harold, the son of Earl
Godwin, enlarged and beautified — possibly also with the
spoils of Somerset, which he unscrupulously ravaged more
than once. But from whence the crucifix taken from Mont-
acute originally came, and what miracles it performed, I
have not found any record. At any rate, it is as well to
remember that Waltham Cross, a name which all men now
apply to the remains of one of the beautiful Queen Eleanor
Crosses, bore the name of Waltham Holy Cross ages
before Queen Eleanor lived and died ; and that that name
it derived from the wonder-working rood of Montacute in
distant Somerset.
Authorities. — Dugdale's Monasticon; Palgrave's Anglo-
Saxons ; Freeman's Old English History.
Poi^LOCK y^ND HyVROLD 30JM OF
QoDWlf^.
(A.D. 1053.)
As the last Saxon King of England, Harold the son of Earl
Godwin has been invested with a halo of romance, not to say
of sanctity, which he seems little enough to have deserved.
Brave he certainly was, but a man selfish withal and utterly
unscrupulous. Godwin and his sons, we know, set up for
patriots ; but, if Dr. Johnson is to believed, not all who call
themselves so are possessed with the spirit of patriotism.
Sweyn and Tosti, two of Godwin's sons, were unmitigated
ruffians ; the others were perhaps of gentler mood, but they
tyrannized over the meek and pious Confessor till even his
patience was exhausted, and they were banished the king-
dom. Godwin and his other sons went to the Continent,
but Harold and Leofwine sailed for Ireland, and, coming up
the Bristol Channel, landed at Porlock. They came, so
they said, to deliver them from the Frenchmen, Edward's
favourites, who were overrunning the land. But the
214 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Frenchmen or Normans did not oppress the people of
Somerset; while, on the contrary, they looked with con-
siderable suspicion on the invaders, who came with nine
ships and formed a camp in their little village, and probably
expected to be fed with the best of the land, and, likely
enough, thought not of payment. However that may be,
the fact is certain that the men of Devon and Somerset did
not welcome their would-be benefactors as they expected ;
on the contrary they rose against them, and after a severe
conflict more than thirty thanes were slain, as well as other
folk. Nor was Harold content with taking the lives of the
fathers and the bread-winners. He now proceeded to rob
and pillage the widows and orphans, for he carried off goods,
cattle, and slaves, and sailed away round the Land's End to
meet Earl Godwin, his father.
The remains of his camp may still be seen south of the
church. It seems a pity that there is no more agreeable
story or legend connected with Porlock, but it is so charming
a spot that it can well dispense with any ancient reminiscence
to give it a fictitious charm. It Avould be hard to believe
now that its peaceful quiet could be disturbed by Dane or
Saxon, by foe or pretended friend.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (S:c.
Qla^tonbury after the
C0NQUE3T.
BISHOP THURSTAN, 1082.
The conquest of England by William of Normandy was
made far more bitter to the Saxon English than that of
Canute. For the latter endeavoured to make the people
forget that he was a foreigner and a conqueror. He governed
them by their own laws, and continued all such Saxons as
received him in their benefices and government, whereas
William seized every occasion of dispossessing them, more
especially if they were in any way eminent, and replacing
them by Normans. At the time of the Conquest, Egelnoth,
Abbot of Glastonbury, was esteemed one of the principal
men of the kingdom, and, as such, was marked for removal.
As a preliminary step, he made him form one of the band
of distinguished Saxons, who he took with him in a sort
of triumph, when he visited Normandy in 1067. He refused
to reinstate the abbot, and in 1078 a council was held in
London, at which Lanfranc formally deposed him. It marks
the importance of this act of tyranny that it is the sole event
2l6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
marked in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for that year; and
neither ignorance nor incompetence were urged against him.
It was not till 1082 that a new abbot was appointed. To
appoint a foreigner was in itself a special grievance to the
monks of Glastonbury, as by their charters it was provided
that even the meanest monk of Glastonbury, were he in any
way suitable, was to be preferred to a stranger. The least,
therefore, that they were bound to do was to provide a worthy
man for such an important post ; but it must have been in
the very wantonness of tyranny that such a brutal ruffian as
Thurstan, a monk of William's new Abbaye aux Hommes,
or St. Etienne's, at Caen, was selected. Stowe, in his account
of what followed upon his appointment, mildly asserts that
" he was a man furnished with no wisdome." The Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle says that he treated his monks ill in many
respects, but the monks were lovingly-minded towards him,
and begged him to govern them in right and in kindness,
and they would be faithful and obedient to him. He must
have irritated and provoked the monks before they utterly
rebelled against his authority in the following year, or it is
scarcely likely that the quarrel would have risen to so great
a height for such a cause as the substitution of the song of
one William of Fe^amps for the old Gregorians that the
monks delighted in. This the monks utterly refused to do :
they clung to their old customs, which they had religiously
kept up in spite of being so many years without a head.
Thurstan, determining to quell resistance by force, introduced
armed men unawares. Apparently the monks endeavoured
to close the doors against them ; for we are told they broke
into the chapter-house, and the monks fled into the church
GLASTONBURY AFTER THE CONQUEST. 217
and gathered round the high altar, where from all except
heathen or infidels the very sacredness of the place itself
should have preserved them. Then they locked the doors
of the church, but the soldiers broke into the choir. They
threw darts where the monks were collected ; nay, some of
their servants made their way into the triforium and shot
down arrows into the chancel, so that several stuck in the
crucifix which stood above the altar ! The wretched monks
lay round the altar ; some crept under it. They called
earnestly upon God, and besought His mercy, since they
could obtain none at the hands of men. Meanwhile the
savage soldiers, urged by the ruffian abbot, carried on their
hideous sacrilege : they injured the crosses, images, and
shrines. One monk was run through the body with a spear
as he embraced the altar ; another was slain with an arrow
as he lay hidden beneath it. Three were killed and eighteen
wounded ; so that the blood ran down from the altar to the
steps and from the steps to the floor. At last the monks
took heart, being, as it were, constrained of necessity. They
defended themselves with forms and candlesticks of the
church, and in such good sort did they lay about them that,
though wounded, and the soldiers armed, they drove them
behind the choir and slew two of them.
The greatness of this outrage caused the king to make
inquiry, and, finding that the abbot was entirely to blame,
he was removed, and sent back to his house in Normandy.
All the time that the Conqueror lived, he remained in exile,
but upon William Rufus succeeding to the throne Thurstan
bought back the abbey for five hundred pounds of silver,
and returned triumphantly. But now the monks were pre-
2l8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
pared : every entrance was barred, and if Thurstan appealed
to the king, Rufus had the money, and cared nothing for
aught else ; so the miserable man wandered from place to
place in the wide abbey lands, his money spent, and no man
caring for him, till he perished miserably, " as he well
deserved."
It seems only fair to say that, in spite of his sacrilegious
brutality, Thurstan, even in the one year that he was abbot,
began, after the manner of the Normans, to rebuild the
church and the other monastic buildings on a grander scale;
but the next abbot, Herlewin — who, probably, from his
name, was a Saxon — was not satisfied with Thurstan's work ;
in fact it is likely that in the neglect of years — for Herlewin
was not appointed till the second year of Henry I. — it had
begun to decay. He therefore pulled it down and began to
build afresh, more in accordance, as he thought, with the
dignity and possessions of the monastery. He expended
four hundred and eighty pounds (a large sum in those days)
on the work, and adorned it with many ornaments of exqui-
site workmanship.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Stowe's Chronicle,
&c., &c.
Wll-LIAM OF MaLME3BURY.
CALLED ALSO " SOMERSETANUS." ^
(Circa 1095-1143.)
William of Malmesbury, one of the fathers of English
history, flourished during the first half of the twelfth century.
He was born in Somerset, but where, and at what exact date,
is uncertain. He must, one would think, have received his
early education at Glastonbury ; for he speaks of it with
even more passionate affection and admiration than he does
of the monastery with which his name is so intimately con-
nected. He was of both Norman and English blood, as he
himself states in his preface to the third book of his history.
He speaks of his early love of learning, in which he was
encouraged, and even instructed, by his father. His personal
account of his early studies is highly interesting.^ " A long
period has elapsed," he says, "since, as well through the
care of my parents as my own industry, I became familiar
with books. This pleasure possessed me from my child-
hood : this source of delight has grown with my years.
' Cunninghame's " Lives of Celebrated Englishmen.''
" Prologue to Book II.
2 20 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Indeed, I was so instructed by my father, that, had I turned
aside to other pursuits, I should have considered it jeopardy
to my soul and discredit to my character. Wherefore,
mindful of the adage, ' Covet what is necessary,' I con-
strained my early age to desire eagerly that which it was
disgraceful not to possess. I gave, indeed, my attention
to various branches of literature, but in different degrees.
Logic, for instance, which gives arms to eloquence, I
contented myself with barely hearing. Medicine, which
ministers to the health of the body, I studied with some-
what more attention. But now, having scrupulously examined
the several branches of Ethics, I bow down to its majesty,
because it spontaneously unveils itself to those who study
it, and directs their minds to moral practice ; History more
especially, which, by an agreeable recapitulation of past
events, excites its readers, by example, to frame their lives
to the pursuit of good, or to aversion from evil. When,
therefore, at my own expense, I had procured some historians
of foreign nations, I proceeded during my domestic leisure
to inquire if anything concerning our own country could be
found worthy of handing down to posterity. Hence, it arose
that, not content with the writings of ancient times, I began
myself to compose ; not indeed to display my learning,
which is comparatively nothing, but to bring to light events
lying concealed in the confused mass of antiquity. In
consequence, rejecting vague opinions, I have studiously
sought for chronicles far and near, though I confess I have
scarcely profited anything by this industry. For, perusing
them all, I still remained poor in information, though I
ceased not my researches as long as I could find anything
WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY. 221
to read. However, what I have clearly ascertained con-
cerning the four kingdoms I have inserted in my first book,"
&c.
It is to be remarked that William of Malmesbury is not
answerable for that misleading word, the Heptarchy, as he
declines to acknowledge more than four kingdoms as of any
importance. These are Kent, Wessex, Northumbria, and
Mercia. He mentions the smaller kingdoms as having
existed for a short time, and been of little or no considera-
tion.
He was yet young when placed at Malmesbury, to which
he was evermore devoted, though he never attempts to exalt
it above the more ancient one of Glastonbury. What caused
a native of Somerset to prefer Malmesbury to Glastonbury
he gives no hint. Glastonbury was then at its greatest,
under the magnificent rule of Henry of Blois. It is just
possible that Malmesbury was more retired and more suited
for an ardent student at that time.
His greatest work is his " De Gestis Regum," the first
three books of which were probably written soon after the
year 1120. The fourth and fifth, which are a record of
contemporary events, he dedicates to Robert, Earl of
Gloucester, one of Henry I.'s numerous illegitimate
children, the devoted adherent of his half-sister Maude,
who resembled his father in his capacity and love of
learning, but far outstripped him in his moral and reli-
gious character. Malmesbury is, as a rule, a most judicious
and conscientious historian, but in his lavish and exag-
gerated praise of Henry I., and the extraordinary apology
he makes for his vices, he was evidently endeavouring to
222 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
please and win the favour of the great earl. It is worthy
of notice that the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth
is also dedicated to the Earl of Gloucester.
!Malmesbury was a voluminous writer, and nineteen works
are catalogued as of his wTiting. Among them we may
mention the life of St. Dunstan, written for the monks
of Glastonbury. He also wrote a history of Glastonbury,
which he dedicated to Cardinal Henry ; also the Miracles
of St. Andrew. As St. Andrew is the patron saint of the
diocese of Bath and Wells, it shows strongly his affection
for his native county. His book of the acts of the Kings
breaks off suddenly in the year 1142 with the mention of
the empress's escape from Oxford. What prevented his
continuing it, or the exact date of his death, we do not
know. He was precentor and librarian of Malmesbury
Abbey, and refused the office of abbot. Leland com-
plains that in his time his works were neglected and
almost forgotten.
Authorities. — His own works principally ; also Cun-
ninghame's Lives of Celebrated Englishmen.
The Philo3pher3 of 3o'^e:i^3e:t
IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.
Adelard of Bath, 1130; Maurice of Somerset, 1193; Alexander
of Essebie, or Ashby, 1220 ; Adam de Marisco, 1237.
ADELARD OF BATH.
(Circa A.D. 1130.)
If the reign of Henry IH. was, as Bishop Stubbs affirms,
" the golden age of EngUsh Churchmanship," no less was
it the golden age of mediaeval science. It is remarkable
that the most illustrious of these pioneers of scientific truth
went forth from Somerset. A goodly band they were that
in those days hailed from our county. The Summer Land
then put forth fair flowers of rhetoric, and rich fruits
of learning and science, to ripen in days to come ; but,
such as they were, they were too rich and rare to be allowed
to remain in their own land, and so of these, one alone, and
he the least known, stayed to enrich his own land with the
fruit of his learning. But we must take them in order.
Foremost among them was Adelard of Bath, who was nearly
a hundred years in advance of the others. His name is
2 24 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
now scarcely known, and old Fuller does not even place him
among his "Worthies," but then he also omits the far greater
and better known name of Roger Bacon. Adelard lived
not long after the first Crusade, those Quixotic and yet not
fruitless expeditions which, though they missed the object
they had at heart, yet, brought back new impulse to thought
and learning. Some of this knowledge, which at that time
was rife in the East, but strange in our barbarous Western
land, seems to have been brought by the Jews, who
established schools, at which even Christians, who had
a craving for knowledge beyond the narrow routine of eccle-
siastical teaching, studied ; and it is likely enough that from
one of these Adelard learned that the knowledge he sought
was to be gathered in Eg}'pt and Arabia, and in the
Mahomedan schools of Bagdad and Cordova. At any
rate, whatever may have given the first impulse, Adelard
went on his travels, and gathering learning wherever he
went, he stored it up in the cells of his mind till he could
use it for the advantage of the busy hive of Oxford scholars.
This pilgrim of science travelled through Europe, visited
Spain, the richest part of which was then in possession
of the learned and cultivated Saracenic Moors. Here were
to be found the best schools of instruction in science, kept
by Moors and Jews. Aristotle and Plato, Euchd, ApoUonius,
Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen were taught ; and many
treatises now lost in the original are to be found in Arabic
versions. . Geometry, algebra and astronomy, chemistry,
botany, and medicine, formed part of their regular course
of instruction. From Spain he went into Arabia and Egypt,
and disregarding the prejudices of his age, thought it no
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 225
wrong to bring home the spoils of learning from the enemies
of his faith. He translated the elements of Euclid into
Latin from the Arabic before any Greek copies were known
in the West. He also wrote and translated several treatises
on astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. These are said
still to remain in manuscript in the libraries of Corpus
Christi and Trinity colleges, Oxford.
Authorities. — Hutton's Mathematics ; History of Spain.
MAURICE OF SOMERSET.
(Circa A.D. 1193.)
Maurice of Somerset was a Cistercian of Ford Abbey^
which was at this time remarkable for its great learning.
This abbey, now altered into a dwelling-place, still retains
its name. It is remarkable, as standing so exactly on the
meeting point of the three counties of Somerset, Devon, and
Dorset, that no two authorities agree as to which it belongs.
Fuller, in his '' Worthies," says he (Maurice) was bred in
Oxford and became Abbot of Wells. But here he must be
mistaken, as Wells was a foundation for secular clergy, as
Glastonbury was for the regulars. Perhaps he was dean
of the cathedral or head of the vicars choral. He wrote
several books and dedicated them to Reginald, Bishop
of Bath.
i6
2 26 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
ALEXANDER OF ESSEBIE, OR ASHBY
(Circa A.D. 1220),
Is called by Fuller " the prince of English poets in his age."
He put our English festivals into verse, and wrote the
history of the Bible, with the lives of some of the saints,
in an heroic poem.
He became Prior of Essebie Abbey and flourished under
Henry IH.
ADAM DE ^lARISCO.
(Circa A.D. 1257.)
In'tlie Middle Asies the diocese of Lincoln was of immense
^&^
extent, and included the City and L^^niversity of Oxford. The
bishop of this see had it, therefore, in his power materially
to assist and strengthen those pioneers of new learning
and advanced thought of whom we are speaking, and we
consequently find a close relation existing between these
Somerset philosophers and the far distant see of Lincoln,
through the connecting link of Oxford. Thus Hugh of
Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, whose first benefice in England
was Witham Priory, in Somerset, brought forward Hugh
of Wells, who succeeded him in his bishopric, and Hugh of
Wells was one of the first to discern the greatness of Robert
Grostete. When Grostete became in his turn Bishop of
Lincoln, he paid back his debt to Somerset by largely
encouraging and befriending two of these seekers after truth
who came from the western diocese.
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 227
The name of Adam de Marisco in the lapse of ages has
been well-nigh forgotten ; and what hints we can find with
regard to him have to be gathered from the lives of his
more famous contemporaries. To say that he was the
pupil and afterwards the life-long friend and correspondent
of Grostete, the great and virtuous Bishop of Lincoln, as
well as of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, marks him
at once as no ordinary man.
Fuller, in his "Worthies," says of him: —
" Adam de Marisco, or Adam ISIarsh, was born in this
county, where there be plenty of marshes in the fenny part
thereof. But I take Brent Marsh, as the principal, the most
probable place for his nativity. It seems that a foggie air is
no hindrance to a refined writer, whose infancy and youth
in this place was so full of pregnancy. He afterwards went
to Oxford, and there became Doctor. It is argument
enough to persuade any man of his abilities, because that
Robert Grostete, that learned man and pious Bishop of
Lincoln, made of his paines that they might jointly peruse
and compare the Scriptures. He afterwards became a
Franciscan Friar at Worcester, and furnished the library
there with most excellent MSS., for then began the emula-
tion in England between monasteries who should outvie the
other for most and best books."
It appears that Adam Marsh was considered a candidate
for the bishopric of Ely. What caused De Marisco to be
passed over and Hugh de Balsham nominated does not
appear; but Fuller, who was a student of Peter House,
Cambridge, quaintly adds : —
" I cannot grieve heartily for this Adam, his losse of the
228 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
bishopric of Ely, for because Hugh de Balsham his corrival
got it from him, the founder of Peter House in Cambridge."
Tlie Franciscan Order was the outcome as well as the
cause of a great religious and intellectual revival which
marked the reign of Henry III. Nor were the labours of
these earnest men confined to the souls or minds of men.
Their work was physical as well as moral. It was in the
Lazar houses — the hospitals of those days — that, by the
order of their founder, St. Francis, they sought their work ;
when, in the middle ages, fever, plague, and leprosy swept
off their tens of thousands. They also started a school at
Oxford, where Grostete lectured, and when he was raised to
the see of Lincoln he steadily used his influence to secure
their establishment at Oxford. He was ably seconded by
his scholar, Adam Marsh, under whom the Franciscan
school at Oxford attained a reputation throughout Christen-
dom. Lyons, Paris, and Cologne borrowed from it their
professors.
We know little of the personal history of Adam Marsh,
but it is not likely that he, the man of study, should have
been less accomplished in the learning of the day than his
more active and busy friend ; and Dr. Hook thus sums up
Grostete's acquirements : —
" Besides a knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and
French languages, and that acquaintance with theology and
philosophy to which he was led by his professional studies,
he was no mean proficient in civil and canon law, criticism,
history, chronology, astronomy, and the other branches of
literature and science then known."
Adam was also the intimate friend and correspondent
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 229
of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In one of De
Montfort's letters to him he speaks of finding patience in
his Gascon troubles from the study of the Book of Job.
And these three great men seem to have struggled and
prayed and fought for that freedom and light in religion and
politics, which was to be the heritage of a later generation.
It is a marvellous picture, and no ideal one, to endeavour
to realize the earnest and busy churchman and reformer,
Grostete ; the great soldier and far-seeing politician, De
Montfort ; and the learned friar and teacher, Adam Marsh,
studying the Word of God in its native languages, taking
counsel together, and upholding each other's hands in the
search for truth and struggle for liberty.
It is worth noting that it was not till after his two friends'
death that De Montfort's struggle ended in rebellion.
We have no record of the exact date of De Marisco's
death, but he was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, his grave
being between Bishop Grostete's tomb and the wall of the
south transept.
Side by side they had laboured, and side by side they lie
in that glorious cathedral church.
Authorities. — Adam de Marisco's Letters ; Speed ;
Fuller ; Churton's Early English Church ; Hook's
Ecclesiastical Biography ; Green's History of Eng-
land ; &c.
The "Ro3E Of CAJ^i]MIJ^IQTOJM,
-.•O.-
JOAN CLIFFORD,
CALLED "fair R^
(Circa 1137-1177.)
COMMONLY CALLED "FAIR ROSAMOND."
" Alas ! alas ! a low voice full of care
Murmur'd beside me : " Turn and look on me !
I am that Rosamond, whom men call Fair ;
If what I was, I be."
Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women.
Legend and mist and doubt surround the name and life of
this fair " Rose of the World," this victim of the youthful
passion and unhallowed ambition of one of the most
licentious and unscrupulous of men. Yet the love of
Henry of Anjou for the sweet rose of Somerset was,
probably, the only pure passion that he ever felt in his
life, and fearfully were her wrongs avenged on her heartless
lover and — husband !
For such, indeed, there is very little doubt he was. It is
needless to say it cannot be proved ; the king would care-
fully destroy all proofs of his youthful folly ! In telling the
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 23 1
Story then of Rosamond Clifford, it must be understood
that gaps have to be filled up by imagination, but that such
hints as are given by legend or history are carefully and
conscientiously followed.
The small town of Cannington brings into one focus
Alfred the Christian king and hero — the knightly family of
the De Courcies — the Puritan John Pym — and, above all,
the heroine of a romance more real and more touching
than the writer of any sensational novel can produce.
Before we tell the tale of her woes we will give a sketch of
the place itself.
A little more than three miles from Bridgewater, on the
road from that town to Dunster and Porlock, stands the
pleasant village of Cannington, once of far greater impor-
tance than it is now. A first glimpse of the tall and stately
church tower is caught on surmounting the hill at Wembdon,
from whence the eye embraces a wide expanse of cultivated
valley, backed by the lofty mass of limestone known by the
name of Cannington Park, and bounded on the right by
the flat banks of the Parret, and on the left by the green
glades of Brymore.^ As we approach the place, Leland's
description of it is still applicable in the main, " Cannyngton
is yet a pretty uplandish place ; " as we enter it we pass
" over a bigge Brooke that riseth not far by West yn the
Hilles, and, passinge by Cannyngton, runneth into the
haven of Bridgewater, a two miles and more by Estimation
lower than Bridgewater."
The church, though now rather spoiled by a — so-called —
restoration, is still a remarkable building; it is cruciform,
' Brymon was the birthplace of Pym.
232 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
very short, and lofty, with a single roof embracing nave,
aisles, and chancel. When seen from the east its height is
magnificent. There is an ancient manor-house belonging to
Lord Cavan, now occupied as a farm-house.
Near the church was the ancient priory. It was founded
during the reign of Stephen by a Baron de Courcy, of
Stoke-Courcy (a neighbouring village or township), called
variously by different authorities Robert, Walter, or William.
He was sewer or chief butler to the Empress Maude. It
was a small foundation for about twelve nuns, where the
daughters of the neighbouring nobility were sent for their
education. The girls brought up there were not, we may
be sure, instructed so as to fit them to enter the lists against
the students of the universities ; they may have been
taught enough Latin to read their missal or breviary, and
to sing the medieval Latin hymns, whose grand beauty has
become familiar to us in these latter days by translations ;
some knowledge of medicine and surgery was given them
in order that they might be efficient nurses for the poor and
the sick, or, if need be, might minister to their brothers,
their fathers, their lovers, or their husbands, when they were
wounded in battle, no remote contingency in the ceaseless
warfare of those times. Last, but not least, they were
instructed in the exquisite art of embroidery for ecclesiastical
or domestic decoration.
At the time we speak of, Cannington was one of the resi-
dences of Lord Clifford ; he had a manor-house there —
whether the one alluded to above I cannot say — at which he
occasionally resided, as he had large property there as well
as in Hereford.
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 233
It appears to have been during one of his visits to
Cannington that Margaret Lady CUfford bore her husband a
daughter called Jane or Joan. Three other children they
had : Lucy, who married twice — first to Hugh de Say,
secondly to Bartholomew de Mortimer; and two sons,
Walter and Richard. The family probably moved about at
different periods of the year to their various castles and
manor-houses. Whether some sudden necessity made it
imperative to leave their little daughter behind them we
cannot tell ; at any rate, they placed her in the newly-founded
prior}' in the care of the nuns of Cannington, possibly
intending that eventually she should take the veil. She
grew up a vision of beauty, and we may imagine her in her
sweet girlhood the darling of the pious sisters, as fair and
as lovely as the wild rose which adorns the lanes and hedges
of her native county. Her own proper appellation was lost
in that of the "Rose" — perhaps first — of Cannington or
Somerset ; then the Rose of the World, on account of her
wondrous beauty ; and so the homely Joan has been for-
gotten, and she has been knov/n to all time as Rosa Mundi,
or the Fair Rosamond. She was taught by the nuns such
arts as they themselves practised, and excelled in embroidery,
for in the abbey of Buildas in Shropshire was long preserved
among its treasures a magnificent cope worked by her
dainty fingers.
But though brought up in a nunnery she was kept in no
grim seclusion, and when her father and mother visited
Cannington at intervals, she resided at the old manor-house
and shared in the gaieties of the time. The peaceful seclu-
sion of Cannington was in a great measure owing to the fact
234 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
that, as a rule, the nobles of Somerset were followers of the
empress, and this was probably occasioned by the popularity
of her devoted half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester. To
him was entrusted the care of her heir, Henry of Anjou,
and well did he fulfil his trust. He imbued him with his
own love of learning,' and he instructed him in the art of
government; moreover, he encouraged the youth to visit
freely among the families of those barons who were faithful
to his sister's cause, and among these was the Baron de
Chfford. Playmates and friends they were, then, from child-
hood, and small wonder is it that as the lovely child
developed into the exquisitely fair maiden, the young prince
should have felt an ardent affection for her. His succession
to the throne was then a mere chance, and the demon of
ambition had not as yet o'ermastered him.
But Prince Henry lost his wise uncle and governor when
yet only twelve years old ; from thenceforth he had no
certain home, he was handed about from one to another.
The empress wished him to remain as much as possible in
England, in order to keep himself well before the eyes of
the English ; and if in Normandy or Anjou he was under
the influence of his haughty and ambitious mother, whose
character, too, was by no means free from reproach, while
his weak father, the Earl of Anjou, was despised alike by
both wife and son. What Henry might have been had his
uncle lived we cannot tell ; as it was, the intellectual part of
' Robert of Gloucester was the most learned and accomplished
man of his day. To him the two widely-differing historians — the
scrupulous and careful William of Malmesburj', and Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, the writer of the wildest myths and romances, which he called
history — dedicated their books.
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 235
his mind had free growth, but his temper and his afifections
were utterly undiscipHned, and the ambition which might,
under wise guidance, have been an incentive to noble deeds,
was fostered by his mother till it became an unscrupulous
greed of dominion. His passions were unbridled, and he
was at once cold-hearted and licentious. But all these
unlovely traits of character were not developed at once.
He was sixteen when he went on a visit to Scotland,
where he was knighted by his mother's uncle, King David I.
With his honours fresh upon him, he returned to Somerset
to bid adieu to his fair Rosamond. We cannot tell what
passed, but we can suppose him to have then first spoken
out his whole heart to her. She knew little or nothing
of the world, and as she walked with him in the woods
of Cannington, and wept at the thought of parting from
him, he told her that would she consent to be indeed his,
without waiting for her father or his mother's consent, then
nought could ever part them. And she yielded. Some
priest could easily be found who was persuaded that if he
ever became king, Henry would shield him from blame ;
and if not, then the daughter of the Lord de Clifford would
be no misalliance for the earl of a small French province.
So they were married, and, on one pretext and another,
Henry lingered, carrying — as the circumstances became
known — the beautiful girl with him ; but with much secresy,
lest what he had done should come to the ears of his
haughty mother. At last, in 1150, before the birth of a
son, he placed her in the manor of Woodstock, and there,
surrounding her with such luxuries and comforts as he
could devise, her eldest son William — known as Longesp^e —
236 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
was born ; and scarcely was the poor girl a mother, when
an order that could no longer be evaded came, and Henry
had to leave her and return to France.
Three years passed away ; how they were spent by
Rosamond we cannot tell. We must suppose her bringing
up her boy, heir, as she fondly hoped, to Normandy and
Anjou, and perhaps to England, while she beguiled the
tedious days with her elaborate embroidery. We cannot
say for certain where she remained during these years, this
sad waiting time, hoping against liope, and believing in her
husband's truth, spite of all ill rumours.
" Boures hadde the Rosamunde about in Englonde,
Which this King for her sake made ich (I) understonde ; "
says Robert of Gloucester.
Bowers there were for her at Bishop's Waltham, Wynch,
Freemantel, and Martelstone, but the most curious of all
was Woodstock, for —
" At Woodstoke for hure he made a toure,
That is called Rosamund's boui'e."
It was in 1150 that Henry of Anjou returned to France.
His mother resigned Normandy to him, and he was invested
with the dukedom. In 1151 his father died, and he
became Earl of Anjou and Maine. Stephen was trying to
induce the bishops to crown his eldest and best-beloved
son Eustace ; but they refused, determined that the contest
for the throne should cease with Stephen's life. And now
the demon of ambition gripped hard at Henry's heart. He
had not seen Rosamond for more than a year. Eleanor of
Aquitaine had taken a disgust to her husband, Louis le
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 237
Jeune, who she declared looked more like a cloistered
priest than a valiant king. Henry of Anjou came, on his
father's death, to do homage for his possessions, and
Eleanor tried her blandishments upon him. A clever
woman, much older than himself, with yet great beauty and
attractions and moreover dowered with the finest provinces
in the South of France, formed a powerful attraction alike
to the passions and the ambition of the young prince.
Honour, love, every noble virtue gave way, and six weeks
after Eleanor obtained a divorce from Louis VII., on the
the plea of consanguinity, she was married, at the age of
thirty-two, to a youth not yet twenty, on May Day, 115 2.
Alas for Rosamond ! But alas still more for Henry and
Eleanor ! Bitterly was the fair Clifford avenged.
And now Henry had to play a double game. Of course
Eleanor knew nothing of her rival, and Rosamond, immured
in the "boures" provided for her, it is probable knew
nought of Eleanor. Louis, naturally incensed at his late
wife's marriage with his powerful vassal, now proceeded to
help Stephen to retain the crown of England for his son.
Henry, obtaining a fleet from Eleanor's maritime provinces,
left her and her son in Normandy, and hastened to England.
The nation was wearied with civil strife, and forced Stephen
to make an -agreement with Henry, adopting him as his son
and heir. Henry remained a year in England ; he visited
his first love, and Rosamond tasted once more the joys of a
beloved wife. It is probable that it was at this period, in
anticipation of the time when Eleanor must return to
England with him, he contrived the labyrinth and maze of
Woodstock, for the better security of his darling. How
238 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
must he have Hed to both ! Is there in any sensational
novel of the most advanced type anything more strange,
more horrible, than the case of this man, involved in all the
intricacies of political ambition, yet carrying about in his
heart a state of wild passion, of deceit and falsehood, that
must have made a very hell of his own mind ?
Another son was born to him, Geoffrey, and then once
more he had to tear himself from the loving arms of his
trusting wife, and return to Normandy. The next year
Stephen died, and he was recalled to England. Eleanor,
with her son, chose to accompany him. They were crowned
in Westminster Abbey, with unexampled pomp, on
December 19, 1154, their principal residences being Win-
chester Palace, Westminster Palace, and the country palace
of Woodstock. The maze of '\^'oodstock was so contrived
that he had little fear of Rosamond's bower being dis-
covered. " But one day," says Brompton, " Queen Eleanor
saw the king walking in the pleasance of Woodstock, with
the end of a ball of floss silk attached to his spur ; coming
near him unperceived, she took up the ball, and the king
walking on, the silk unwound, and thus the queen traced
him to a thicket in the labyrinth or maze of the park,
where he disappeared. She kept the matter secret, often
revolving in her own mind in what company he could meet
with balls of silk. Soon after the king left Woodstock for a
distant journey ; then Queen Eleanor, bearing this discovery
in mind, searched the thicket in the park, and discovered a
low door, cunningly concealed ; this door she had forced,
and found it was the entrance to a winding subterranean
path, which led, at a distance, to a sylvan lodge in the most
THE ROSE OF CAXXIXGTON. 239
retired part of the adjacent forest." Here the queen found,
in a bower, a young lady of incomparable beauty, engaged
in embroidery.
It would require the pen of a tragic poet and the brush of
an artist to pourtray, even in imagination, the scene of the
meeting bet\veen these two outraged women. Bitterly had
they both been deceived ; but, slight as was fair Rosamond's
acquaintance with the world (she was even now scarce
twenty-one) she must have known, even without the aid of
the sensational and mythical dagger and bowl of poison,
that she had no chance against this proud imperious woman.
What took place we know not. We can imagine her at first
proudly asserting that she was his lawful wife ; and then,
yielding to stern fate, in the person of her rival, entreating
her to be good to him, promising to go into a nunnery,
never to see him more, and by degrees so softening the
queen that she made all easy for her, and herself arranged
everything for her flight. We may imagine the guilty queen
feeling how much purer and truer the poor girl was than
herself, and Rosamond mourning most for the unworthiness
of her shattered idol.
We know nothing of the king's behaviour when he found
Rosamond's chamber empty, and the cause. For twenty
years the poor nun at Godstow led a life of remorse and
penitence for her involuntary sin. Lord Clifford, her father,
and King Henry vied with each other in costly benefactions
to the nunnery where their chiefest darling was performing
acts of penance. Henry provided for both her children,
and insisted on their sharing the education of their half-
brothers. ^\'illiam Longespee, the eldest, grew up to be a
240 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
valiant soldier, and a faithful friend to both his father and
his brothers.
But Rosamond's fate was happier than that of her betrayers.
Dire strife broke out between the king and queen, their sons
were ever undutiful to their father, and Henry knew not
what it was to have peace in his country or his home. At
the time that Rosamond died, in the odour of sanctity, at
Godstow, Eleanor was imprisoned at Winchester, where she
continued, with few and short intervals, for sixteen years.
She lived to sign herself, " Eleanora, by the wrath of God,
Queen of England;" while Henry passed away cursing his
sons and — his God.
Rosamond's death-bed was peaceful. Her sweetness,
her beauty, and her humility made her very dear to the
nuns. She told them that when a certain tree in the
convent garden should be turned to stone, they would know
the time that she was received into glory. " She was buried
at Godstow, near Oxford, a little nunnery among the rich
meadows of Evenlod," says Camden.
But the story of Rosamond Clifford does not even end
with her death, and a painful mortification awaited her
remains. It was twenty years after her death that St. Hugh,
Bishop of Lincoln, in a course of visitation of convents,
came to Godstow. He saw in front of the high altar a
coffin placed in a sort of tabernacle, and covered with a
pall of fair white silk : tapers burned around it, and banners
with emblazonments waved over it. He demanded who
lay there in such state, under that rich hearse ? But
when the nuns replied that it was the corpse of their
penitent sister, Rosamond Clifford, St. Hugh said " that
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 241
the hearse of a harlot was not a fit spectacle for a
quire of virgins to contemplate, nor was the front of
God's altar a proper station for it." He then gave orders
for the expulsion of the coffin into the churchyard. The
sisters of Godstow were forced to obey at the time ; but
after the death of St. Hugh they gathered the bones of
Rosamond into a perfumed bag of leather, which they
enclosed in a leaden case, and deposited them in their
original place of interment, affirming that the transformation
of the tree had taken place according to her prophecy.
King John, probably as a mark of gratitude to his faithful
brother, William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, raised a tomb
to her memory. It was embossed with fair brass, having
an inscription in Latin on its edges.
The inscription on her grave in the churchyard was one
of those punning epitaphs, the fancy of the Middle Ages — ■
" Hie jacet in tumba, Rosa mundi non Rosa munda
Non redolet sed olet, quae redolere solet."
This it is impossible to preserve in the translation —
" This tomb doth here enclose
The world's most beauteous rose :
Rose passing sweet erewhile,
Now nought but odour vile."
But when the tomb was raised to her memory within the
church, her name and praise was written on the edge of
brass. A cross likewise was erected near to the entrance of
the gate, and these lines were inscribed upon it —
17
242 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" Qui me at hac, oret, Signumque salutis adoret,
Utq ; tibi detur reqiiies Rosamunda procetur ;"
which is rendered thus —
" All you which pass this way,
This cross adore, and pray
That Rosamond's soul may
True rest possesse for aye."
It is said that King John desired that prayers for the soul of
his father might be joined to those for the Lady Rosamond.
It may have been, and probably was, her earnest entreaty
to her father that kept him from avenging her wrongs, and
we may certainly feel quite sure that it was her influence
and strict commands that kept her sons faithful subjects of
their father and half-brothers. " Thou art my legitimate
son, and the rest are bastards," said Henry, in the bitterness
of his soul, when his first-born, the noble William Longespee,
brought his father aid against his rebellious sons. The
confession was tardy, and of no avail ; yet, if we may take
it as sober truth, it explains much of the misery and discord
in that unhappy family.
That Henry, in spite of his licentious life, never forgot
his first love is certain, and there is scarcely a more touching
episode in history than the outraged father, the Baron de
Clifford, and the remorseful lover and husband joining in
acts of bounty to the convent where their penitent darling
was hidden from their sight, and where, later, her loved
remains were enshrined.
Of her two sons, Longespee married, by the favour of his
half-brother Richard, Ela, eldest daughter and co-heiress of
William de Eureux, Earl of Salisbury and Rosemer, and
THE ROSE OF CANNINGTON. 243
was created Earl of Salisbury in her right. He was a
faithful supporter and friend of Richard and John ; though
for a few months, indeed, in the year 1216, when the cause
of John was beheved to be desperate, he joined Louis, but
quickly returned to his allegiance, and took the oaths to the
young king Henry HI. early in the year 1217. At the same
time, assuming the cross, he joined in the fifth Crusade,
which was principally directed against the Sultan of Egypt.
In 1225 we find him, in conjunction with Richard Earl of
Cornwall, the king's brother, rescuing old Queen Eleanor's
inheritance from the French king, and restoring it to the
English crown. It was his last work, for in 1226 he died,
and Matthew Paris records his epitaph :
" Flos Comitum Wilhelmus obiit, stirps regia, longus
Ensis vageriam coepit habere brevem."
Geoffrey, the younger son of Henry and Rosamond, was
intended by his father for an ecclesiastic, but apparently
he shrank from the sacred vows, for, though first archdeacon
of Lincoln, and afterwards named bishop of that see, whose
temporalities he held for seven years, he eventually resigned
it into the hands of his father and the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, in the year ii8:r. He was afterwards made
chancellor, and finally, by his brother Richard, presented
to the archbishopric of York. He was consecrated at
Tours, in France, in 1 191. It is said that he made a good
use of his high dignity.
Geoffrey was the only one of Henry's children that
watched by his miserable father's dying bed. Richard and
Philip made common cause over the shame and disgrace of
244 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Alice, the betrothed wife of one and the sister of the other.
They suddenly appeared before Le Mans, from which
Henry retreated in headlong flight towards Normandy. From
a height where he halted to look back on the burning city,
so dear to him as his birthplace, the old king hurled his
curse against God : "Since Thou hast taken from me the
town I loved best, where I was born and bred, and where
my father lies buried, I will have my revenge on Thee too ;
I will rob Thee of that thing Thou lovest most in me."
Death was upon him, and the longing of a dying man drew
him to the home of his race. Tours fell as he lay at
Saumur, and the hunted king was driven to beg mercy from
his foes. They gave him the list of the conspirators ; at the
head of them was his youngest and best beloved son John.
Then he cursed even the day of his birth, and invoked
God's curse and his own upon his sons. Xor, though moved
by many ecclesiastics, would he ever revoke it. " Now," he
said, " let things go as they will. I care no more for myself
or for the world." He was borne to Chinon, and muttering
'•' Shame, shame on a conquered king," passed sullenly away.
Geoffrey attended his corpse to Fontevraud, where the
following day it was visited by the victorious Richard, now
full of remorse. Surely the wrongs of the Fair Rosamond
were bitterly avenged.
Authorities. — The Archaeological Society of Somerset's
Papers on Rosamond Clifford ; Speed ; Stowe ;
Mill's Crusade ; Green's English History ; Stubbs'
Constitutional History; Miss Strickland's Lives of
the Queens ; oral legend and tradition.
John de Courcy,
OF COURCY IN NORMANDY, AND STOKE COURCY IN THE
COUNTY OF SOMERSET ; EARL OF ULSTER AND CONNAUGHT ;
AND PREMIER BARON OF IRELAND.
(Circa 1152-1210.)
" A mighty strong champion of Somerset." — Fuller.
Between the river Parret and the Quantock hills, and not
far from Bridgwater Bay, lies the village of Stoke Courcy, or
Stogursey, as it is now generally called. It takes its name
from the De Courcies, a great Norman family, the ruins
of whose moated castle may still be seen. This family is
of great antiquity, and their origin was illustrious, for they
traced their descent from Charlemagne ; their immediate
ancestor being Charles of Lorraine, son to Louis d'Outremer.
They settled at Courcy, in Normandy. Richard de Courcy,
lord of Courcy, accompanied the Conqueror to England,
and received large estates in different parts of the country,
but established his family seat at Stoke, in Somerset, which
thenceforth became known as Stoke Courcy.
It is stated — upon what authority I do not know — that
the same village of Stoke (or its neighbourhood) was the
246 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
scene of a sanguinary conflict between the Danes and
Saxons, when the latter, led by the Bishop of Sherborne,
succeeded in driving the pirates to their ships, in 845 a.d.
The Saxon Chronicle places the conflict at the mouth of
the Parret, from which, however, Stoke Courcy is not far
distant.
The office of dapifer, or steward, to the reigning sovereign
appears for several generations to have been hereditary in
the family. During the great civil wars between the Empress
Maude and Stephen, the De Courcies, with most of the other
great nobles of the south-west, adhered to the side of the
Empress-Queen, influenced probably by her brother, the
great Earl of Gloucester, and the constant residence amongst
them of her son Henry, whose education was confided to
his uncle's care. Yet, with true patriotism, we find one
of these great barons fighting on Stephen's side at the great
battle of Northallerton, or the Standard, against the Scotch.
The father, or perhaps more probably the grandfather,
of our hero was one of two knights who fell in the battle
of Rhuddlan, against the Welsh, in the year 1157.
St. Andrew's Church at Stoke Courcy still retains some
of the Norman work of these early days ; but of the Benedic-
tine convent of nuns at Cannington, founded by a De Courcy,
no trace is left.
John de Courcy, the son of Sir William de Courcy, was
born somewhere about the year 1152, at the latter part of
the so-called reign of Stephen, and died in the latter part
of King John's reign. As a young man he appears to have
served in the wars in Aquitaine under Prince Richard, who
ruled there instead of his mother. It was here that he
JOHN DE COURCY. 247
formed one of those romantic attachments, ahiiost pecuHar
to the Middle Ages, of brotherhood in arms and fortune
to Sir Ah-neric de Tristram. This tender affection and
devotion to each other they sealed by a vow sworn before
the high altar of our Lady at Rouen, and this vow was
faithfully kept during many years' service in France, Eng-
land, and Ireland. The lives of these noble friends are so
interwoven, that to disentangle them is impossible. Their
friendship was further cemented by Sir Almeric's marriage
to Mabel de Courcy, Sir John's sister.
It was in the year 1177 that John de Courcy, inspired by
a prophecy of Merlin which he supposed to apply to him-
self, and possessed of a special commission from the king
for the reduction of Ulster, accompanied Fitz-Adelm, who
bore the title of deputy-governor of Ireland, Sir Hugh de
Lacy being already grand justiciar}', an office in some
degree answering to that of lord-lieutenant. But Fitz-Adelm
made himself very unpopular by his arbitrary exactions and
unwarrantable usurpations, and by the generally selfish and
grasping course of his policy. Such a system alienated both
English and Irish.
Sir John de Courcy then, taking advantage of the murmurs
of the Norman followers of Fitz-Adelm, drew together the
discontented knights. He determined to sail northwards
with about thirty knights and three hundred men-at-arms.
They landed at Dublin, and set forth on their march towards
Ulster, accompanied by De Courcy's brother-in-law, Sir
Almeric. Their first success, however, took place when he
himself was ill, and Sir Almeric leader in his place. A
pitched battle was fought at the Bridge of Ivora, and for his
248 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
gallantry in the field and his conduct in war the lands of
Howth were allotted to him, and have remained to his
descendants ever since, though the family name has been
altered from Tristram to St. Lawrence. But now Sir John
resumed the command, and, that he might fulfil Merlin's
prophecy, arrayed himself, as it was foretold the conqueror
of Doune should be, in shining armour, and riding on a
white horse, bearing a shield charged with birds, marched
on Doune. Here he met with unexpected opposition ; for
the Cardinal-legate Vivian, of Mount Ccelius, opposed him,
declaring that as the people of Ulster had submitted to the
Church, it was enough that they should pay tribute, and that
a Norman governor should not be imposed upon them.
De Courcy professed, as indeed he ever showed, the pro-
foundest reverence for the Church ; yet he maintained that
the Pope's grant of Ireland to King Henry was absolute,
and that he, holding the king's commission to subdue Ulster,
was not to be turned from his purpose. Then the cardinal
retired, bidding him beware, and that he must take the
consequences of his perverseness ; and Sir John entered
Doune, and took possession thereof. But the legate
foolishly stirred up the native inhabitants against De
Courcy, in spite of the Pope's grant and the king's com-
mission.
Sir John de Courcy, however, and his small band gained
victory after victory ; but at Lurgan he was sore put to,
and his life was in great jeopardy. The place is situated on
a river of the same name on the borders of Armagh and
Down. Sir Almeric was in command of the horse and Sir
John de Courcy of the foot. The Irish were defeated, and
JOHN DE COURCV. 249
six thousand fled for their lives ; but as they fled they were
stayed by an arm of the sea, and finding that death menaced
them whichever way they turned, they stood to their arms
and fought desperately. The small English force drew
back when they saw six thousand desperate men fighting for
dear life. Sir John de Courcy, who had pressed on, was
surrounded : he stood alone, with his huge two-handed
sword " washing and lashing on all sides Hke a lion among
sheep." His nephew, young Nicholas de Tristram, posted
to his father, who was in chase of the scattered horsemen
of the Irish, and cried: "Alas! my father, my Uncle Sir
John is left alone in the midst of his enemies, and the foot
have forsaken him." With that Sir Almeric alighted. He
killed his horse, and said : " Here, my son, take charge of
these horsemen, and I will lead on the foot company to the
rescue of my brother Courcy. Come on, fellow- soldiers,"
said he; "let us live and die together." He gave the
onset, rescued Sir John de Courcy, who was sore wounded
and breathless with his cruel fight. At sight of him the
soldiers took heart, and the Irish laid down their arms in
order to save their lives.
The grand justiciary. Sir Hugh de Lacy, had married the
daughter of Roderic O'Connor, the last King of Connaught,
and thereby offended King Henry, who, as in the case of
Strongbow, conceived that whoever married one of the royal
race must necessarily be aiming at the crown. He therefore
recalled De Lacy, and kept him for some years hanging
about the English Court without formally deposing him
from his authority. Several deputies were sent to act in
his place, but they either proved themselves inefficient or in
250 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
some way displeased the king ; and now Sir John de Courcy,
without absolutely receiving the appointment, was empowered
to act in his stead. He had by this time gained great expe-
rience in the Irish character, and it is said that so complete
was the control he exercised, so excellent the discipline he
enforced, that a maiden might carry a purse of gold through
the land without fear of insult or robbery.
Meanwhile De Courcy had married Afifrica, the daughter
of Godred, King of Man, and they seem to have vied
with each other in their works of piety and charity. De
Courcy himself built the Monastery of Ynnis Courcy at
Inch, in County Down, and that of St. Andrew de Stoke at
Ardes, in memory, there can be no doubt, of his home in
Somerset, where the church, which is near his castle at
Stoke, was dedicated by an ancestor of his ov/n to St.
Andrew. Monks from Chester were placed in St. Andrew
de Stoke, thus repaying to Ireland the debt which learning
and monasticism owed to it in the tenth century. The
Lady Affrica founded and endowed the nunnery of St.
Mary's Abbey de Jugo Dei, and peopled it with nuns
from Holm-Cultrain, in Cumberland. The ruins of the
Grey Abbey, as St. Mary's Abbey is called, are exquisite
in their decay, and still retain the image of the foundress.
Affairs went prosperously in Ireland. Henry II. restored
Sir Hugh de Lacy to his office without, apparently, any
opposition or resentment on the part of De Courcy, when,
in the year 1x85, the king took the impolitic step of sending
his favourite son John over as a kind of sub-regulus of
Ireland. John had borne the title of lord of Ireland from
the time he was twelve years old. He was now twenty, and
JOHN DE COURCY. 25 I
his father presented to him the crown of peacock feathers
which had been sent by the Pope as a sign of his sovereignty
over the Western Island. But the prince would have done
less mischief at twelve than he did at twenty ; sent over
with a set of young companions as insolent and overbearing,
as mischievous and petulant, as himself, with no guide to
control him but the vain and learned Gerald Barri, generally
known as Giraldus Cambrensis, who was far more anxious,
as well as far more fitted, to act as " special correspondent "
to the prince's progress than as his governor or guide. Yet
even the slight check that he was, as former tutor to the
prince, was irksome ; for John tried to rid himself of Barri
by offering to consodidate two of the richest bishoprics of
the Irish Church for his benefit. This Giraldus refused with
praiseworthy conscientiousness. John and his young com-
panions outraged all decency, insulted the chieftains, even
condescending to the low buffoonery of pulling their beards
and making a rude mockery of their dress. Their behaviour
was so outrageous as to bring on the necessary consequence
of a widespread rebellion. The grand justiciary refused
assistance to the young prince, who had brought his danger
on himself; and Sir Almeric de Tristram went into Con-
naught, making himself answerable for Prince John's safety,
whilst Sir John de Courcy was summoned to England to
give the king a trustworthy account of the state of affairs.
His excellent government during the time Sir Hugh de
Lacy was in England was not forgotten, and De Lacy was
displaced, and Sir John de Courcy appointed governor in
his stead, with full powers to reduce and pacify the county,
whilst Prince John was ordered home. Sir Hugh de Lacy
252 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
kept up an independent government at Meath, and was
shortly after murdered by an Irishman, who, whilst the
knight was stooping forward to show him how to use his
pick in working at the foundations of a castle, suddenly took
up an axe lying by him and chopped off his head.
Sir John de Courcy continued at the head of affairs in
Ireland till the death of Henry II. summoned him to
England to attend King Richard's coronation,^ and take
his oaths of allegiance and do homage to him for his estates
in England, France, and Ireland. During his absence
occurred the exquisite episode of the death of his dear
friend and brother. Sir Almeric de Tristram. It may be
read in " Burke's Peerage." Before the battle in which he
fell, he confided his last wishes to two youths, who appar-
ently attended him as pages, ending with these words : " To
God I render and yield my soul ; my service to my natural
prince ; my heart to my brother. Sir John de Courcy, and
his wife ; my force, might, pain, and goodwill to my poor
friends and fellows here." His wife. Sir John de Courcy's
sister, had died before. She left him three sons — Nicholas,
of whom we have already spoken, and who succeeded his
father as Baron of Howth, and two other sons, of whom Ave
shall hear again.
With the exception of her foundation of the Abbey de
Jugo Dei, this is the only mention that is found of Afifrica,
Princess of Man, Countess of Ulster, &c., &c., but this
' Some writers have interpreted this to mean that Richard displaced
him from his office ; but there seems no reason whatever to suppose
this. He seems clearly to have come to renew his vows of allegiance to
the reigning sovereign, and this appears tlie more certain from what
took place on John's accession.
JOHN DE COURCY. 253
mention at such a time seems to bespeak her worthy of
being the wife and friend of heroes.
De Courcy was recalled to Ireland by the death of his
friend : he appears to have governed successfully and with
wise statesmanship. De Lacy's young sons acknowledged
his authority, and lived on terms of friendship with him
and obedience to constituted authority. De Courcy mean-
while strengthened his position in Ulster by building castles
at all important posts, one of the most curious of which,
Dunluce, near the Giant's Causeway, still exists in ruins ;
its position is much like that of King Arthur's casde of
Tintagel, in Cornwall, being partly on the mainland and
partly on an island rock, the two parts being joined by
curtain walls, on which were laid planks which could easily
be removed, if danger was feared.
Amongst other of De Courcy's works was the restoration
of the cathedral of the Holy Trinity at Doune. Now when
these new works were finished, instead of replacing a
representation of the Triune Majesty over the altar, De
Courcy, in order to please the native Irish by exalting their
patron saint, put there an image of St. Patrick ; while the
figure of the Trinity was placed in a small chapel built for
the purpose. In 1195 De Courcy lost his wife, who was
buried at her foundation of St. Mary's Abbey at Ardes;
she left him one son, Miles, who, apparently like himself,
served his apprenticeship to arms in France. Wisely and
well was Ireland governed during this period : not so
England. During Richard's absence in the Holy Land, his
captivity and constant absences, abuses of all kinds pre-
vailed, the foulest extortion was practised ; one favourite
254 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
piece of oppression being the marrying of heiresses or
richly-endowed widows to favourites of Prince John. Richard,
in order to purchase his brother's loyalty, had bestowed
upon him six earldoms, among which Somerset was one.
De Courcy's oldest sister Alice had married Baldwin de
Redvers, Earl of Devon and Wight ; he had died, leaving
her a well-dowered widow and childless. It was probably
while on a visit to Stoke Courcy that Falkes de Breaute, an
adventurer of mean extraction, but a boon companion of
the prince, forcibly seized on Alice de Redvers, Countess of
Devon, and married her; then, on the pretence of his wife's
rights, occupied the castle at Stoke, and filled it full of a
set of turbulent and licentious followers of his own.
In 1 199 Richard died, and John, the brother, and Arthur,
the nephew of the late king, claimed the allegiance of his
subjects. Sir John de Courcy had too vivid a recollection
of Prince John's evil doings in Ireland to own him for his
king, and he proclaimed Arthur as king of England and
lord of Ireland. John, of course, denounced him as a
traitor, and the two brothers De Lacy, who had hitherto
professed great friendship for De Courcy, now thought they
saw an opportunity of advancing their own interests ; they
made terms therefore with King John, and at the price, to
Walter de Lacy, the elder brother, of the office of High
Justiciary of Ireland, and to Hugh, the younger, of the
earldom of Ulster, he bought their allegiance. But De
Courcy was not likely to submit tamely to be despoiled of
his rights ; he summoned to his aid his brother-in-law,
Reginald, King of Man. Now Reginald was greatly beholden
to him, for on King Godred's death there were two parties in
JOHN DE COURCY. 255
Man, one who upheld the rights of Reginald, his eldest
son, and the other who said that the youngest son, Olave,
was the rightful heir as being alone born in lawful wedlock.
To have admitted this w^ould have been to allow his own
wife Affrica to have been illegitimate, and this De Courcy
could not consent to ; he had therefore assisted her brother
Reginald to secure the crown, and now in return claimed
his aid to secure his own rights. King John was either too
busy or too indolent to come to Ireland himself, but he sent
over a fleet which destroyed that of the King of Man and
sent him back to his own island. Still De Courcy was able
to hold his own, and at a field fought at Doune early in the
year 1204 he defeated Hugh de Lacy, who now seeing
that he w^as not able to seize Ulster from De Courcy, had
recourse to the blackest treachery. It was on Good Friday
in the same year that De Courcy, who strictly kept the
feasts and fasts of the Church, was watching in the grave-
yard of the cathedral of Doune, and, with several of his
friends, amongst whom were his two young nephews, the
younger sons of Sir Almeric de Tristram, was wandering
amongst the tombs in white robes of penitence, when he
was joined by others clad in the same way ; suddenly, these
last threw off their white vestments and appeared clad in
complete armour; they attempted at once to seize De
Courcy, but he, though with nought in his hand but the
pole of a cross which he bore, slew thirteen of his anta-
gonists. His friends fell around him, and at last his nephews,
who bravely fought by his side and strove to defend his
person, fell at his feet ; then he strove no longer, he was
bound, hurried on board a ship which lay near the town,
256 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and was taken thence to the Tower of London. Meanwhile,
the traitors who had betrayed De Courcy to his foe met
their reward. They came to Hugh de Lacy and claimed as
their recompense a large sum of money which he had
promised them, and he gave it them ; but as soon as the
reward of iniquity was in their hands, he asked them what
recompense they deserved who betrayed their lord to his
bitterest foe ; then he ordered the traitors to be hanged and
the money to be returned to his treasury !
Meanwhile, De Courcy languished in prison ; here he
had but little allowance, and that of the simplest and
coarsest kind, and his strength began to fail him. In his
despair, he said, " O God, wherefore dealest Thou thus by
me, who have built and re-edified so many monasteries for
Thee and Thy saints ? " Now when he had many times
wailed and made loud moans in this wise, and therewith fell
asleep, the Holy Trinity appeared unto him, saying, " Why
hast thou cast Me out of Mine own seat, and out of the
Church of Doune, and placed there My St. Patrick, therefore
know thou well that thou shalt never enter into thy signorie
in Ireland ; howbeit, in regard to other good deeds that
thou hast done, thou shalt, with honour, be delivered forth
of prison." And this is how the vision was fulfilled :
It chanced at this time that after Philip, King of France, had
declared that John had forfeited Noi:mandy by the murder
of his nephew Arthur, there arose a dispute about a signorie
and certain castles which John maintained formed no part
of the Duchy of Normandy, but which King Philip claimed.
As the two kings could not settle the matter, it was agreed
that a champion should be chosen on either side, and that
JOHN DE COURCY. 257
the matter should be decided by a judicial combat ; but
when King John sought for a champion to undertake his
cause, not one of his knights would volunteer to fight in his
behalf, and the point was likely to be yielded from want of
some one to maintain the right. It is said that Queen Isabel
it was who first thought of the mighty champion now
languishing in prison, and that she sent to him requesting
him to fight on her husband's behalf, and he answered
"Not in the king's quarrel, nor for his sake, but for the
kingdom's sake I will fight to the death."
Against which day of fight John De Courcy repaired with
large diet his impayred hmbes and sinews; and, after his
long and constrained abstinence, so great was the appetite
of John for food, that the French champion, who had
before been much amazed at his giant-like limbs, his thews
and sinews, when to this also he saw his prodigious feeding,
he exclaimed that he was a cannibal, and that he would
finish by eating him, and thereupon he slunk away and went
into Spain, declining the combat and leaving the honours
of the day to the valiant knight of Somerset, while the
signorie was adjudged to King John. Whether this hap-
pened in England or France does not seem quite clear, but
the close of the story must perforce have been in France.
King Philip would fain see this man of giant mould
who had overcome his champion simply by the report of
his huge feeding; and so it was that one day when the
three kings of France, England, and Spain were together,
John de Courcy was asked by King Philip to give an
example of his great strength. So De Courcy ordered a
strong and doughty good morion full of mail to be set upon
18
258 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
a block or log of wood, and the aforesaid John, taking his
skein or sword, and looking round about him with a stern
and grim countenance, smote the morion through, from the
very crest downward into the block, and the sword stuck in
the wood so fast that no arm but his own could pluck it
forth again. Then the kings demanded of De Courcy
wherefore he looked behind him with so grim a countenance
before he gave the stroke, and he answered that if he
had failed, he would have slain them all, as well kings as
others. Then the kings gave him great gifts, and the King
of England rendered to him not only his earldom of
Ulster, but desired him to ask for anything within his gift,
and it should be granted. To which De Courcy replied, that
having estates and titles enough, he desired that his succes-
sors might have the privilege — their first obeisance being
paid — of remaining covered in the presence of his majesty
and all future kings of England ; which request was immedi-
ately conceded.
After this, John de Courcy, with King John's sanction,
essayed to pass over into Ireland to wrest his earldom from
Hugh de Lacy. Fifteen times he made the attempt, but
was always in danger, and the wind evermore against him ;
wherefore he waited awhile among the monks of Chester,
and at length this heroic warrior and able statesman died in
France about the year 12 10, and there " rested in the Lord,"
says the old Chronicler.
He was succeeded by his son Miles, upon whom Henry
HI. and his council conferred the barony of Kinsale, in
Ireland, in compensation for the earldom of Ulster, which
was retained by Hugo de Lacy — his patent was, however,
JOHN DE COURCY. 259
dated from 1181, when that of Earl of Ulster had been
conferred upon his father.
Lord Kingsale, Baron Courcy of Courcy and Baron of
Ringrove, is not only the premier baron of Ireland, but
bears the oldest title in the United Kingdom which has
continued by uninterrupted descent in the same family.
He still possesses the hereditary privilege granted by King
John to his ancestor of valiant memory, of remaining
covered in the royal presence.
John de Courcy had also a brother Jordan, who was
killed in the Irish wars. Falkes de Breaute, being banished
for his many villanies, Alice de Redvers, his wife, sued for
and obtained a divorce on the ground of her marriage being
without her consent.
Authorities. — Camden ; Speed's Chronicles ; Burke's
Peerage ; Wills' Lives of Celebrated Irishmen ;
Articles in the Mirror; Stubbs' Constitutional His-
tory ; Green's History of England.
^T. lix^RIC THE 1^ECLU3E, OF^
^T. WUX^FRIC THE HeI^JVIIT.
(Died A.D. 1154.)
-:o:-
Of this saint, Alban Butler, in his "Lives," gives this con-
cise account : He was born near Bristol, and being promoted
to the priesthood, took great pleasure till, being touched by
Divine grace, he retired near Haselborough, in Dorsetshire,
where he led a most austere and holy life. He died on the
20th of February, in 1154.
Butler is mistaken however, for Haselborough, or Hasel-
bury Plucknett as it is named, is in Somerset. It is a small
parish about two miles from Crewkerne. St. Ulric was born
at Compton (or Comb) Martin, in this county; and applying
himself to rehgious studies, became a priest and took the
cure of Deverill, near Warminster, in Wiltshire. Hence he
removed to a small cell near the church of Haselbury,
where, clad in iron raiment, he indulged in the austerities
of a hermit's life. In this retirement the fame of his holi-
ness was so widely spread that he was visited by some of the
greatest people of the land ; and amongst them by King
ST. ULRIC THE RECLUSE. 26 1
Henry I., to whom he foretold his death, and to Stephen
that he should sit on the throne.
Green says : " Originally a clerical sportsman, he all at
once flung aside his hounds and his vicarage, and without
waiting for episcopal sanction or priestly benediction, im-
mured himself in his jealously closed cell. He was soon
known as England's one miracle worker and prophet."
Wulfric hailed Stephen as king as he rode past his hermitage
in his uncle's lifetime, replying to his remonstrances : " It is
no error — it is you, Stephen, that I mean — for the Lord hath
delivered the realm into your hands. Protect the Church !
defend the poor ! "
He died at an advanced age in 1154, and was buried in
his own cell by Robert, Bishop of Bath ; but his body was
afterwards moved to one side of the altar of the parish
church of Haselbury. The monks of Montacute petitioned
that he might be interred in their chapel, but Osbern, the
officiating priest of Haselbury, opposed them; and his relics
were suffered to remain in a small aisle or chapel adjoining
the church, still called " Wulfric's aisle," where his tomb
was visited by pilgrims for ages.
Haselbury Church is dedicated to St. Michael. It con-
sists of a nave, chancel, and north aisle, or chapel of St.
Wulfric. At the west end is a tower with four bells.
Authorities. — Alban Butler ; CoUinson's Somerset ;
Green's History of England ; Murray's Somerset.
^\¥{ William de Bf^iwei^e.
(Circa A.D. 1155-1220.)
3iR WaLTEF^, or WiLLlyVM, DE
B R I WERE.
(Circa A.D. 1230.)
LORDS OF ODECOMBE, OF BRIDGEWATER, AND ISLE DE
BRIWERE (or ILE BREWERS), IN THE
COUNTY OF SOMERSET.
About a year after Henry II.'s accession to the crown,
whilst hunting in the New Forest, he hghted upon a child
exposed upon the heather. As some fresh land had lately
been afforested by the young king's own order, the babe was
presumably the child of parents who had been turned out
and, may be, died of star\-ation. Perhaps some feeling
of remorse seized Henry, who, with all his faults (and they
were not few), had strong and warm feelings. He took
care for the babe, had him well and religiously educated,
promoted his career in the State, and gave him lands and
lordships. Nameless, the king gave him that of de Bruyere,
from the heath on which he was found ; and one may
SIR WILLIAM DE BRIWERE. 263
imagine that it implied a special tenderness towards the
child when we remember that Henry's own proud surname
was derived from the lowly broom plant.
We are not told to whom his education was entrusted,
but from his love to and constant residence in the county
of Somerset, it seems likely that he was placed at Glaston-
bury, where — under the wise and judicious training of the
learned Henry of Blois, at once Abbot of Glastonbury and
Bishop of Winchester— he would have had the highest
education that the age afforded. He was early introduced
at Court, and allowed to be a companion of the king's sons.
A courtier and a pohtician, a trusted servant and friend, or,
as Camden styles him, " minion " of three kings, he must
have been of a singularly supple nature, yet so gently and
wisely did he bear himself that " all the world embraced
and loved " him. ^ With one exception, and that a more
than doubtful one, he is never spoken of save with honour,
and his name is associated with most of the great events of
the time ; while in his personal and social position, his good
works, at Bridgewater and other places, cause his name to
be remembered with gratitude to the present day.
He had been employed by Henry II. in many offices of
trust, and specially as Sheriff of Somerset. It is probable
that in that capacity he accompanied Richard I. in his
magnificent progress through the western counties in the
three weeks that intervened between Richard's coming to
England after his father's death and his coronation. If so,
it probably accounts for the fact that he became as much,
if not more, trusted by Richard, even than he had been by
' Camden.
264 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
his father Henry ; and that the king looked upon his
influence and friendship with John as a circumstance that
might be turned to good effect during his absence in the
Holy Land.
Certain it is that he soon came to the front in this king's
reign. When Richard started on the Crusade he left the
kingdom in charge of Longchamps, Bishop of Ely, and
Hugh de Puiset, Bishop of Durham. But the two bishops
soon quarrelled, Longchamps arrogating to himself all the
power, with great state and dignity. The king had reached
as far as Messina when news was brought him of the state
of the country. Longchamps' pride and arrogance had
roused the barons, and John, taking advantage of his
mother's absence, was intriguing for power : so that the
country was on the verge of civil war. Walter de Coutances,
Archbishop of Rouen, arrived from Messina with instruc-
tions from the king. After some intrigues, in which their
half-brother Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, took part, the
archbishop (of Rouen) produced a commission signed by
Richard at Messina, appointing him supreme justiciar, with
William Marshall, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Hugh Bardolf, and
William Briwere as coadjutors. Queen Eleanor soon after
returned, and the peace of the kingdom was maintained till
the news came of Richard's imprisonment. iVgain we find
that when the ransom to be paid for Richard's release was
to be sent to Germany, De Briwere was commissioned to take
charge of it. He returned, it is to be supposed, in company
with Richard. But Richard's whole interest in England was
but to gather money for his wars and pleasures abroad; and
one means he had found to answer well before was to accuse
SIR WILLIAM DE BRIWERE. 265
the sheriffs of some imaginary offence, and then to levy
heavy fines. He displaced, therefore, nearly all of these
functionaries, but reinstated those who consented to pay a
large sum. Amongst these was William Briwere, the excuse
being that he had leaned too much to his brother's side in
his absence ; the real fact being that Briwere, probably from
the gratitude which he owed to Henry H., was thoroughly
loyal, and invariably on the side of the reigning sovereign.
John, who seems to have been as much attached to him
as he would be to any one, had, as Earl of Cornwall, some
right in the disposal of the hand of Beatrice de Vannes,
widow of Reginald, late earl of that county and one of
Henry I.'s numerous illegitimate children. He gave her in
marriage to De Briwere. She brought him great possessions,
and her connection with the royal family caused his marriage
to be a great step for this child of fortune.
King Richard died, and De Briwere became of even more
account under John. It was something for him to be assured
of the fidelity of at least one friend bound to him by ties of
early friendship and gradtude ; a man, moreover, of utterly
blameless life, and whose honour and loyalty alike were
unimpeachable. When the barons generally, as well as the
people, worn out by John's perfidy and baseness, invited the
French king's son over to take the Crown, de Briwere was
among the few who remained faithful to the king. One
curious mention we find of him. ' It seems that prizes
taken at sea were bestowed according to the king's pleasure,
and in 1205 a French ship, called The Cojc/itess, was given
to the Earl of Salisbury — the king's half-brother. Of the
' Robert Claus, 14 John, p. 118.
2 66 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Other prizes, the best ship was reserved for the king ; the
second best was given to Richard de Mariscis, Archdeacon
of Northumberland; and the third best was given to WilUam
de Briwere.' But John died, and among his executors, as
a last proof of his trust and confidence, we find the name
of William de Briwere.
De Briwere brought up his son in the same principles
of unswerving fidelity which he himself had followed through
life. William de Briwere the younger — or, perhaps, more
probably Walter de Briwere — ever faithful through good
and through evil report, was always on the side of the weak,
promise-breaking King Henry III., and apologizing for him
even when he broke faith with the barons. The elder De
Briwere had, the authorities say, ofie son and five daughters ;
but it seems almost certain there were two sons, and the
confusion seems to have arisen thus : William de Briwere and
his son Walter were in character and disposition so alike that
it is no wonder — their initial letters, too, being the same— that
their separate actions have not been always distinguished.
Both were loyal and religious, doing all apparently that was
possible for the glory of God and the good of their neigh-
bours. The works begun by one were completed by the
other, and it is difficult to apportion to each their share
of good works; but in 1224 there was a William de Briwere
Bishop of Exeter, who was said to be related to the royal
family, and whom Matthew Paris calls grandson of the
elder De Briwere. But this is impossible, as De Briwere the
younger died without children, and his large possessions
were divided between his five sisters. If, however, the elder
' Sir Harris Nicholas, " History of the Royal Navy."
SIR WILLIAM DE BRIWERE. 267
son was Walter, and the second, Bishop Wilham of Exeter,
it is all clear and plain.
It is in Bridgewater that the two, father and son, are
chiefly remembered. They seem never to have wearied in
the good deeds, both ecclesiastical and secular, they did for
this town. They gave it its first charter, confirmed after-
wards by Edward I. They built a stone bridge of three
arches, which lasted for five hundred years. Its successor,
an iron one, was built in 1 795-1 797, and replaced by another
in 1883. The castle, which marked their lordship of the
town, was built by De Briwere the elder in 1202. Nothing
now remains of it but the Watergate and some fragments in
the wall of a stable. Attached to it was a hospital for
thirteen poor people, and a chantry, where masses were to
be said for the souls of the three kings, Henry II., Richard,
and John. Few could have required them more !
The beautiful modern church of St. John's stands on the
site of a hospital of St. John for Augustine monks, built for
the entertainment of pilgrims. Of the monastery of the
Grey Friars an arched doorway in Silver Street is all that re-
mams. It was founded in 1230 by the younger De Briwere,
Tor Abbey and Dunkswell are also attributed to them.
When Sir Walter de Briwere died he left no child. His
large estates were therefore divided among the families into
which his five sisters had married. The lordship of Bridge-
water passed to Margaret, who married William de la Fort,
lie Brewers ^ fell to the lot of Alice, who married Reginald
' He Brewers was well known some thirty or forty years ago as the
incumbency of that eccentric man and great traveller, Dr. Wolff, father
of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff.
268 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
de Mohun, lord of Dunster. The other sisters carried their
shares in the great possessions of their father and brother
into the famihes of Breos, Wake, and Piercy. In the little
that we can gather of these two excellent men, father and
son, we trace an abiding sense of gratitude that maintained
them always in unswerving fidelity to the sovereign, and in
such times as they lived it is no small praise that nowhere
do we find a hint of cruelty, falseness, or treachery to four
such kings as Henry II., Richard L, John, and Henry III.
Authorities. — Camden ; Speed ; Sir Harris Nicolas'
Naval History ; and Stubbs' Constitutional History.
WooD^PRiNQ Priory
AND THE MURDERERS OF THOMAS A BECKET.
(A.D. 1170.)
■:o:-
Three of the four knights whose names have been branded
with infamy for all time — whatever may be the opinion of
Becket's character — with the murder of the archbishop in
not only consecrated ground, but actually within his own
cathedral, were more or less connected with Somerset ;
and though we cannot look upon them as in any way
worthies of our county, yet the records remaining of their
penitence or remorse deserve mention here.
When the monks, on their return to the cathedral, from
which they had fled, had laid out the body of the archbishop,
and placed it in front of the high altar, they carefully put
beneath the bleeding corpse vessels to catch any drops
of blood that might still well out from the wounds. Who
could have supposed that seven hundred years afterwards
one of these would be accidentally discovered in a village
church in Somerset ?
The enthusiastic burst of grief and the semi-idolatrous
veneration w-ith which Becket was regarded, made England
270 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
for some time an unsafe place for the murderers. They
went, therefore, to Rome, and submitted themselves to the
Pope. He desired that they should go to Palestine, and
expiate their crime by fighting against the infidels. This
apparently the other three did, but AVilliam de Tracy, who
struck the first blow, and was probably the most guilty of
the four, seems to have met with physical difficulties he
found impossible to overcome, and which were popularly
supposed, and probably believed by himself, to be the
judgment of God against his crime. He made several
attempts to start for the Holy Land and obey the Pope's
behest, but the wind was ever against him. His expiation
was refused, and the judicial curse inflicted upon him was
apparently, in the popular belief, entailed upon his descen-
dants ; for a proverb arose —
" The Tracies
Have always the wind in their faces."
For some time he was justiciary of Normandy, but it seems
probable that his conscience and the consequent belief in the
curse left him no peace, and at last he retired from public life.
He chose a spot on Woollacombe Bay, where "he hved a
private life when wind and weather turned against him," ^
Two remarkable monuments remain of his connection with
the murder. One is the Priory of Woodspring, of which the
ruins still crown the banks of the Bristol Channel, and which
was founded in 12 10 by William de Courtenay, probably his
grandson (his daughter having married Gervase de Cour-
tenay), in honour of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin,
and St. Thomas of Canterbury. To this priory lands were
' Stanley's " Memorials of Canterbury. "
WOODSPRING PRIORY. 27 I
also bequeathed by Maud, the daughter, and Ahce, the
grand-daughter, of the third murderer, Bret, or Brito, in the
hope, expressed by Ahce, that the intercession of the glorious
martyr might never be wanting to her and her children. "In
the repairs of Woodspring'^ Church in 1852 a wooden cup,
much decayed, was discovered in a hollow in the back of a
statue fixed against the wall. The cup contained a sub-
stance which was decided to be the dried residuum of blood.
From the connection of the priory with the murderers of
Becket, and from the fact that the seal of the prior contained
a cup or chalice as part of its device, there can be little
doubt that this ancient cup was thus preserved at the time
of the Dissolution as a valuable relic, and that the blood
which it contained was that of the murdered prelate." The
other memorial, viz., the ]\Ianor of Daccombe, which was
made over to the Church of Canterbury in Tracy's lifetime,
and which still remains in the hands of the chapter, has no
connection with Somerset beyond the fact that the confir-
mation of the deed w^as attested by Richard, elect of
Winchester, the Richard of Ilchester whose life is sketched
in the following paper.
" Kevvstoke Church — an interesting little building, with a
Norman door and stone pulpit — and Woodspring Priory, are
both well worth an antiquarian visit. The latter is now a
farm-house, about four miles north of Weston-super-Mare,
under a rocky headland called the Middle Hope, in a lonely
position in the marshes near the mouth of the Yeo. It was
' This is evidently a mistake. Kewstoke Church, which is very near
(within a walk), was the place where the relic was found. Woodspring
Church is used as a farm-house, and it is probable that the cup was
taken to Kewstoke when the monasteries were destroyed.
272 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
founded for Augustine canons, in honour of St. Thomas
of Canterbury. This interesting old building is entered
by a fine double gateway with segmental arches. Passing
through this, we find ourselves in a small courtyard, with
the domestic buildings on the north and the wall of the
cloister to the west, the front of the church facing us. The
west window (blocked) is flanked by octagonal turrets. T]ie
church has a central tower, which remains, but no transepts.
The chancel is destroyed. The nave and aisles are used as
a living house. The refectory, a noble hall, has become a
waggon-house."
Brito's, or Bret's, daughter and grand-daughter, as we have
seen above, concurred in the foundation at Woodspring.
Sampford, or Sanford Brett takes its name from this family-
Fitz-Urse is said to have gone over to Ireland, and there to
have become ancestor of the McMahon family, McMahon
being the Celtic translation of " Bear's son." (If this is so,
his name became tragically famous in the disastrous story
of the fall of the second empire.) On his flight, his estates
in Kent went to his kinsman, Robert of Berham, Berham
representing the English version of the name Fitz-Urse. His
estate at Willeton, in Somerset, where it is said he resided,
he made over, half to the knights of St. John, the year after
the murder — probably in expiation — the other half to his
brother Robert, who built the chapel at Willeton. Though
long since the hamlet of Willeton has outgrown its mother-
parish of St. Decuman's, and the chapel has become a
church in size and appearance, it is still only a chapelry
belonging to St. Decuman's, in the gift of the vicar of that
parish. The descendants of the family lived for a time in
WOODSPRING PRIORY. 273
the neighbourhood under the same name, successively cor-
rupted into Fitzours, Fishour, and Fisher.
The connection between the martyrdom at Canterbury
and its authors in distant Somerset is worth noting, though
we are not anxious to claim them as worthies of our county.
Authorities. — Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury ; Mur-
ray's Handbook and Diocesan Calendar.
19
l^iCHyvi^D Of Ilche^tei^, of^
I^ICH/^F^D TOCKLIVE OF^ Moi^E.
(Bishop of Winchester and Chief Justice of England,
A.D. 1174-1188.)
■:o:-
By what right Richard TockUve (or More) adopted the title
of Richard of Ilchester, unless he was weak enough to be
ashamed of being called Richard of Sock, in the parish of
Mudford, I cannot say. Perhaps it was excusable. Ilchester
was the nearest place of any importance, and Richard of
Mudford would not sound well. The last half of the name
points to its being, in primitive times, a ford over the Yeo ;
but why Mud ? Possibly a visit to the place might solve
the question. Are the marshes of the Yeo at that place
nothing but liquid mud ? The matter is left for further in-
vestigation. Sock was a manor belonging, in the time of
the Confessor, to one Tochi, a man therefore of property
and consideration. It may have been that Richard Tocklive
was his descendant. Any way, by some means, during the
reign of Henry II. he attracted the attention of those in
authority, and was presented to the archdeaconry of Poictiers,
RICHARD OF ILCHESTER. 27s
a dignity, of course, which at no previous time was Hkely to
have fallen to an Englishman.
It was in II 7 1 that Becket was murdered; and while
Henry the King was in England, living as it were in a state
of siege, to prevent a messenger from the Pope arriving,
bearing the much-dreaded sentence of excommunication, h^e
visited his cousin, the venerable and aged Henry of Bl'ois,
Bishop of Winchester, who " added his solemn warnings to'
those which were resounding from every quarter with regard
to the deed of blood." Henry made the most abject sub-
mission, and the danger was averted ; but one is unable to
have great faith in his penitence, since the archbishopric was
kept vacant for three years ; while Winchester, when it too
had lost its bishop, and Henry of Blois succumbed to old
age, was filled by Richard Tocklive, one of Becket's strongest
opponents.
It must be remembered, whatever may be our opinion of
the merits of the struggle between the king and the arch-
bishop, that the latter represented religion as it then existed,
and as it only existed in those times, and the Church ; while
the king represented irreligion, almost atheism: also that
Becket's life was absolutely pure and stainless, while Henry's
was marked by the very grossest profligacy. So much had
Archdeacon Richard taken the part of the king against the
archbishop, that he incurred the sentence of excommunica-
tion. ^\-e must suppose this to have been withdrawn when
he was selected to supply the place of Henry of Blois, and
placed in the episcopal chair at Winchester, a see that
ranked then second only to the archbishoprics, and whose
emoluments exceeded them. Henry of Blois survived
276 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Becket only a few months, but the see was not and could
not be filled till after the confirmation and consecration of
Archbishop Richard,, who was appointed to succeed him.
Three bishops were awaiting consecration, Robert, Bishop
designate of Hereford ; and Geoffrey, Bishop designate of
Ely ; as well as Richard Toclive to Winchester : they were
all consecrated by the new archbishop on October 6, 11 74.
Bishop Richard was at a council at Woodstock on July i,
1 1 75; the following year he was constituted Justiciary of
Normandy; and at a Parhament held at Windsor, in 11 79,
he was made one of the itinerant justices for Hants, Wilts,
Dorset, Devon, Gloucester, Somerset, Cornwall, Berks, and
Oxon, Some time afterwards he became Chief Justice of
England.
How all these duties accorded with his episcopal office,
and the care of such an important diocese as that of Win-
chester, one can scarcely guess ; but it was one of the crying
evils of the Middle Ages, the combination of secular and
religious duties, either of which demanded an undivided
attention. He increased the magnificent foundation of St.
Cross, at Winchester, made by his great predecessor, and
provided funds for admitting one hundred additional poor
men to the same benefits as the rest enjoyed. The deed is
dated April 10, 1185, and was made at Dover, and attested
by him. It does not seem to have continued long in force,
for it had ceased before the time of William of Wykeham.
He founded a hospital on a similar plan on the opposite
side of the city, and dedicated it to St. Mary Magdalen.
He was also a benefactor to the church at Winchester.
We may believe of him that as time went on he ceased to
RICHARD OF ILCHESTER. 277
care so much for the things of this world. If the memorial of
him in the annals of Waverley Abbey is to be believed, it is a
grand testimony to his excellence, for after the record of his
death Psalm cxii. 9 is quoted as appropriate to him: " Dis-
persitjdedit pauperibus, justiciaejus manet insaeculumsgeculi"
— " He hath dispersed abroad and given to the poor: and his
righteousness remaineth for ever." This last clause probably
refers to his decisions as Chief Justice. The day of his
death is curiously uncertain. Some say it was in 11 87. In
the annals of Winchester it is placed on January 22, 1188 ;
while on his tomb is "Obiit anno 1189." Perhaps even as
members of the Reformed Church, we may echo the last
words in the record of his death in the annals of Waverley
Abbey : " May He who after death alone can heal, have
mercy on his soul ! " He was buried on the north side of
the high altar, near the choir, and below Wina, one of his
earliest predecessors, the third bishop of the see of Win-
chester.
Authorities. — Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury ;
Winchester Diocesan Calendar.
W/TER.
THE LEGEND OF THE HOUSE OF TYNTE.
(1192.)
■:o:-
Halswell House is situated in the parish of Goathurst,
not far from Bridgevvater. It stands on the verge of the
Quantock hills, and the surrounding scenery is picturesque
and charming. The church, which is an ancient one, is
dedicated in the name of St. Edward the JNIartyr ; it is the
burial place of the Tynte family.
" Of the surname of this family, tradition," says Burke,
"has handed down the following derivation: — In 1192, at
the celebrated battle of Ascalon, a young knight of the
noble house of Arundel, clad all in white, with his horse's
housings of the same colour, so gallantly distinguished him-
self, that Richard Coeur-de-lion remarked publicly, after the
victory, that the maiden knight had borne himself as a lion,
and done deeds equal to those of six crusaders; whereupon
he conferred on him, for arms, a lion argent on a field
gules, between six crosslets of the first, and for motto,
' Tinctus cruore Saraceno.' "
Authority. — Burke's Peerage.
WiTHAM Pf^lORY AND ^T. HuQH
OF AVAJ^ON (in BuRQUNDy).
(Died 1200.)
WiTHAM Priory, in the deanery of Frome, may lay claim
to the honour of having introduced into England one of the
greatest and holiest of what are called the " Black-letter
Saints" in our calendar, viz., Hugh of Avalon, in Burgundy,
afterwards known as Hugh of Lincoln.
It was in the year 1181, in one, apparently, of those ague
fits of repentance and piety which periodically seized upon
our first three Plantagenet kings, that Henry II. determined
to introduce the order of the Carthusians into England.
He fixed upon Witham, in Somerset, to make his experi-
ment ; but difficulties arose, possibly from the severity of
the rule, and under the first two priors the society languished
almost to extinction. Then the king, urged, it seems, by
some unknown impulse, sent into Burgundy Reginald Fitz-
Josceline, Bishop of Bath and Wells, with other honourable
persons, to the great Chartreuse, to desire that the holy
monk Hugh might be sent over to undertake the charge.
When the deputation arrived the matter was taken into
consideration, and, after much debate, it was determined
that it became not Christian charity so to confine their
2 8o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
views to one family as to refuse what was required for the
benefit of many others ; and though the saint protested that
of all others he was most unfit for the charge, he was ordered
by the chapter to accompany the deputies to England.
There, as soon as he landed, he went directly to Witham,
instead of first visiting the Court, probably in order to testify
that it was in obedience to his order, and not on the invita-
tion of the king, that he had come. His appearance is said
to have wonderfully comforted and encouraged the few
monks he found there. And much need of comfort they had,
for on arriving at Witham the new prior found everything in
a wretched state. The monks were dwelling in poor huts
made of twigs, while the inhabitants of the place still held
the houses and lands which had been granted for the
monastery, no provision having been made for them else-
where. It was Hugh's first care to procure their removal,
with full compensation for what they had to give up. The
king made considerable difficulty, but yielded at length to
Hugh's firmness and persistency ; and when the buildings
had thus been acquired, he still held back from allowing the
monks to treat them as their own. Henry's niggardly spirit
constantly interrupted the works, so that the buildings soon
came to a stand for want of funds, and twice were some of the
brethren sent to the king to ask the necessary help ; twice
did they return with nothing but fair words and promises.
The workmen were mutinous, and found fault with the
prior. One of the monks named Gerard boldly reproached
him with this neglect, and said that, if he was too timid
himself to say what was fitting to the king, he would go with
him and declare the real state of the case. To this Hugh
WITHAM PRIORY AND ST. HUGH OF AVALON. 28 1
agreed, and, taking with them another of the most distin-
guished of the monks, they repaired to Henry. After
explaining to him the state of the case, the king, as before,
made fair promises, but gave nothing. Then the honest old
monk could no longer contain himself: he denounced Henry
as heartless and penurious, and declared for himself that he
would sooner go back to slave among the rocks of Chartreuse
than live in the kingdom of so mean and dishonourable a
prince.
Henry, who knew he deserved all this, turned to Hugh,
and asked him if he were of the same mind. " No," said
Hugh ; " I believe better things of you, and am confident
that you will carry out the salutary purpose that you have
entertained." At this the king was greatly delighted, and
declared that Hugh was the man after his own heart ; and
the necessary supplies were at once forthcoming.
Having finished the buildings, Hugh sought eagerly for
MSS. of good books, and, above all, he was desirous of
obtaining a copy of the Scriptures entire, " which he re-
garded," says Giraldus, " as the best comfort and recreation
in peace, the best weapon and armour in war, as nourishment
in time of famine, medicine in time of sickness." In one
of his interviews with the king, Hugh mentioned the dearth
of books as a great trouble to him. " Why not set your
brethren to copy some ? " said the king. " We have no
parchment," said the prior. " How much money would
supply that want ? " " One silver mark would last us for
a long time." " Oh," said the king, " your demand is
immoderate indeed." Whereupon he ordered ten marks
to be given to Hugh for the purchase of the parchment.
282 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Henry having been at the expense of the magnificent
donation of ten marks, sought to make his next present less
costly to himself Accordingly, having inquired carefully
where a good copy of the whole Bible (Bibliotheca) could
be found, and having heard that at the monastery of St.
Swithin's at Winchester there was a fine copy, he sent for
the prior, and asked him for it. They, expecting to receive
some great favour of the king, yielded it, and he immediately
made it a present to Witham. St. Hugh was delighted,
being in complete ignorance of the way it had been obtained.
Two monks of "Winchester were sent to Witham to ask Sl
Hugh if they might be allowed to retain their own beloved
manuscript, and make a copy for him. On hearing the way
in which the king had appropriated it, he insisted on return-
ing it, in spite of the monks' fear that the king might be
offended. It is another instance of the persistent honesty
and uprightness of this good man, perhaps even more
striking than the former one of his refusing to dispossess
the townspeople unless they were recompensed.
His humility and industry were shown by his working at
the buildings with his own hands, even carrying stones and
mortar on his shoulders. The church, a small one, still
stands, and should have been specially sacred as having
been, not metaphorically, but actually, the work of a great
saint ; but it has been in the hands of the restorer, has been
enlarged and beautified, forgetting that as the work of a
Carthusian monastery, where the inmates are few, it would
be necessarily small and plain, grandeur and ornament
being very sternly forbidden. Its style is late Transi-
tion.
WITHAM PRIORY AND ST. HUGH OF AVALON. 283
The influence that his deep piety had over the irrehgious
mind of the king is shown by an anecdote told of him.
Once, when Henry was returning to England with his army,
a furious storm arose, and, being in great danger, he prayed
aloud : " O blessed God ! whom the Prior of Witham truly
serves, vouchsafe, through the merits and intercession of
Thy faithful servant, with an eye of pity to regard our dis-
tress and affliction." This invocation was scarcely finished,
but a calm ensued, and the whole company, who never
ceased to give thanks to the Divine clemency, continued
their voyage safe to England. The confidence which King
Henry reposed in St. Hugh above all other persons in his
dominion was from that time much increased.
A pleasing trait in the saint's character was his singular
power of attaching birds to him. This he showed at Witham
as well as the Chartreuse. Giraldus writes that " a certain
little bird which is called Burneta was so tame and domesti-
cated in his cell, that every day it came to his table and
took its food from his hand and plate."
And now the immediate and personal connection of St.
Hugh with Somerset was about to cease. The see of Lincoln
having been vacant for some years, the king, after the
unscrupulous fashion of the times, had appropriated the
revenues under the pretence of appointing his illegitimate
son Geoffrey to the see, who, however, was not consecrated.
At last, greatly influenced, it is said, by Reginald, Bishop
of Bath, who, in spite of his love of hunting and hawking,
seems to have been a fairly good bishop,' bestowed it upon
I Richard I. confirmed to him an alleged right for the bishops of the
diocese to keep dogs for sporting through Somerset. (Jackson's " Guide
to Wells.")
284 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
St. Hugh, who, however, would fain have excused himself,
but was compelled by the authority of Baldwin, Archbishop
of Canterbury, to accept it. He was consecrated on the
2ist of September, 1 1S6. Here he made himself so great a
name, restoring discipline among the clerg}-, preaching to
the laity, and striving to quicken in all men the spirit
of faith, spending whole days in administering the sacra-
ments and consecrating churches, that his former more
humble work has been well-nigh forgotten.
But St. Hugh himself was not one to forsake his first
love, and it was the good bishop's custom to retire at least
once a year to Witham, and there, in his beloved cloister,
retreat to observe the common rule, without any difference
between himself and the brethren but that of wearing the
episcopal ring on his finger. Here, as from a high tower, he
surveyed the vanity of human things, the shortness of life,
and the immensity of eternity ; also turning his eyes inward
upon himself, he took an impartial view of the affections
of his own heart and of all his actions. He earnestly
besought the Pope, by letters and agents, to relieve him
of his episcopal charge and restore him to his cell ; but his
supplications were either unheeded, or he was silenced with
rebukes.
Here our notice of St. Hugh should end, as his story has
no more connection with Somerset ; but, passing over his
episcopate, it is impossible to resist giving the account of
his last days and his funeral at Lincoln.
Being sent on an embassy to France by King John, he
visited his old home, the Grand Chartreuse; but on his
return through London, when he was just about to attend a
WITHAM PRIORY AND ST. HUGH OF AVALON. 285
National Council to be held at Lincoln, he was seized with
a fever. He received the Holy Sacrament and Extreme
Unction on St. Matthew's Day, the 21st of September,
but lingered till the 1 7th of November, the day which is
marked in our calendar by his name. On that day he
caused many monks and priests, besides his chaplains, to
recite the Divine office in his chamber. Seeing them weep,
he said many tender things to comfort them, and, laying his
hand upon them, one by one, recommended them to the
Divine custody. His voice beginning to fail, he ordered the
floor to be swept and a cross of blessed ashes to be strewed
upon it, and when the nineteenth Psalm at compline was
said, would be lifted out of bed and laid upon the cross, in
which posture, as he was repeating the Nunc Dimittis, he
calmly expired, in the year of our Lord 1200, of his age
sixty, of his episcopal charge fifteen.
His body was embalmed, and with great pomp conveyed
from London to Lincoln, where the Great Council was
assembled to arrange matters in dispute between the kings
of England and Scotland, to attend which he had been
summoned home, and at which, as bishop of the see, he
would probably have presided. Here, in his own cathedral
city, were gathered King John, of evil memory, though as
yet unstained by the dark crimes of later years, and, as his
behaviour at this very council testifies, w'ith, as yet, a heart
that could be softened by holy emotions ; here also was
William the Lion, King of Scotland, who, moved by a
dream, in which their common ancestress, Margaret Athe-
ling, appeared to him and forbad him to ravage the lands
of England, had sent back his army, and now appeared at
2 86 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the council predisposed to arrange tlieir disputes amicably;
and here, too, was a king of South Wales, probably Lewin
or Llewellyn, who three years later married a natural
daughter of John. Three archbishops, thirteen bishops, and
a multitude of English, Scotch, French, and Irish princes
and peers, were gathered together. Then, in presence of
all these spectators, the two kings of England and Scotland,
on Archbishop Hubert Walter's crozier — he being also grand
justiciar or chancellor — swore amity and faithful love.
While they were in this fraternal mood, news was brought
that the company bearing the good bishop's remains were
approaching the gates ; and John, whose softened state of
mind was probably owing to a visit he had paid St. Hugh
on his sick-bed just before he set out for the council, went
forth with all that princely train to meet him, the three
kings, with their allies, taking the hearse on their shoulders,
and bearing it from the gate, whence the great peers received
it, and bore it to the church porch, whence the archbishops
and bishops conveyed it to the quire.
We are told that during the ceremony William of Scotland
was bathed in tears ; for he had dearly loved the saint. It
was on this occasion that the King of Scotland consented to
do homage to King John, which he had managed to evade
twice in the same year.
The coincidence of the double ceremonial must have
made it an occasion of rare splendour and solemnity.
Authorities. — Speed ; Butler's Lives of the Saints ;
Canon Perry's Life of St. Hugh of Avalon.
W\hL\/KfA Of WROTHy\JVI.
(Archdeacon of Taunton, 1204; Warden of the Cinque Ports
and Guardian of the King's Ships, 1217-1218.)
-:o:-
In the miserable record of the reign of John, and among
the continuous history of his evil deeds, it is refreshing to
find one bright spot to rest upon, one fact which reflects
honour upon himself and his reign. Sir Harris Nicolas, in
his most interesting, but alas ! unfinished " History of the
Royal Navy," says that King John may be considered as its
actual founder, and he testifies to the good work done by it
in this otherwise deplorable reign. It seems probable that
John, owing to the dislike and distrust entertained for him
by his barons, on account of his dissolute life and capricious
cruelty, paid great attention to his navy that it might serve
in some sort as a counterpoise to their power ; for in the
Middle Ages, there being no standing army, the sovereign
was almost entirely dependent for his soldiers on the good-
will of his feudal lords.
Be that as it may, certain it is that King John devoted
both time and energy to his ships and sailors, and that he
won two battles by sea over the French, which are almost
2 88 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
entirely passed over by our historians.^ In fact, John was
the first king since Alfred who recognized the importance
of a fleet to the English crown and nation. For the success
of King John's endeavours he was, however, mainly indebted
to his excellent " First Lord of the Admiralty," William of
Wrotham, Archdeacon of Taunton.
According to CoUinson, Archdeacon William's grand-
father, Geoffrey of Radenville, was domestic servant, or
perhaps confidential attendant, to several successive arch-
bishops of Canterbury ; of whom Archbishop Hubert Walter
gave him certain lands at Wrotham, where he lived, and
from whence he and his posterity derived their name.
Geoffrey de Radenville ^ had a son named William, by
Muriel Lyd. This William, whom we may call William the
First, married Maude de Cornhall or Cornhill. She was
daughter of one of the great merchant princes of London, 3
who in the Middle Ages bore themselves so haughtily before
kings and princes. William de Wrotham was recom-
mended by Archbishop Hubert to Richard I., and in the
ninth year of his reign he was given charge of the stannaries
of Devon and Cornwall, in which commission he made
rules and ordinances which have been the foundation of the
Stannary laws ever since. In the tenth year of Richard I.
the said William de Wrotham had a grant from the king of
the manor of Cathanger, in the parish of Fyvehead, near
' A third was gained in the year after his death, and this was the last
stroke which drove Prince Louis of France out of England.
^Geoffrey de Radenville is spoken of by some of his descendants as
rather a mythical character, but as they do not supply us with any one
in his place, I have kept him.
3 See Loftie's '* Historic Towns " — London.
WILLIAM OF WROTHAM. 289
Langport, the first land of which he became possessed in
this county ; and in the same year he had also the bailiwick
of North Petherton.
In the first year of King John's reign he was made Sheriff
of Devonshire, again Warden of the Stannaries, and was
also chosen Forester of Dorset and Somerset; the free-
holders of these counties paying the king ^loo for the
privilege of appointing him. In the fourth year of King
John he was made Forester of Dorset, Devon, Somerset,
and Cornwall. In the ninth year of John it appears that
William of Wrotham, the elder, returned to his native
county, leaving his two sons in the west. He was made
Sheriff of Kent, and the same year Warden of the Cinque
Ports and Constable of Dover Castle. Soon after his return
to Kent he died, leaving two sons, William and Richard,
by his wife Maude de Cornhill.
Some three or four years before his father's death, William
— the elder brother — who was in holy orders, was made
Archdeacon of Taunton. This was in the sixth year of John's
reign. In the same year he was, in conjunction with his
cousin, Reginald de Cornhill (son of his mother's brother,
Gervase de Cornhill), appointed receiver of customs of all
the merchants in the kingdom, and thereby had to account
for nearly ;^6ooo ! In the seventh year of John's reign he
obtained a market to be kept every Tuesday for the benefit
of the church at Wells. On the death of his father he
succeeded him as heir to his land, and probably also to his
offices ; for we find him shortly after spoken of as " Keeper
of the King's ships," or " Keeper of the King's galleys,"
and "Keeper'of the Sea Ports." He seems then to have
20
290 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
succeeded to the office of Warden of the Cinque Ports. It
was the important duties connected with this office, and not
— as ColHnson says — his being in holy orders, that made
him yield his office in the stannaries and forests to his lay-
brother, Richard de "\^>otham.
He must have been a man of immense activity to have
organized a navy such, probably, as had not been seen in
Britain since the days of Carausius. He had to assist him,
Geoffrey de Luttrell, ancestor of the present lords of Dun-
ster, and his cousins, Reginald and William de Cornhill.
He regulated and exacted the number of ships each port
was bound to provide. He built ships which belonged to
the king, and these were almost certainly made of timber
furnished from the forests of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon,
which were under his own supervision.
He was responsible for the king's galleys and ships, with
all their stores, and to him were directed the king's precepts
for the employment and disposal of ships, their freightage,
the purchase of stores, and the payment of wages. Engines
also for military purposes were under his superintendence.
Very early in his reign, John is said to have asserted the
sovereignty of England over the narrow seas, by enacting —
or rather enforcing an ancient right, viz. , the striking of the
flag of any nation to the royal flag of England within certain
limits. He ordered that any captain refusing to do this,
his vessel should be considered a lawful prize, even if the
country were at peace with his own.
In March, 1208, the Barons of the Cinque Ports were
directed to choose the best and strongest men they could
find, well-armed, to man the king's galleys, as William de
WILLIAM OF WROTHAM. 29 1
Wrotham would explain to them. The duties which apper-
tained to Archdeacon William, though purely administrative,
must have been very important. When any ships were
wanted for service, Wrotham was commanded to take the
necessary measures for their equipment, and he also super-
intended the construction of buildings for naval purposes.
Striking evidence of the progress of the English navy in
the reign of John is afforded by the construction of a kind
of Dockyard at Portsmouth. In May, 12 12, the Sheriff of
Southampton was commanded to cause the docks at Ports-
mouth to be enclosed with a strong wall, in the manner
which the Archdeacon of Taunton would point out, for the
preservation of the king's ships and galleys.
When prizes were taken at sea, the king seems to have
disposed of them as he thought fit. We hear, in a distribu-
tion of French prizes, of the third best being given to
William de Briwere, friend and confidential adviser of
Henry II. and his two successors. Strangely similar are
the lives and characters of these two men. De Wrotham
owed httle, De Briwere nothing, to his birth, yet both were
valued servants of their sovereigns, from the energy, fidelity,
and conscientiousness with which they discharged their
duties. They seem to have mixed in no intrigues, to have
joined in none of King John's acts of extortion or cruelty,
but simply to have done their duty in the state of life to
which it had pleased God to call them. In our own time
they have been almost equally forgotten and their good
work ignored.
How De Wrotham performed his ecclesiastical functions,
or how far he let his state duties interfere with his dis-
292 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
charge of these, we are not told. Probably his ecclesiastical
duties were not heavy, as so much of the Church property
in Somerset belonged to Glastonbury, Muchelney, and other
monasteries, and over these the archdeacon would have no
jurisdiction. He never seems to have aspired to any higher
ofifice in the Church, and no word is anywhere spoken in
his disparagement. In the Middle Ages when, as a rule,
ecclesiastics alone were educated, men of intelligence and
activity were constantly seized upon by kings with foresight
and discernment of character, and set to do work in the
State ; they then had to perform the ecclesiastical functions
by deputy. Such a state of things was of course bad, but
under the circumstances could hardly be helped. Arch-
deacon William was, I fear, not a native of our county, but
he passed a great part of his life in and near it ; and his
office as Archdeacon of Taunton, and his property in it,
which was considerable, entitle him to rank among its
worthies.
The family was continued in the descendants of his
brother ; the elder branch became merged in that of Acland
in the 14th century, but the younger branch continues to
the present day, and to one of these this paper is much
indebted for suggestions and corrections. The name has
become slightly altered : it is now written Wortham, and
there is a house which formerly belonged to the family and
still bears their name at Liften, in Devonshire.
The most curious circumstance about the life of William
of Wrotham is that CoUinson and Sir H. Nicholas, the
two authorities principally followed, view our hero's character
from two entirely opposite points. Collinson gives some
WILLIAM OF WROTHAM. 293
account of his family, and of his duties as Warden of the
Stannaries and Keeper of the Forests ; while Sir Harris
Nicholas tells us of his work as Comptroller of the Navy, or
First Lord of the Admiralty, and Warden of the Cinque
Ports ; and so completely does each ignore the other that,
were it not that both speak of him as Archdeacon of
Taunton, one would be tempted to suppose they were two
different persons. That he should so completely have been
forgotten, is but another illustration of the fact that those
who quietly and unostentatiously do solid work for their
country are seldom remembered, in comparison with those
whose more showy but less useful deeds go to the making
up of history.
He died in the second or third year of Henry HI., but
his official life seems to have been coeval with the reign of
John.
Authorities. — Collinson's Somerset ; Sir Harris Nicho-
las' History of the Royal Navy; Historic Towns
(London) ; and Family Records.
JOCELIP^E Tl^OTJM/vN, Of WeLL?.
(Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, 1206-1218; Bishop of Bath
and Wells, 1218-1242.)
:o:-
JocELiNE and Hugh Trotman, of Wells, in spite of their
unaristocratic surname, appear to have been men of sub-
stance, and to have held a good position in their native
town, before they became respectively bishops of Bath and
Wells and of Lincoln. Bishop Joceline deserves special
mention as the first native Englishman appointed to the see
of Wells since the Conquest.
There is little private or personal in a mediaeval eccle-
siastic's biography, and, unless engaged in some office under
the crown, his history is merged in that of his diocese.
Even the date of this great bishop's birth is unknown; but
as he was appointed to the bishopric in 1206, we know that
his birth could not possibly have been later than 11 76, and
was probably several years earlier, thirty being the youngest
canonical age at which a bishop can be consecrated. Born
in the reign of Henry H., he grew up during the troublous
times of Richard, when the evils of absenteeism brought
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 295
such misery upon the land, and was raised to the bishop's
throne during the disastrous period of John's reign ; but,
suffering much, observing much, and learning much, he was
enabled to carry out the grand ideas that had been forming
themselves in his mind, during the six and twenty years of
comparative peace and prosperity in the early part of the
reign of Henry III.
The reign of the third Henry marks one of those great
developments of mind and thought which take place at
irregular intervals in the course of human progress. It is
the period when science made its first step beyond guess-
work or charlatanism, when ecclesiastical architecture reached
its culminating point, and it was, says Bishop Stubbs, " the
golden age of English churchmanship," and in all these
Somerset and Somerset folk came to the front.
To show the work of organization and re-edification that
Bishop Joceline had to undertake in his diocese, we must
recall its condition for the last forty years. On the death of
Bishop Robert in 1166, Henry II., in his unscrupulous
greed, kept the see vacant for eight years ; he then bestowed
it upon Reginald Fitz-Joceline, who, though a man of ability
and possessing many excellent qualities, by no means fulfilled
one's ideal of a model bishop. He was devoted to hunting
and hawking, and Richard I. confirmed to him an alleged
right for the bishops of the diocese to keep dogs for sporting
throughout Somerset. For some service rendered to the
monks he was, without his consent, elected Archbishop of
Canterbury on November 27, 1191, but died suddenly at
his manor at Dogmersfield, in Hampshire, December 26th,
and was buried at Bath. He is credited with beginning the
296 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
work of rebuilding Wells Cathedral, a work which Bishop
Joceline brought to perfection.
It is perhaps permitted us to imagine that Bishop Reginald
stood godfather to Joceline Trotman, the eldest son of
people of some consideration in Wells, and gave him his
patronymic as a Christian name at the font ; and as the boy
grew up at Wells, and saw the noble work taken in hand by
the princely bishop, we can fancy him fired with emulation,
and making a firm resolution that, whatever should betide, he
would devote himself to helping it forward, and make his name
famous in connection with one of the grandest cathedrals in
England. But Bishop Reginald died, the works were stopped,
and for five years again the bishopric was vacant, while the
king seized the revenues. The works being stopped, what was
already done fell into decay. Then a new bishop was ap-
pointed, one Savaric, a relation of the Emperor of Germany,
who stipulated for Wells and the rich abbey of Glastonburj-,
to be held by him m comme/idam, as part of the price of
Richard's release from imprisonment. Then, finding the
cathedral in ruins, and the people crying out against the
shameful bargain, Savaric punished them by removing the
seat of his bishopric to Bath, and calling himself Bishop of
Bath and Glastonbury, ignoring Wells altogether. The
monks of Glastonbury were equally indignant ; they could
trace their foundation back to hundreds of years before the
rest of the diocese were even Christians at all, and now
they were made a dependency of the see.. Five monks who
opposed his enthronement "were carried on beasts of burden
to Wells, and there closely confined, and scoffed at beyond
measure, every day receiving meat without drink and drink
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 297
without meat alternately, in much sorrow and affliction."
Savaric died in 1205.'
The chapters of Bath and Wells now determined to
assert their rights. They elected as their bishop, Joceline
Trotman, himself a native of Wells, likely therefore to
support its undoubted claim to be considered the seat of the
episcopate in Somerset. Moreover, he was versed in legal
matters, for he was already a justice in the Court of Common
Pleas. He was consecrated at St. Mary's Chapel, at
Reading, on Trinity Sunday, 1206, the date marking it as
the interval between the death of Hubert Walter, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and the choice of his successor,
Stephen Langton.
It was a time of grievous trouble and anxiety in Church
and State. As long as Queen Eleanor and Archbishop
Hubert Walter lived, John kept within certain bounds ; but
now all restraint was thrown ol^', and he defied not only
Popes and ecclesiastics, but all order and decency. In
many respects John was one of the ablest of his race ; it
was by his utter failure in, nay defiance of, purity, truth,
and justice that he fell, in time to save England, for his
posterity, though not for himself.
But with the consecration of Langton by Pope
Innocent HI., in June, 1207, began John's struggle with the
Church, and ultimately with the nation, which led eventu-
ally to his own ruin. John refused to receive Langton. In
1208 the kingdom was placed under an interdict : in 1209
the king was declared excommunicate. He seized the
estates of the clergy,
' The only good deed that I find recorded of him was his founding
the prebends of Ilminster and Long Sutton.
298 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Bishop Joceline sided with the archbishop, and with him and
others had to escape to the Continent. Here they remained
till John was compelled to yield at last to the terrors of
personal excommunication, and a bull absolving his subjects
from their allegiance. He had defied the interdict which
had closed every parish church in the kingdom ; but the
hand was put forth and touched him personally, and he
gave way. One of his first acts of submission was to issue
letters of recall to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
bishops of Bath, Ely, Hereford, Lmcoln, and London, and
the prior and monks of Canterbury, May 24, 12 13.
Bishop Joceline then returned to his native place and his
episcopal city. He found Bishop Reginald's cathedral in a
grievous state of disrepair, requiring so much to be done
towards its restoration that he has been credited with all his
predecessor's good work. During his absence he had wit-
nessed with no unheeding eyes the most magnificent
specimens of church architecture abroad; he had seen the
cathedral of Notre Dame, at Paris, then nearly completed ;
and he may probably have been present at the consecration
of Rheims Cathedral in 121 1. With improved knowledge,
and enlarged ideas and refined taste. Bishop Joceline pro-
ceeded then to his work of restoration; but not content with
completing what was already begun, he, like all other great
minds, must stamp upon his work the impress of his own
genius ; and still holding the rich abbey of Glastonbury, he
was able with the large funds at his disposal to design the
great western front, and complete the cathedral.
This magnificent piece of work, unique of its kind, is
almost composed of niches, raised tier above tier, containing
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 299
each one or more statues, in all 300 in number. At least
150 of these are either colossal or the size of life. The
doors are small, for is not the gate strait or narrow by which
we enter into life ? Then, tier above tier, rise the figures of
apostles and prophets, upon which foundation the Church is
laid. Then angels holding scrolls bearing the legend,
" Gloria in Excelsis," and holding in their hands mitres and
crowns to reward such as overcome. Above these again are
scenes and worthies from both the Old and New Testaments :
amongst these groups is one representing the Last Supper.
Then in the tympanum above the porch is the Virgin
seated, supporting the infant Jesus treading on a serpent.
The fourth and fifth tiers represent historical characters.
The seventh represents the Resurrection ; this contains in
all about 150 figures. In the seventh, the whole hierarchy
of heaven is represented by the nine orders of angels —
angels, archangels, powers, thrones, dominions, principalities,
authorities, cherubim, and seraphim. The eighth tier
represents the twelve apostles as judging the twelve tribes
of Israel. In the ninth are three niches — two are empty ;
in the centre one are the feet of a statue, " doubtless," says
Mr. Cockerell, " Christ sitting in judgment, with the Virgin
and St. John the Baptist on either side, types of the old and
new law."
This grand fagade, with its groups of figures all engaged
in praise to the Unseen, who presides over all, has been
supposed to have been intended to illustrate the Te Dcum,
for "The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee. The
noble army of Martyrs praise Thee." In the second tier :
300 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" To Thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens and all the
Powers therein ; " and over the central door : " Thou art the
King of Glory, O Christ. When thou tookest upon Thee to
deliver man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb."
In the third, fourth, and fifth tiers : " The Holy Church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee." In
the sixth, seventh and eighth : "When Thou didst over-
come the sharpness of death, Thou didst open Thy kingdom
to all believers. We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants,
whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. Make
them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting."
In the tenth : " We believe that Thou shalt come to be our
Judge." The whole work proclaims : " Day by day we
magnify Thee, and we worship Thy Name, ever world with-
out end."
Such was Bishop Joceline's grand idea, nobly carried out,
to make the stones themselves cry out the praises of our
God and King, and to illustrate in sculpture St. Ambrose's
grand Church hymn. To the present day musicians never
weary of setting it to fresh strains, but to him alone did the
idea present itself of embodying this universal hymn of
praise in imperishable stone. For six hundred years and
more has this magnificent work been proclaiming with its
silent voice, " We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee
to be the Lord."
But Joceline did not disdain to give his mind to humbler
but not less useful works. He founded a grammar school
at Wells, probably after that see was again separated from
Glastonbury ; he had himself almost certainly been edu-
cated in the abbey (in his time the only good school in the
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 3OI
diocese). He founded chapels at Wells and Wokey. He
built the palace, with the great hall — for are not bishops to
be given to hospitality ? It has been said that the Trotmans
were apparently men of substance ; he obtained from his
brother Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, the three manors of
Congresbury, Cheddar, and Axbridge, and attached them
to the see. But perhaps nothing is more pleasing than to
find the two brothers, bishops though they were of sees
wide apart, uniting to found a hospital for the benefit of
their native town. It was known as the hospital of St.
John ; but its benevolent purpose could not spare it from
the sacrilegious hands which laid their grip on so much that
was sacred and beneficent.
The greater part of this work was, of course, done in the
reign of Henry III., but we must turn back a little to the
death of John. It was in August, 12 15, immediately after
the signing of the great Charter, that John, seeking to evade
its conditions, appealed to Rome, and the Pope took his
side against the justly incensed barons. Langton, who saw
himself powerless against the Pope's legate, determined to
go to Rome, and Pandulf suspended the archbishop at the
moment of his embarkation. And now the barons, pushed
to the last extremity, offered the crown to Louis, the son of
the King of France, who accepted the offer and invaded
England. Had their schemes been carried out, it would
have resulted in England becoming a province of France.
From this we were saved by the death of the tyrant in the
following year, Avhen, through the wise statesmanship of the
great Earl of Pembroke, the greater part of the barons
returned to their allegiance. The first act of Pembroke was
302 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to get the young king crowned. This was only possible in
the west, which still remained loyal. It is said by some that
the boy — he was only nine years of age — was disguised as
a page and taken to Gloucester. There, in the absence of
the archbishop, he was crowned by Peter de Roches, Bishop
of Winchester, and Joceline, Bishop of Bath. Sylvester
of Worcester and William of Coventry were also present,
with other prelates, but apparently took no part in the coro-
nation. Then Bishop Joceline dictated the oath to the
young king. It was as follows : " Quod honorem, pacem
ac reverentiam portabit Deo et sanctee ecclesise et ejus
ordinatis, omnibus diebus vitae suce : quod in populo sibi
commisso rectam justitiam tenebit ; quodque leges malas et
iniquas consuetudines, si quse sint in regno, delebit et bonas
observabit et ab omnibus faciet observari." ^ Gualo, the
legate, was present, so that the Pope's authority confirmed
the consecration, but Henry had to do homage to the Pope
in the person of Gualo.
One act of restitution the good bishop was compelled to
make. The monks of Glastonbury, after a persistent
struggle for twelve years, obtained, by an appeal to the court
of Rome, a decree dissolving their enforced union with the
see of Wells. This they obtained in the year 1218, but at
the price of four manors, viz., Winscombe, Puckchurch,
Blackford, and Cranmore, which were yielded to the see of
• That he will give honour, peace, and reverence towards God and
holy Church and her ordinances all the days of his life ; that he will
maintain right justice towards his people, and that he will abolish bad
laws and wicked customs, if such there be in the kingdom, and will
observe and cause to be observed such as are good by all men.
JOCELINE TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 303
Wells. Joceline now resumed the old title of Bishop of
Bath and Wells, and Glastonbury returned to its normal
state as the greatest monastic foundation in England. In
truth the union was an ill-assorted one, for Wells was
essentially a collegiate foundation, with nothing of the
monastery about it. They each had their allotted work to
do, and, in the main, they did it well.
Having held the episcopal office for nearly thirty-seven
years, Bishop Joceline died November 19, 1242, and was
buried in the centre of the choir. His tomb was marked
by an inlaid brass ; that has disappeared for many a year, but
the slab which covered it, and which was indented with the
marks of the brass, and which therefore might well have
been restored, was lost in some recent restorations. Of this
great prelate, then, no monument remains but his own works.
Of him was said, " No one had ever been like this man, and
we have never seen a successor equal to him." Quaint old
Fuller says of him : " God, to square his great undertakings,
gave him a long life to his large heart."
It should be added that the material used in his work
was Doulting stone, from St. Andrew's quarry, and that
the work is believed to have been done almost entirely
by native artists and workmen, it differing essentially from
that known to have been the work of Italians and other
foreigners.
One would fain know something of the inner life of this
great Sumorscetan. "Ye shall know him by his work," is
nearly all that can be said of a man whose lineage, name,
and education appear to have belonged wholly to his own
county, and whose life, with the exception of five years of
304 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
enforced exile, was spent entirely in and was wholly devoted
to his own diocese and his own people.
Authorities. — Fuller's Worthies ; Jackson's Guide to
Wells ; Green's History of England ; Stubbs' Con-
stitutional History.
HUQH Tl^OTJVlAI^, OF WeLL3.
(Bishop of Lincoln, A.D. 1209-1232.)
Of this prelate, as of his brother of Wells, it may be said
that, after his elevation to the Episcopate, we but read his
life in the history of his diocese. Both brothers were
devoted to their work ; both were distinguished by undying
love for their native place ; both shared in the great archi-
tectural development of their age ; both were men famous in
their generation ; both have shared the same fate in being
well-nigh forgotten in the present age by those who have
entered into their works. But Bishop Joceline, presumably
the elder brother, seems to have had a larger mind and a
more elevated imagination ; while in Bishop Hugh we find
more of method, order, and government.
Between the episcopal rule at Lincoln of St. Hugh of
Avalon and Hugh of Wells intervened that of William
of Blois, with, however, a vacancy in the one case of two,
in the other of three years, during which the revenues were
diverted to the king's use. It is remarkable that the writ
containing the king's letters-patent for seizing the revenues
21
3o6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
were committed to the care of Hugh Trotman, brother to
the Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury.
The case of Becket and his father had not taught King
John, even worldly, wisdom in ecclesiastical matters, and he
argued, from the readiness of Archdeacon Hugh to bear his
letters of, what was in fact, spoliation and plunder, that he
would find him ready to take his part in his quarrel with the
Church. So he appointed him to the vacant see of Lincoln;
but the kingdom was under an interdict, and the archdeacon
was unable to obtain consecration in England, and went to
Rouen for the purpose. Here he met the Archbishop
Stephen Langton and his brother. He was speedily per-
suaded to range himself on the side of the Church and the
nation, for the struggle was then not only for the rights
and freedom of the Church, but also for the liberty of the
subject, and freedom from an intolerable tyranny. He took
the oath of canonical obedience to the archbishop, and was
consecrated by him December 20, 1209. But now, having
identified himself with the cause of the Church, he dared
not return, and was forced to remain in exile ; losing, of
course, the income of his see, and living at his own expense
abroad.
Nearly four years passed while the two brothers remained
in exile ; and John, sinking gradually into the lowest depths
of degradation, found himself reduced to resign his crown
into the hands of the Pope's legate on the 15th of May, the
eve of the Ascension. Deserted by all, and for the time
thoroughly humbled, the archbishop and his suffragans were
recalled. On the 17th of August Archbishop Langton and
the bishops, including the brothers of Wells and Lincoln,
HUGH TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 307
landed at Dover; and from thence "went to Winchester to the
king, who, meeting them, in the way, fell flat upon the earth
before their feete, and with teers beseeched them to take
pittie on him, and of the realme of England. The arch-
bishoppe and bishoppes likewise, with teares, tooke him up
from the ground, and brought him into the doores of the
cathedral church, and with the Psalme of Miserere absolved
him. Then the king tooke an othe to call in all wicked
lawes, and to put in place the lawes of King Edward.
Divine service being ended, the king, the archbishoppe,
bishoppes, and nobles dyned all at one table." ^
But though the sentence of excommunication was reversed,
the Pope still refused to wholly withdraw the interdict until
full restitution was made to the clergy, and ample reparation
given for all damages which they had sustained. The clergy
sent in their demands, and to Lincoln was allotted the sum
of 15,000 marks, which was paid ; for Bishop Hugh was in-
conveniently well up in the temporal affairs of his diocese.
The king wrote to Roger de Neville to restore to the bishop
the money received from the Abbey of Eynsham ; he bids
Brian de Insula furnish him with 300 stags for Stowe Park ;
he \vrites to the Sheriff of Nottingham to eject all trespassers
on the bishop's lands.
But the terrible troubles of the latter days of King John's
' Stowe. One cannot help wondering whether, when the bishops
absolved the king, they knew of his last horrible crime, viz., battering
to death, by tying him to a horse's tail, poor Peter of I'ontefract, who
had prophesied that by Ascension Day there should be no king in Eng-
land. Nor indeed was there, fur it was on the eve of that day that
John resigned his crown to the legate, who refused to restore it for some
days. Nor was John even satisfied with this piece of barbarity, for he
caused not only Peter, but his son to be hanged !
308 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
reign came on, and fell with peculiar severity on the diocese
and county of Lincoln. It was at one of the bishop's
palaces, at Sleaford, that John halted for one night when
striving to escape from dishonour and death. Then, after
the momentary relief caused by the death of John, followed
the horrors of the battle of Lincoln Fair and the sack of the
town. The bishop and the clergy of the cathedral being
considered partizans of the barons against the French prince,
the cathedral church was spoiled, and the precentor, Geoffrey
of Deeping, was robbed of ii,ooo marks of silver, probably
a sum destined to be employed in the building of the
cathedral. Nor was this enough, for, on the bishop's return
to his diocese, he had to pay i,ooo marks to the Pope, and
loo to the legate, before he could occupy it. Truly it seems
at this time as if the whole body, politic — ecclesiastical, as
well as secular — was bleeding at every pore.
But Bishop Hugh's wise administration soon produced
amendment. He exercised a vigorous discipline, especially
over the monasteries, enforcing everywhere the establishment
of vicarages ' where the great tithes were in the possession
of the religious houses. He also carried on building and
restoration with zeal. The cathedral again began to rise in
the beauty conceived by St. Hugh ; an episcopal house was
'Vicarages were the outcome of one of the abuses of the monastic
system. The Pope, the sovereign, or patrons of livings would bestow
benefices on some monastery, with the understanding, of course, that
the monastery should provide for the spiritual care of the parish. If
this were near the monastery all might be well ; if not, some unpopular
monk or some ill -paid secular priest was put in charge, and the land or
revenues left for the benefit of the parish, were diverted from their uses.
Bishop Hugh, therefore, did a good work in insisting that these vicars
or substitutes should be well paid and efficient men.
HUGH TROTMAN, OF WELLS. 309
built at Bugden ; the hall of the bishop's house at Lincoln,
begun by St. Hugh, was completed ; another hall built at
Ham. The bishop's parks were stocked with deer — a
thoroughly energetic man was at the helm of the diocese.
But in his care for the temporalities he did not forget the
spiritual wants of his see. To Bishop Hugh of Wells we
owe the earliest, probably, of those papers of inquiries
which afterwards figure so frequently in the lives of mediaeval
bishops.
In the inquiries to be made of the archdeacons in each of
the ecclesiastical divisions in the diocese of Lincoln, the
questions are forty-nine in number. They are given in full in
Canon Perry's " Life of St. Hugh, and some of his Prede-
cessors and Successors." A few are subjoined as examples :
1. Are there any rectors or vicars enormously illiterate?
2. Is the Sacrament of the Eucharist carried to the sick
with due reverence, and kept carefully protected, as is
fitting ?
17. Do any clerks frequent the company of actors, or
play at dice or bones (taxillos)?
19. Have any, more cures of souls than one, without dis-
pensation ?
21. Does any priest extort money for penance or the
other Sacraments, or enjoin penances which bring him
gain ?
26. Are grave-yards everywhere enclosed, and churches
decently built and adorned, and the vessels for use in them
rightly provided and kept ?
33. Is any priest negligent in visiting the sick ?
3IO MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Surely these show a wise and earnest desire for the good
government of the diocese committed to his charge.
Bishop Hugh had the pleasure of witnessing the canoni-
zation of his famous namesake in 1220, and his first transla-
tion, and of seeing one of his canons, Richard the Chancellor,
raised to the Primacy. He died February 7, 1235, and was
buried in the cathedral, February 10. He was succeeded by
the famous Grostete, whose constant patron he had been.
Authorities. — Chiefly Canon Perry's Life of St. Hugh,
his Predecessors and Successors ; also Stowe and
Hume.
Phix^o^ophef^^ of ^omef^^et.
ROGER BACON.
(Circa A.D. 1214-1292.)
Greatest among, not only the philosophers of Somerset,
but the philosophers of Europe of that age, and, having
regard to the ignorance and obstacles he had to overcome,
probably the greatest in the world — stands the name of
Roger Bacon, known in his own day as " Mirabilis Doctor."
There was a quaint custom in that age of giving the most
celebrated teachers of the day some appellation by which
they were distinguished among the learned. Thus Thomas
Aquinas was the " Angelical Doctor " ; Alexander Hales, of
Gloucester, the " Irrefragable Doctor " ; but none so well
deserved his title as Roger Bacon, the " Wonderful Doctor."
It is remarkable that both the year of the birth and death
of Roger Bacon are carefully recorded. He was born at
Ilchester in the year 12 14. "The life of Roger Bacon,"
says Green, "almost covers the thirteenth century. He
was the child of royalist parents, who had been driven into
exile and reduced to poverty by the civil wars. From
312 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Oxford, where he studied under Edmund of Abingdon —
otherwise known as Edmund Rich or St. Edmund, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury — he went to Paris. It was the custom
in those days, before the building of separate colleges had
placed the students under a more exact and careful surveil-
lance, for the scholars to remain at one university as long as
they chose, and having gained all they could from it to
migrate to another. They attended the lectures of their
favourite professor, and having extracted all the information
he had to give them, they passed on, it may be, to Paris or
Bologna. At this period Oxford and Paris stood highest in
all Europe for the excellence of their professors. But
Oxford then was far different from the fair and stately city
that we see now. " In the outer aspect of the university,"
says Greene, " there was nothing of the pomp that overawes
the freshman as he first paces the ' High ' or looks down
from the gallery of St. Mary's. In the stead of long fronts
of venerable colleges, of stately walks beneath the im-
memorial elms, history plunges us into the mean and
filthy lanes of a mediaeval town. Thousands of boys,
huddled in bare lodging-houses, clustering round teachers
as poor as themselves, in church-porch and house-porch,
drinking, quarrelling, dicing, begging at the corners of the
streets, take the place of the brightly-coloured train of
doctors and heads."
Such is a picture of the life into which the young student
from Somerset was thrown. He studied under William
Sherwood, Archdeacon of Lincoln, celebrated for his mathe-
matical attainments, and both at Oxford and Paris under
Richard Fishacre, a distinguished lecturer on the sciences.
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 313
But Bacon soon cast aside the trammels of Aristotelian
philosophy, and was himself, rather than his great name-
sake, Francis Bacon, the author of inductive philosophy.
The spirit in which he worked is shown by his saying, on a
disputed fact in physics — " / have tried it, and it is not
the fact, but the very reverse" In Paris he pursued his
investigations in science, but was continually hindered by
the want of money for the purchase of books, instruments,
&c., &c. He spent all his own heritage, and must have
managed to imbue others with a belief in him, for he is said
to have spent the sum of ^^2,000 on his experiments, an
immense sum in those days, fully equal to ;^5o,ooo at the
present day.
Discontented with the learning of the schools, he chiefly
employed himself in the study of what we call the laws of
nature, and soon discovered how fruitless and barren in
result was the philosophy of Aristotle. So strongly did he
feel its tendency rather to hinder than assist original research,
that he said, "Si haberem potestatem super libros Aristotelis,
ego facerem omnes cremari ; quia non est temporis amissio
studere in illis, et causa erroris et multiplicatio ignorantioe
ultra id quod valent explicari."
It was about this time, but whether when studying in
Paris or on his return to Oxford does not seem certain, that,
by the advice of his friend Grostete, he assumed the friar's
gown. These begging friars were a feature in the eccle-
siastical as well as scientific development of that age. The
new order seems to have been formed partly with the idea
of having a body of preachers alike untrammelled by parish
duties or monastic discipline, a sort of ecclesiastical knights-
314 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
errant, who owed allegiance directly to the Pope, and acted
as a kind of mission clergy. At first they were welcomed
by'earnest churchmen, such as Grostete, and it was by his
advice that Bacon and others joined their order ; and there
is little doubt that their wandering lives, the various degrees
of society in which they mixed, fostered a freer spirit of
inquiry than obtained among the other clergy.
He returned to Oxford in 1240, and, under the shelter of
his Franciscan gown, both studied and taught diligently.
He and his brother, or more probably his uncle, Robert
Bacon, distinguished themselves by preaching before the
king, Henry HI. Robert inveighed against Peter de
Rupibus, or Peter des Roches, and the excessive deference
paid by the king to his opinion. Roger had "a pleasant
wit," ' and enforced his relative's exordium by telling the
king that the most dangerous things at sea were Petrae et
Rupes, in allusion to the bishop's name, signifying stones
and rocks. " The king, therefore, taking the good advice
of Schollers, which he would not of his peeres, summons a
Parliament to be holden at Westminster, giving the world to
know withall that his purpose was to amend by their advice
whatsoever ought to be amended."
But Bacon's name is chiefly memorable as the first great
master in science who investigated nature for himself; and
his discoveries, his guesses, his glimpses of truth, are more
wonderful than any like fact we know, especially when we
consider the gross ignorance that prevailed, and the utterly
empirical methods that were in vogue at the time. At any
* The above is borrowed not, as the reader may suppose, from "John
Gilpin," but from Speed's "Chronicle."
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 315
rate, it is he and not his great namesake, Francis Bacon,
who should be called the father of inductive philosophy ;
and it seems absolutely certain that the latter had read
Roger Bacon's works and taken to himself the credit of the
method. The coincidence of the name, after an interval of
four hundred years, approaches to the marvellous, but this
wonder is rather lessened when we realize that the younger
philosopher borrowed his ideas from the elder — unacknow-
ledged. ^ But Bacon's studies were not confined to what
we call science. He studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and
Arabic. He rectified the mistakes in the calendars, though
his corrections were not adopted at the time, but later
science has proved their correctness. As a mechanician,
Bacon was more renowned than an astronomer, and the
admiration and stupid wonder which his achievements
excited fixed upon him the character of a magician.
Optics he greatly improved, and led the way to, if he did
not actually invent the telescope.
But it was in chemistry that his discoveries were most
conspicuous. He invented gunpowder, and had consider-
able knowledge of practical medicine. But now the idea
of magic and the unlawfulness of the powers with which he
worked spread to the authorities, and he was confined to his
own cell. It was by the order of Pope Innocent IV. that he
was forbidden to lecture at Oxford, and that he was after-
wards imprisoned.
' It is not, I think, well known that ^Milton, a little later, committed
the same dishonourable piracy. The whole scheme and many passages,
almost entire, of his " Paradise Lost " are borrowed from the old
Saxon poet, Coedmon — with no acknowledgment.
3l6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The Cardinal Bishop of Sabina — a man whose name
should be held in honour as being above the prejudices
and in advance of the ignorance of his age — hearing of this
** Doctor Mirabilis," sent to him, and requested him to
transmit to him a full account of his discoveries. This,
however, he could not do, as he was forbidden by his
superior to write and publish his works.
In a short time, however, the cardinal became Pope
Clement IV., and his authority overriding every other,
Bacon wrote to him to tell him he was ready to comply
with his desire. He set to work at once to prepare his
" Opus Majus," a sort of digest or new edition of his former
works ; but here new dii^culties beset him : he wanted at
least ;j^6o in order to procure instruments, to pay tran-
scribers, &c. He had spent all his money, his family were
ruined ; but some of his friends, by pawning their goods,
managed to furnish him with the sum he wanted, in default
of an advance from the Pope which he had expected.
Meanwhile he set to work with almost superhuman energy,
and in little more than a year his work was completed. It
was presented to the Pope, but his work was his sole
reward. Nevertheless, this year (a.d. 1267), this Annus
Mirabilis of English science should be marked as a red-
letter day in her calendar.
He sent his work to the Pope by the hand of John of
London, his favourite pupil, of whom he speaks with
remarkable appreciation and tenderness. In the letter
of introduction to Clement, that accompanied his book,
he says : "When he " (John of London ') " came to me as
' Or, as some say, John of Paris.
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 317
a poor boy, I caused him to be nurtured and instructed for
the love of God, especially since for aptitude and innocence
I have never found so towardly a youth. Five or six years
ago I caused him to be taught in languages, mathematics,
and optics, and I have gratuitously instructed him with my
own lips since the time I received your mandate. There is
no one at Paris who knows so much of the root of philo-
sophy, though he has not produced the branches, flowers,
and fruit because of his youth, and because he has had no
experience in teaching. But he has the means of surpassing
all the Latins if he live to grow old, and goes on as he has
begun." And this is all we know of this promising youth !
The work was received by Clement, but his death, soon
afterwards, seems to have prevented his giving any material
help. He was succeeded by a Pope hostile to progress and
investigation, and by the influence of the general of the
Franciscan order Bacon was again silenced and imprisoned.
The prohibition appears to have been withdrawn ; for treatise
after treatise have of late been disentombed from our
libraries. They are but developments of the magnificent
conception he had laid before Clement. From the world
around he looked for, and found no recognition. " Unheard,
forgotten, buried, the old man died as he had lived, and it
has been reserved for later ages to roll away the obscurity
that has gathered round his memory, and to place first in
the great roll of modern science the name of Roger Bacon.
But we undertake not only to tell the real, but also the
mythical, history of our Somerset heroes ; and the principal
legends with regard to Bacon are apparently embodied in a
drama by Greene, a contemporary of Shakespeare, of which
3l8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
is subjoined a brief sketch. The play is entitled "The
Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay."
The fame of these two learned friars of O.xford had travelled
abroad, and so great was the desire to witness their marvel-
lous deeds of magic, that the Emperor of Germany came to
England to witness Bacon's powers. He brought over with
him one Jaques Vandermast, who was supposed to be the
greatest necromancer of the age. He had been crowned as
conqueror with laurel at Padua, Sien, Florence, Bologna,
Rheims, Louvain, Rotterdam, Frankfort, Utrecht, and
Orleans, for overcoming all who had come to try' conclu-
sions with him.
It was agreed between the sovereigns that the King of
England (Henry IH.) and the emperor should repair to
Oxford, and there be present at a trial of skill between
those learned masters of magic, and whichever gained the
day was to be crowned, not with bays, but with a coronet
of choicest gold.
With these came a third potentate, the King of Castile,
who had brought over his daughter Eleanor to be married
to Prince Edward. The kings being seated, a preliminary
trial of skill is proposed between Vandermast and Bungay ;
and they begin with one of those quibbling discussions on
words which formed so great a part of the learning of the
Middle Ages. Having tired of this fruitless struggle, from
which no result can be obtained, Vandermast proposes a
trial of magic, and asks Bungay what he can do. Bungay
offers to raise the tree that in the garden of Hesperides was
guarded by a fearful dragon. The tree appeared, and the
dragon spouted out fire and smoke. Then King Henry
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 319
asked what they thought of such cunning skill, but Vander-
mast laughed at it as no more than any tyro in the art could
do. He declares that he will produce Hercules, who shall
destroy the tree in spite of the dragon ; and at the call —
" Hercules ! Prodi, prodi Hercules,"
Hercules appears, and begins to strip the tree. Bungay owns
himself worsted in the conflict, and Vandermast demands
that he shall be crowned.
But now Bacon enters. Vandermast orders Hercules to
proceed with the stripping of the tree, but Hercules pro-
fesses himself unable to do it in the presence of so great a
master ; but when Bacon desires him to take Vandermast,
the tree and all, to Hapsburgh, straight he obeys, and the
foiled necromancer is carried off. Bacon then asks the
company to dinner, and gives them only pottage and broth ;
at which, after such proofs of his skill, they are not un-
naturally offended. He says that he only wished to show
them a poor scholar's fare, and promises a feast which shall
be furnished from Egypt, Persia, Spain, Candia, and Judaea.
We are now introduced to Bacon's cell in Brazen-Nose
College at Oxford. He thus describes the wondrous head
of brass, which had taken seven years' study to construct,
and what he intends to do by its power : —
" I have contriv'd and fram'd a head of brass
(I made Belcephon hammer out the stufi"),
And that by art shall read philosophy :
And I will strengthen England by my skill,
That if ten Ccesars liv'd and reign'd in Rome,
^Yith all the legion Europe doth contain,
They should not touch a grass of English ground ;
The work that Ninus rear'd at Babylon,
320 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The brazen walls fram'd by Semiramis,
Carv'd out like to the portal of the sun,
Shall not be such as rings the English strand
From Dover to the market-place of Rye."
For threescore days have he and Bungay watched the
head, and nature now craves rest. He desires his servant
Miles to watch the head, and wake him instantly if it speaks,
or all his labour will be lost. He sleeps. After a time a
" great noise " is heard, and the head says —
" Time is."
But Miles gibes at it, and asks, after his master's seven
years' toil had it nothing more worth the saying : and surely
it is not well to wake him from the sleep he so sorely needs
for two words. So he waits and watches. Another great
noise and commotion. Again the head speaks, and says —
" Time was."
Miles still declines to wake his master, and sohloquizes :
" Yes, marry, time icas when my master was a wise man, but
that was before he began to make the brazen head." A fresh
noise, and
" Time is past,"
says the head. Lightning flashes forth, and a hand appears
that breaks down the head with a hammer. Miles now
awakens his master, declaring that the end of the world is
come. Bacon awakes to find that —
" 'Tis past indeed ;
My life, my fame, my glory, all are past. —
Bacon,
The turrets of thy hope are ruin'd down,
Thy seven years' study lieth in the dust :
Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave
That watched, and would not when the head did will."
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 32 1
After this episode, Bungay comes in to rouse Eacon from
his state of despair.
Meanwhile, two Oxford scholars seek Bacon in his cell.
They introduce themselves as Suffolk men, sons of neigh-
bouring squires, friends, as they themselves are ; they desire
to know how their fathers fare, and crave a sight of them
in Bacon's wondrous glass.
They behold their fathers engaged in an angry discussion,
which ends in a deadly struggle, in which they slay each
other. The sons, at the fearful sight, turn angrily upon
each other, till they, in like manner, fall dead.
Bacon, horrified at this double catastrophe, breaks his
glass, and forswears necromancy, vowing that he will
" Spend the remnant of his life
In pure devotion, praying to his God
That He would save what Bacon vainly lost."
This play, whose date is of the time of Queen Elizabeth,
of course represents the popular opinion with regard to
Bacon. The brazen head seems an allegory on the known
moral fact that an opportunity let slip, lost time, &c., can
never be recovered. For the legend of the glass, it is evidently
a distorted account of the wondrous powers of the telescope
which he certainly, in some degree, invented. It is thought
that Friar Bungay — who was a real personage — was a char-
latan, and tried to mimic some of Bacon's discoveries by
trick and so-called magic ; but whether he was so, and thus,
by his pretended powers, was in some degree answerable
for Bacon's being deemed a wizard, and his consequent
persecution ; or whether he was only a humble friend and
22
322 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
admirer of his great master's marvellous knowledge, is not,
1 think, known.
Authorities for the Life of Bacon. — Various
biographies, and Green's History of the English
People ; for the Legends, Robert Greene's Play of
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.
^\Y\ Heni^y Bractoim.
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE IN THE REIGN OF HENRY III.
■:o:-
"' Henrici de Bracton de Legibus et consuetudinibus Anglice."
On the Lazvs and Customs of England.
" The First Book : On the Division of Things.
■"These two things are necessary for a king who rules
rightly, arms forsooth, and laws ; by which either time of
"svar or of peace may be rightly governed, for each of
them requires the aid of the other, in order that on the one
hand the armed power may be in security, and on the other
the laws themselves may be maintained by the use and
protection of arms. For if arms should fail against enemies
who are rebellious and unsubdued, the realm will so be
without defence ; but if laws should, justice will be there-
upon exterminated, nor will there be any one to render a
rightful judgment.
" Whereas in almost all countries they use laws and
written right, England alone uses within her boundaries
unwritten custom and right."
324 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Such is the commencement of — with the exception of
Ranulph Glanvil, in the second Henry's reign, who, the
first since the Conquest, collected the English laws into one
body — the iirst great work on English law. It continued
for three hundred years till the time of Coke, the great
authority on the common law of England.
Sir Henry Bracton was a member of an ancient family,
and was born at Bracton Court, at the foot of the north hill
near Minehead, on the way to Porlock, Neither the date
of his birth or death is known with any certainty.
During the reigns of King John and his son Henry the
in., a constant struggle was going on between the king and
the barons — who then represented the people ; the king
striving to place himself beyond and above the law, while
the nobles, oftentimes assisted by the clergy, were constantly
appealing to the laws and basing their opposition to the
sovereign on the legal rights of the people. Bracton, born
during these times, and while the struggle was going on,
seems to have carefully weighed both sides, and arrived at a
much clearer and more definite idea of the rights of each,
and their relative duties to each other, than has often been
clearly grasped, not only then, but even to the present time.
He enjoyed a liberal education, having been brought up
at Oxford, and while there specially devoted himself to
the study of law.
He contrived, while maintaining the character of a
good, conscientious, and upright judge, yet to have been
in high repute with Henry HI., who certainly was more
famous for breaking the law than for maintaining it.
When Bracton took up his abode in London the king did
SIR HENRY BRACTON. 325
all he could to keep him there, and near his own person,
and in order to do this he obtained for him the Earl of
Derby's house, till the heirs of that deceased nobleman
should occupy it themselves.
In the twenty-ninth year of his reign Bracton was ap-
pointed by the king justice itinerant, and he performed the
duties of that office with such diHgence that he was
appointed chief justice. " He so tempered," it is said, " his
justice and authority with equity and integrity, that he was
one of the chief pillars of the Commonwealth, in which he
allowed no one to offend without punishment, and no one
to do well without reward." Such is scarcely one's idea of
the state of justice in Henry HI.'s reign, yet it shows at any
rate the estimation in which Bracton was held and the
point at which he himself aimed.
Sir Henry Bracton is, however, best remembered for
having produced a work of great learning, entitled " De
Consuetudinibus Anglicanis," or " De Consuetudinibus et
legibus Anglise." Its value may be estimated by the fact of
the great number of copies that were made of it, the result, of
course, being great inaccuracies in some of them, so that
when printing was invented and it was desired to procure a
•copy for the press, great difficulty was found in preparing
one sufficiently accurate by collating several MSS. He had
studied the Roman law well, looking upon it as the model
on which the English law was framed, in fact he has been
accused of viewing the whole scheme of EngUsh law too
exclusively in the light of Roman jurisprudence; but he
-seems to have been the first to have reduced our English
law to a science, and, not satisfied with the theoretical study
326 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
of it, to have religiously endeavoured to reduce this theory
to practice.
Milton, in his celebrated *' Defensio pro populo Angli-
cano," quotes largely from Bracton's work ; and Bradshaw,
when he sat as President at the trial of Charles I., is said to
have made use of it. But Bracton was conscientiously
loyal, and understood far better than the Puritans the true
balance of power. He speaks as strongly of the royal
prerogative as he does of the duties of kings to their people,
and the limit of forbearance on the people's part. The
result being that he has been quoted by authors both favour-
able to its extension and the reverse, for he says in one
place that " the king has no equal, and that no man must
presume to dispute his actions, much less to control them ; "
while in another he says " the king has for his superior God,
as also the law by whicli he is made king."
The value of his work may be understood by the respect
with which it is spoken of by Blackstone, and the numerous
t]uotations made from it by Dr. Stubbs in his '' Constitu-
tional History." Of Sir Henry Bracton's private life nothing
is known ; he was certainly an ecclesiastic, though probably
only in minor orders as long as his official work lasted.
But at Minehead, on the North Hill, is the Church of St..
Michael — the saint of high places — and on the south side
of the chancel is a tomb which is shown as Judge Bracton's.
Modern antiquaries say, by certain symbols, it is the tomb
of a priest, and therefore cannot be his. But it is said that
late in life he received priest's orders ; we may therefore, I
think, believe, with some certainty, that having been born
at the foot of the North Hill, in declining years he returned
SIR HENRY BRACTON. 327
to his old home, and there lived to minister in the very
church where he had been baptized, and which he had
attended as a child, and that when he died his body
was borne up the North Hill and there laid to rest. The
church is a fine old building, charmingly situated, but
sadly in need of repair. On the north side the pillars
of the nave lean dangerously. The beautiful rood-screen
is painted a brilliant yellow, and used as a gallery for singers.
In the chancel is a huge statue of Queen Anne in alabaster,
presented to the town of Minehead in 1719 by Sir Joseph
Banks, then member of parliament for the borough. When
restoration begins at Minehead — and one would suppose
that funds would pour in from hundreds of rich lawyers in
memory of one of their brightest luminaries — Queen Anne
might well find a more appropriate home.
There are no less than five chained books in Minehead
Church. A Bible ; a Body of Divinity, by Archbishop Usher,
of Armagh; a volume of Sermons, date 1562 ; Sermons by
Robert Sanderson, a.d. 1657 ; a copy of Bishop Jewell's
Sermons, 1560; and the Works of Thomas Adams, 1630.'
The date of Sir Henry Bracton's death is uncertain, but
it is known that his book was not written till after 1262,
possibly not till ten years later; he may therefore have
survived till the reign of Edward I., and perhaps to him
our English Justinian may have owed his respect for
the laws.
It is, perhaps, well to add that he has been claimed as a
■ In a letter obligingly written to me by the Vicar, Rev. A. H.
Luttrell, he tells me of the much-needed restoration of the church, but
of the unfortunate removal of the old books. They have not as yet
been replaced.
328 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
worthy of Devonshire, but though his birthplace and grave
are not far from Devon, he was undoubtedly a native of our
county, and he there willed to rest ; and Devonshire has
worthies enough of her own without appropriating one
of ours.
Authorities. — Moore's History of Devonshire ; W. A.
Bechell's Biographical Dictionary ; Cunninghame's
Lives of Celebrated Englishmen ; Blackstone's Com-
mentaries ; Stubbs' Constitutional History ; Sir
Travers Tvviss's edition of Bracton's Works.
Wii^LiyMvi Briwef^e (Bf^iewere,
Bf^uere, oy\ Brewei^).
(Bishop of Exeter, A.D. 1224.)
William Briwere was of noble descent, and grandson —
so Matthew Paris says — to William de Briwere who was
found by Henry II. in the New Forest. But it is far more
probable, nay, almost certain, that he was his son, and a
younger brother of Sir Walter de Briwere, who left no
posterity whatever.
We know nothing of his early history, but he would be
almost certainly a native of Somerset ; his father's chief
seats being at Bridgewater and He Brewers.
He was consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1224, and was
in great favour with Henry III., and had great influence in
his councils. In the year 1237 he was appointed to conduct
Isabella, sister of Henry III., to Germany, on her marriage
with the Emperor Frederick II. She was his sixth wife.
The marriage was performed in the presence of four kings,
eleven dukes, thirty marquises and earls, and a prodigious
■concourse of bishops and clergy. He attended the Emperor
330 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
into Syria, accompanied by Peter des Roches, Bishop of
Winchester, and was present at the Siege of Acre, 1228.
He afterwards returned to his diocese, and presided over it
for nineteen years. He died November 24, 1244, and was
buried in the centre of the choir of the cathedral.
Bishop Briwere founded the ofifice of Dean in 1225 ; in-
creased the revenues of the twenty-four canons of the
cathedral, and amply endowed the offices of Precentor,
Chancellor, and Treasurer. He was, like his father and
brother, a benefactor to several religious establishments,,
and abounded in charities to the poor.
On his tomb is inscribed : " Hie jacet Wilhelmus Brewer,
quondam hujus ecclesife cathedralis Episcopus, fundator
quatuor principalium ejusdem ecclesise dignitatum."
Authorities. — Speed ; Moore's History of Devonshire^
Du|^3TER Cattle.
SIR REGINALD DE MOHUN, 1253. LADY
MOHUN, 1413-
The quaint and picturesque little town of Dunster stands
in the midst of some of the loveliest scenery of North
Somerset. But for itself alone it is well worth a visit. Its
steep street, its fine church — which is in effect two churches
under one roof, the one conventual, the other parochial —
its picturesque market-place, the whole crowned by its
stately and finely placed castle, make it one of the fair
spots that once seen is photographed for ever upon the
visitor's memory. The property has only changed hands
once since the Conquest; two families only, the Mohuns
and the Luttrells, having held it.
By the Mohuns the castle was held for the Empress
Maude against Stephen. In the time of the civil wars its
fortunes swayed backwards and forwards ; and in both times
to chronicle events would but be to recapitulate the story
of the disastrous days when wars and rebellion were rife in
the land. In 1643 it was taken for King Charles by the
Marquis of Hertford. Colonel Wyndham was appointed
governor, during which time he was visited by Prince
Charles, afterwards Charles II. Again it was taken by
332 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Blake, and here in 1648 was confined William Prynne, by
■Cromwell.
Connected with Dunster are the tales of the unprecedented
honour paid by the Pope to Reginald de Mohun of Dunster
in 1253; and the self-devotion of Lady Mohun in 1413,
rivalling that of the Lady Godiva of Coventry.
REGINALD DE MOHUN OF DUNSTER.
(A.D. 1253.)
Reginald de Mohun of Dunster was honoured in the
year 1253 in an unheard-of manner by Innocent IV., then
keeping his court at Lyons in France. There is an ancient
French ]\IS. still in possession of the family, but the French
is so obscure, and so full of Latinisms, that it is difficult to
make it out. We will give the story therefore in Fuller's
words.
"The Pope used on the Lord's day, called Lsetare
Jerusalem, solemnly to bestow a consecrated rose on the
most honourable person present at mass with his holiness.
Inquiry being made, the rose was conferred on Sir Reginald
Mohun, as the best extracted in the present congregation.
" But seeing that the rose used always to be given to kings,
dukes, or earls at least (the lowest form of coroneted
nobility in that age), his holiness understanding the same
Sir Reginald to be but a plain knight bachelor, created him
the Earl of Est, that is (saith this bull), of Somerset ; and
for the better support of his honour, he allowed him three
hundred marks out of the pence of England (understanding
the Peter-pence) as the most certain papal revenue in the
DUNSTER CASTLE. 335
land. ' This,' says Camden, * was to be paid yearly on the
high altar of St. Paul's in London.' By this same bull Sir
Reginald was made a Count Apostolic. King Henry (III.)
was so far from excepting against this act, that he highly
honoured him. And yet Master Camden sometimes ac-
knowledgeth, sometimes denieth him for an English Earl.
" The ancient arms of the Mohuns, viz., a hand in a
maunch, holding a fleur-de-lis (in that age more fashionable
than a rose in heraldry), seems to relate to this occasion ;
which their family afterwards changed into a sable cross in
the achievements in the Holy Land borne at this day by the
truly honourable the Lord IMohun, Baron of Okehampton,
as descended from this family."
This Sir Reginald founded the abbey of Newenham, and it
was to obtain the Pope's authority to confirm and ratify his
charter that he had presented himself at the papal court.
The original MS. still in the possession of the family is
as follows : —
" Quant Sire Reinalda voit Ceo faitz, il passa a la Court
de Rome que adonques fuist a Lions, pur confirmer et ratifer
sa nouvelle abbay a grand honor de lui a touz jours, et fuist
en la Courte le deniergne en quaresme, quant len chaunce
I'office del messe Laetare Jerusalem, al quen jour lusage de
la Court este que lapostoille doa (donna) a plus valiant et a
plus honorable home qui puit estre trouver en la deste
courte une Rose on une floretta de fin or. Donquer ilz
sercherent tote la Courte, entroverent Cesti Reinald pur le
plus noble de toute la courte a qui le Pape Innocent donna
celle rose ou florette dor et la Papa lui damanda quil home
il fuist en son pais. II respondi simple bacheleri. Beau
334 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
fitz fetz la pape celle rose on florette unquez ne fuist doner
fors an Rois ou an Dukes an a Countesse pour ceo nous
■voluns que vous sons le Comte de Est ' Ceo est Somerset.'
" Reinald respond! et aist, ' O Sancte Piere ieo nay dont le
mom mainteyner.' L'apostoile donques lui dona ducent
marcs per annum receiver sur Cantee Saint Paule de
Londres de ces deneires d'Engleterre pour son honor main-
teyner ; de quen donna il reporta BuUes que enquore aurent
en plomps ete en semblement odue moltes dis autres buUes
de confirmatione de sa nouvelle Abbay de Newham apres
•quen jour il porta la rose ou florette en les armes."
Of course Thomas Fuller cannot resist a jibe at the
Pope's gift, saying it is the only known case of any part
•of the thousands of pounds which went yearly out of
England, returning in any direct shape into it.
Mr. Maxwell-Lyte, in his "Dunster and its Lords," gives a
beautiful and touching story, told by one of the monks of
Newenham, of Sir Reginald's last days. Five-and-twenty
years after the interment of his body, it was found per-
fectly uncorrupt and uninjured ; the monk adds, " I both
saw it and touched it."
Authorities. — Fuller's Church History; and Dunster
and its Lords, by Mr. Maxwell-Lyte.
LADY MO HUN.
(Circa 1413.)
Fuller thus quaintly and prettily gives the legend of the
benevolent Lady Mohun, who, like another Godiva, endured
DUNSTER CASTLE. 335
much herself for the love of those who depended upon her
lord :—
"Reader know, I can surround the Christian names of
her nearest relations. Her husband was John, the last
Lord Mohun of Dunster, Her eldest daughter, Philip,
married to Edward, Duke of York ; her second, Elizabeth,
to William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury ; her youngest,
Maud, matcht to the Lord Strange of Honorkyn ; but
her own Christian name I cannot recover.
" However, she hath left a worthy memory behind her,
chiefly on this account — that she obtained from her husband
so much good ground for the common of the town of
Dunster as she could in one day (believe it a summer one
for her ease and advantage) compasse about, going on her
naked feet.
" Surely no ingenious scholar beheld her in this her
charitable perambulation, but in effect vented his wishes
in the poet's expression —
" ' Ah ! tibi ne teneras tellus Sicet aspera planlat.' "
The certain date of her death is unknown, which by
proportion is conjectured in the reign of King Henry the
Fifth.
Authority. — Fuller's Worthies.
FULKE Of ^AMfORD.
(Archbishop of Dublin, 1256-1271.)
FuLKE of Samford in Somerset was Treasurer of St. Paul's,,
London, and then by Papal Bull declared Archbishop of
Dublin, 1256. He dyed in his Mannor of Finglas, 1271,
and was buried in the church of St. Patrick. Whose
brother —
JOHN OF SAMFORD
(Archbishop of Dublin, 1284-1294),
was Dean of St. Patrick in Dublin, and for a time Escheator
of all Ireland. He was afterwards chosen, and by Edward
the First confirmed, Archbishop of Dublin, 1284. For a
time he was Chief Justice of Ireland, and thence was sent
(with Anthony, Bishop of Durham) Ambassador to the
Emperor, whence returning, he dyed in London, 1294.
His body was carried over to Ireland (an argument that he
was well respected), and buried in his brother's grave.
Authority. — Fuller's Worthies.
^IR JOHJM UkUTWLhE AND ^IF(
John ^t. ]_(0e.
(Circa 1270.)
:o:
" There were giants on the earth in those days."
It appears as though the reign of Henry III. was remark-
able for producing in Somerset a race of men cast in giant
mould either of mind or body. It is Httle we know of
these two worthies. In fact of the latter we have nothing but
his effigy, and were it not that his almost gigantic size, and a
curious kind of contemptuous humour, with which insult
was treated, which often accompanies great strength, seems
to have been inherited by his descendants, he would scarcely
merit a record here.' Of Sir John de Hautville and his
enormous strength tradition hands down quaint myths ; but
it is satisfactory to find that his physical powers were used
for the astonishment or amusement of his neighbours, and
not in any degree for their injury or torment.
All that we know that is authentic about him is that he
was engaged in the barons' wars in the reign of Henry HI.,
but on which side does not appear; but in the fifty-fourth
' See pp. 608-613.
23
338 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
year of that king's reign he was signed with the cross, and
accompanied Prince Edward to the Holy I>and. We cannot
learn much from this fact, as he may have gone with the
prince as an attached friend ; or on the other hand he may
have been one of the unquiet spirits whom the prince was
glad to draw out of England, so that the old king might
have the greater chance of spending his latter days in peace.
After fighting by the prince's side in Palestine, he
returned in peace to his native county, and settled down
in the parish of Norton Hawkfield, or Hautville. Here
he built himself a castle, at the foundations of which he
is supposed to have laboured with his own hands ; Maes
Knoll — " probably a natural mound, scooped out for in-
terments " — is popularly supposed to have been formed
from the scrapings of his spade. In reality it is an immense
tumulus, 390 ft. by 84 ft., and 60 ft. high. If forms part of
an ancient British station. Not far from Stanton-Drew, on
the opposite side of the river, is a huge boulder, commonly
called Hautville's Quoit ; it is supposed to have been flung
by that worthy from the summit of Maes Knoll. It is said
formerly to have weighed thirty tons, but is now much
reduced in size, as much has been chipped off to mend the
roads !
Another of our hero's feats, which, granting sufl!icient
width of the tower steps, is more within the range of
possibiUty, is the tradition that, for a wager, he carried three
men to the top of the tower, one under each arm and the
third in his teeth. The church of Norton Hawkfield was
pulled down some years ago. His monument, made of a
solid piece of Irish oak, was afterwards removed to Chew
SIR JOHN HAUTVILLE AND SIR JOHN ST. LOE. 339
Magna. He lies inclining on his side, resting on his left
hip and elbow, his hand supporting his head. His shield
is of an oblong shape. The whole figure is in armour, with
a loose red coat without sleeves, and bound round the waist
with a leather girdle fastened by a gilt buckle just below the
breast ; he has a helmet on and gilt spurs. It has been
repainted in good taste.
Sir John St. Loe's monument, which is also in Chew
Magna church, is of gigantic size ; it is of the enormous
length of 7 ft. 4 in., and 2ft. 4 in. across the breast. He
too was probably a crusader, as he is represented with his .
legs crossed.
A descendant and namesake of his, another Sir John St.
Loe, was one of the four husbands of the celebrated " Bess
of Hardwicke," afterwards Countess of Shrewsbury, wife of
the gaoler of Mary of Scots. When the wife of St. Loe,
they resided at Sutton Court, near Chew Magna.
Near the church is an old building, built by a Sir John
St. Loe ; up to 1838 it served as the parish poor-house and
school-house. It is now occupied by the board school. The
family must have originally come from St. Lo in Normandy.
Authorities. — Murray's Handbook; local tradition, as.
given by the Rev. John Galbraith, Vicar of Chew
Magna.
^I^ ^IMON DE JAOJ^ITACUTE,
(1281-1316.)
-:o:-
SiR Harris Nicolas, in his " Historj' of the Royal Navy,"
says that in the reign of Edward II. there were no less than
'twenty-one persons who bore the title of admiral. He gives
a list of the most eminent, with a short account of their
services, and places first the name of Sir Simon de
Montacute ; he speaks of him as representing one of the
most illustrious houses in England, and a distinguished
soldier. He served in the army in the reign of Edward I.,
in the year 1281, and distinguished himself in a galley in
'the Garonne in 1296. In 1290 he was the proprietor of a
large galley and a barge. At the siege of Carlaverloch
Montacute commanded the third division, and was in nearly
every military expedition of his time. He was summoned
■to Parliament as a baron on the 26th of September, 1300,
■and in consideration of his merits the king remitted part of
a debt which he owed the Crown in 1306. In 1308 he was
made Constable of Beaumaris Castle. Lord Montacute died
in 13 1 6, leaving, by the sister and heiress of Orry, King of
Man, his son William, the second baron, who was ancestor
SIR SIMON DE MONTACUTE. 341
of the Earls of Salisbury, and all the other ennobled branches
of his family. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers
that the navy and army were not then distinct services. As
late as the civil war, Princes Rupert and Maurice, and
Admiral Blake, passed from one service to the other without
any sense of incongruity.
Authority. — Sir Harris Nicolas' History of the Royal
Navy.
The Evil. Weddijmq,
(Time uncertain.)
CHEW MAGNA AND STANTON DREW.
-:o:-
It is a satisfaction to know, or at least believe, that the
antiquities of our "west countree," which still remain as a
puzzle to antiquaries, are, thanks to Sir John Lubbock,
pretty sure to escape further injury than they have already
received from the vandalism of the past. Each one of these
has some graceful or quaint legend attached to it. Yet it is
strange that amidst all our modern discoveries in Egypt and
Babylon, in Nineveh, Mycenae, and Troy, no even probable
explanation has ever been made of the antiquities of our
own country. Who were the giants of old who led the
giants' dance on Salisbury Plain ? Who placed the curious
remains at Stanton Drew ?
Judging from Bible story, and episodes in Genesis,
Exodus, and Joshua, it was no uncommon thing to put up
stones as monuments to preserve the memory of celebrated
events, and probably other nations kept their national records
in the same manner. " And there they are to this day,"
hut their purpose, the people who built them up, the events
they commemorate, are forgotten.
THE EVIL WEDDING. 343
Were these the works of primeval men who first in-
habited these islands ? Or, considering the strange silence
of the Roman historians with regard to them, were they
the work of a last invasion of the Belgae after the
Romans had left ? We know nothing. Some have con-
jectured them to be the remains of the serpent-worship
which has been traced by antiquaries of our own time-
One thing only is certain, that- in the absence of any
authentic record, legend, which abhors a vacuum at least as
much as nature does, steps in, finds sermons in stones, and
conveys moral lessons by these ancient monuments.
The legend of the prehistoric remains of Stanton Drew is
a curious one, for it is mediaeval in its structure, but
decidedly puritanical in its teaching. It is styled
THE EVIL WEDDING.
The stones that are to be seen at Stanton Drew, not far
from Bristol, have been there many hundreds of years, but
these dumb monuments cannot tell us the story of their
being. Learned people say that once there were three
circles ; one, a small one, near the church, another a much
larger one, and a third a smaller one still farther on, which
had an avenue leading to it from the large circle. I cannot
say how this may have been ; it would puzzle any one but
an expert to trace out the circles now. Some stones are
gone, some are just peeping above the ground, and some
appear as if they were struggling to get away. There they
are, and there they always will be ; but how did they get
there? Well, this is how the story is told : —
It was long, long years ago ; in fact I may say it was
344 MYTHS, SCENES, AXD WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" once upon a time," that a gay and jolly party were
gathered together on St. John's or Midsummer Eve. It
was a wedding that had brought them to Stanton Drew, and
it so chanced that St. John's Day was a Sunday ; the day of
the wedding therefore was Saturday. They were married in
due form at the church in the morning, and the day had
been given to festivity. The evening came, but there is
not much night on Midsummer Eve, and dancing was
proposed, and merrily they footed it on the green turf.
"While they were dancing, the cock crew, and by that sign
they knew it to be past midnight, and that the Lord's Day
had begun. The musician was a godly man, and refused to
play any longer. At first they thought he did but want an
extra glass or two, or mayhap a few silver coins ; finding
he refused all their offers they tried threats, but he was
impervious alike to bribes or menaces. At last the bride,
who of all the godless party was the most determined to
lengthen out the diversions of the night, exclaimed that a
fiddler she icould have, if she went to hell to fetch one.
There was no need to go so far ; just then a brisk and gaily-
dressed musician passed and offered his services. At once
they accepted him. Again they prepared themselves for the
dance, but the fiddler began playing the most solemn and
serious tunes. They remonstrated ; and he said he did but
play what he supposed was suitable for the day, but that he
was ready to obey their orders, and play whatever they
willed. At once, and at their special desire, he changed the
measure to the liveliest tunes. The dancing began again ;
the musician was untiring; fast the flying feet whirled in the
mazy figures, faster still went on the music, wilder and wilder
THE EVIL WEDDING. 345
grew the dance ; on, on, breathless still, their feet flew.
They would fain have stopped for rest and refreshment, but
the music still held on its magic strain. Vainly they
entreated the musician to cease ; they implored, they
threatened with far more frantic eagerness than they had
tried to move the old fiddler to continue. Paniing, fainting,
agonized, still on went their restless feet, and their wearied
and exhausted bodies could but keep on, compelled by the
weird music.
The morning sun shone fully out, and the good priest
came forth. His night had been wofully disturbed by the
wild revelry, but the gay throng he had heard but an instant
before were gone, and three circles of stone were seen in
their place. A few stones were seen at uneven distances, as
if they had striven to escape the awful doom, but it was too
strong for them. It was their last revel ; henceforth they
danced no more, but remained rooted to the spot. Under
a hedge lay the pious musician, half dead with fright. He
had been fascinated to the spot, without power of moving,
and had witnessed the whole Satanic scene.
So ended the evil wedding on St. John's Eve, a.d. ,
and there the stones remain to testify to the truth of the tale
to this day. One might be inclined to fancy it a dream of
the pious fiddler, but then — How came the stones there ?
There is a spirited ballad telling the story in Haines-
Jackson's " Our Ancient Monuments and the Land around
them."
Authorities. — Stukeley ; and the Rev. T. H. Perfect,
Vicar of Stanton Drew.
T^OBEF^T BURNEL.
(Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor of
England, 1274-1292.)
-:o:-
We cannot omit this great and wise man from our portrait
gallery, though he was no native of our county, but as
Bishop of Bath and Wells he was long connected with it ;
and it seems the more incumbent to give a short sketch
of him as his name has been so persistently passed over by
historians. Lord Campbell says of him that "he is a striking
example of the unequal measure with which historical fame
has been meted out to English statesmen. Although inti-
mately connected with the conquest and settlement of
Wales — although he conducted Edward's claim to the
supremacy over Scotland, and pronounced the sentence
by which the crown of that country was disposed of, to
be held under an English liege lord — although he devised
a system for the government of Ireland upon liberal and
enlightened principles — although he took the chief part in
the greatest reforms of the law of England recorded in her
annals — his name has, since his time, been known only to a
few dry antiquaries incapable of appreciating his merits."
«
ROBERT BURNEL. 347
Robert Burnel was a younger son of Robert de Burnel,
of a powerful family, settled from time immemorial at Acton
Burnel, in the county of Salop. Here the future chancellor
was born ; and here, to make illustrious his native place, he
prevailed upon the king to hold a parliament, at which was
passed the famous law De Mercatoribus, called the Statute
of Acton Burnel.
During the barons' war, while still a young man, he was
introduced to Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.). He
became his chaplain and private secretar)', and suggested to
him the counsels by which he overcame Simon de Montfort.
He attended the prince to the Holy Land.
When appointed chancellor he held no higher dignity
than Archdeacon of York. He was soon after raised to the
see of Bath and Wells ; nor did he ever reach any higher
position in the Church, for Edward, mighty and powerful as
he was, had on occasions to yield to the papal power. He
proposed Burnel as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1278, and
he was unanimously elected by the chapter of Canterbury ;
but Pope Nicholas HI. insisted on appointing John of Peck-
ham, a Franciscan friar, and a friend of Adam de Marisco
and Grostete. Again, when Edward wished to translate
Burnel from Bath and Wells to Winchester, he failed, the
Pope probably fearing that if ecclesiastical and political
power were combined in one hai"kd he would possess little or
no control himself.
It was on the day of St. Matthew the Apostle, in the year
1274, that the office of chancellor was conferred on Robert
Burnel, then only Archdeacon of York ; and this office he
held with great applause for eighteen years, during all which
348 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
time he enjoyed the favour of the king, whose counsellor he
was in all affairs of State.
He presided in the Parliament which met in May, 1275,
and passed " the statute of Westminster the first." After
the conquest of Wales, in 1281, he was employed in the
government of the principality. He stationed himself at
Bristol, close on the edge of his diocese and near to Wales,
so that, as far as could be done, he might combine his
Ecclesiastical and State duties. In 1 283 the Parliament was
held in the hall of his own castle at Acton Burnel.
In 1 291 he was employed upon the decision as to who was
the righifal heir to the throne of Scotland. Of all the com-
petitors for the crown, Bruce, the grandfather of King Robert
Bruce, was the first to make answer to Chancellor Burnel's
demand as to whether he would receive justice from the
King of England as superior and direct lord over the king-
dom of Scotland. In presence of all, none contradicting or
gainsaying, Bruce answered that he did acknowledge the
King of England superior and direct lord of the King of
Scotland, and that he would before him, as such, answer and
receive justice.
The judgment was — after investigation by commissioners,
who were by far the larger number Scotch nobles — such as
would be universally acknowledged as a matter of course in
the present day, that Baliol, the grandson of the elder
daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, was the rightful
heir rather than Bruce, who was the son of the younger
daughter.
Baliol was thereupon appointed king, but Bruce not being
willing to submit, there continued to be great disturbances ;
ROBERT BURNEL. 349
and King Edward being obliged to return to England,
Burnel seems to have remained on the borders for some
time, in order, if possible, to keep the peace. He died at
Berwick on October the 25th, 1292,
Dr. Stubbs says of him, in his " Constitutional Histor}- " :
" Robert Burnell and Walter de Merton left names scarcely
less remarkable in their own line of work than those of
Grosseteste and Cantilupe. No doubt these men had much
to do with Edward's early reforms. We can trace the re-
moval of Burnell's influence in the more peremptory attitude
that he assumed after his death."
In ecclesiastical matters he pursued a rational and moder-
ate system, neither encroaching on the rights of the clergy
nor raising them above him.
He ably seconded Edward's far-seeing policy, and England
continued to enjoy the highest prosperity under the wise laws
which he introduced.
Authorities. — Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors;
The Greatest of the Plantagenets ; Annals of Eng-
land ; Stubbs' Constitutional History.
^OMEF^TON.
KING JOHN OF FRANCE.
(From Anglo-Saxon days to the Fourteenth Century.)
:o:
Mr. Freeman, in his article in Afacmillan^ s Afagazine on
" The Shire and the Ga," points out one peculiarity of
Somerset, viz., that it has no town or city which is un-
deniably its capital or centre ; and though naturally enough
one would suppose that Somerton formerly at least stood in
that position, he expressly denies that such was ever the
case. We must refer our readers to the article in question,
and merely accept his doctrine as the result of the investiga-
tions of the greatest living authority on matters connected
with our county. No one for an instant thinks of naming
any other capital for Devon but Exeter ; but Bath, Wells,
Taunton, or Ilchester might all or each put in their claims
for Somerset ; and it is a fact that geographers are quite
undecided on the matter.
Still, it is quite certain that Somerton and Somerset
derive their names from the same source, and that, if neither
t6ok it from the other, there must be some forgotten cause
why Somerton should, as well as its county, bear the tribal
SOMERTON. 351
name of the inhabitants. Murray describes it as "a small,
unfrequented market town, in a charming country of wild
hill and fruitful dale." Here the " many-palaced Ina "
had one of his numerous Somersetshire residences. The
kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia here bordered on each
other, and for a long series of years were fierce rivals.
Ethelbald, one of the greatest of the Mercian kings, in
733 " conquered Somerton, and the sun was eclipsed,
and the whole disc of the sun was like a black shield."
So says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Whether the taking
of Somerton by the Mercians was supposed to have any
connection with the eclipse, I am not able to say.' In
877 the place was plundered by the Danes under Inguar
and Hubba, during the time that Alfred's fortunes were
under an eclipse. But the place was soon rebuilt, and
became the most considerable town in the neighbourhood,
both as regards extent and population. A strong fortress or
citadel was built by the kings of Wessex on the brow or
edge of the hill called, from its situation, Mountclefe.
Prisoners of distinction were at times sent there for safety,
the most important being King John of France. He had
been confined in Hertford Castle, and then, for further
safety, was sent to Somerton. But though, for some State
reasons, Edward considered it expedient to make King
John's imprisonment more strict than heretofore, he did
not neglect his comfort, or indeed his dignity ; for he
appointed commissioners, and had the castle commodiously
fitted up for his reception,
' It seems necessary to say here, however, that Mr. Freeman, in his
" Old English History for Children," says that this was Somerton in
Oxfoidihire, and not in Somerset.
352 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
On the decay of the castle, its ruins were economically
employed to build the county gaol, which, in order to keep
its origin in mind " was embattelled about castell-lyke, in
perpetuam rei mernoriam." The fragments of this last build-
ing are still extant, and part of " The Bear " was built out
of them. " The White Hart " stands on the old foundations
of the castle, which may still be traced.
The last historical association with Somerton is the con-
finement of some of the prisoners in the church after the
battle of Sedgemoor. Here they amused themselves with
playing ball, and when, some years ago, the roof was
repaired, a large number of balls were found, specimens
of which are preserved in Taunton Museum.
The church is a fine one, built at different dates. The
roof is remarkably fine, being of magnificent carved chestnut
wood, one of the handsomest in the diocese. It is dedicated
in the name of St. Michael, and it is therefore unnecessary
to add that it is situated on high ground. It contains several
brasses and effigies, including one of " Edithe the Nun.
Requiescat in pace." There is also a market cross, which
has been rebuilt on the old lines, with open arcade and
central column supporting a pyramidal roof.
Whatever may have been the importance of Somerton in
the days of Ina and of Edward III., its interest now lies
wholly in the past, and it exists merely as one of those
little, quaint, picturesque old towns which recall the ancient
leisurely times when beauty was not always sacrificed to
utility, and, absorbed in its own little gossip and local
interests, remains contented with the far-off rumour of
great and stirring events.
SOI^ERTON. 353
Murray says the most striking object in the principal
street is the sign of the head inn, a red Hon of ferocious
aspect mounted on a pillar. It is with no idea of irreverence
that we say of the old town, as is said of Edithe the Nun,
"Requiescat in pace."
Authorities, various. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; papers
of the Archffiological Society ; The National Gazetteer ;
Murray's Handbook; Dr. Freeman's article on the Shire
and the Ga, in Macmillan's Magazine, April, 1880 ;
Diocesan Kalendar, (S:c.
24
^toke-u]mder-Hajvi,
SIR MATTHEW GOURNAY, 13 10-1406.
The interesting little church which contains the monument
of Sir Matthew Gournay is in itself well worth a visit and
careful study, It is a small cruciform church, without
aisles, but, though originally Norman, it has insertions in
almost every style of Gothic architecture. It possesses the
rather rare peculiarities of a lychnoscope or low window on
each side of the chancel, a hagioscope or opening from
the transepts into the chancel to allow a view, to those
sitting in the transepts, of the altar, and a parvise or room
over the porch. But its chief interest in our present
researches is its containing the tomb of that gallant old
soldier, who so nobly redeemed the honour of his name,
Sir Matthew de Gournay.
His father, Thomas de Gournay, — of Farrington-Gournay,
Inglish or English-Combe, and Stoke under Hampden,
West-Harptree, Widcombe, Curry Malet, Shepton Malet,
Midsummer-Norton, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Laverton, Milton,
STOKE-UNDER-HAM. 355
Falconbridge, in the parish of Martock, — earned an infamous
celebrity as one of the murderers of the unhappy King
Edward II. He iled into foreign parts, but was seized at
Burgos in Spain ' and commanded to be brought over to
England. He was put to death privately at sea, possibly
with the connivance of the young King Edward III., to
shield the queen-mother from having to appear in public as
either witness or principal in a criminal trial. All his
estates were confiscated, and annexed to the Duchy of
Cornwall for ever.
But with all Edward III.'s faults there was a noble
generosity in his character, which was never more finely
displayed than in his care for Thomas Gournay's children.
It was not just that they should wholly suffer for their
father's misdeeds ; he showed favour to them. There
were four : Thomas de Gournay, who received a large share
of his father's forfeited estates — these were inherited by
his son Thomas, who died without issue ; John de Gournay,
of KnoUe in Bedminster ; George, who died without issue ;
and Sir Matthew de Gournay, who on his nephew's death
succeeded to the family estates. Of him Fuller gives us this
account in his " Worthies." " Matthew Gournay was born
at Stoke-under-Hambden, where his family had flourished
since the Conquest, and there built both a castle and a
college. He was the honour of his house. In the reign of
Edward III. he fought at the siege of Algiers and Bene-
mazin against the Saracens, at Ingen, Poictiers, Sluce (Sluys),
' Edward II's mother being a Spanish princess, the deservedly
popular Eleanor of Castile, the Spaniards were likely to assist in
punishing her son's murderer.
356 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and Cressy against the French, and at Nazaran ' under the
Black Prince in Spain. His armour was beheld by martial
men with much civil veneration, with whom his faithful
Buckler was a Relique of esteem. He dyed in Peace, aged 96
years, about the beginning of Richard H. (says Fuller, but,
if dates are correct, the aged warrior must have lived unto
the reign of Henry IV.), and was buried in the Church of
Stoke." He was twice married — once to Alice, sister of
Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and relict of Sir
John Beauchamp, of Hatch ; second to Philippa, sister and
co-heir of John, Lord Talbot. He died without issue, and
his estates reverted to the Crown, and thenceforth became
part of the Duchy of Cornwall. His noble deeds during a
long and well-spent life redeemed the family name, but we
may perhaps look upon its extinction as the judgment upon
the sins of the father. At West Stoke are to be seen the
small remains of the once noble mansion of the Gournays
and Beauchamps,
Authorities. — Froissart's Chronicles; Fuller's Worthies ;.
Collinson's Somerset ; Murray's Handbook.
' The battle is called Najara, or Navaretta, by Froissart, being
fought between the two places. Sir Matthew Gournay's name occurs
among the knights who fought on that field.
Bf^i3tol (3t. Mary T^EDCLiffE).
-:o:-
THE CANYNGES, 1376-1445 ; CHATTERTON,
1752-1770.
Bristol — or Bright-Stow — the bright or illustrious dwelling,
is the third of the cities which is counted in Somerset. It
is partly in our county and partly in Gloucestershire,' but
though the largest part is in the neighbouring county, its chief
pride, the Church of St. Mary RedcHffe — the finest parish
church in England — is on the Somerset side of the Avon.
Leland calls it "the fairest of all churches," and its
position, high on the Red Cliff, adds to its dignity and state-
liness. Bristol was long the second city of Great Britain,
and the largest port next to London, when Liverpool was
unknown. Tradition identifies it as Caer-Oder — the city of
the chasm — and though this has been disputed, the name is
singularly appropriate, as it stands on both sides of the
Avon, a little above where it cuts its way through the
picturesque and richly-wooded St. Vincent rocks.
The present church stands on the site of one of high
' It is remarkable that Camden, Fuller, and, to come to modern
times, Murray, while duly acknowledging the fact of Bristol being
chiefly in Gloucestershire, yet include it in the county of Somerset.
358 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
antiquity, and parts of the present building are said to date
back as far as 1207 or earlier. In 1 287-1 292 other portions
were rebuilt, or added, by Sir Simon de Burton, five times
Mayor of Bristol. But the present magnificent structure was
mainly the work of two princely Bristol merchants, William
Canynge the elder, and his grandson, William Canynge the
younger, 1376-1445.
The younger Canynge, "with the help of others of the
worshipful town of Bristol," nearly rebuilt the church
which — it is said — had been founded by his grandfather in
the reign of Edward III. Both the Canynges made their
money as merchants, and the younger one was much
favoured by Henry VI. " In the eleventh volume of
Rymer's " Foedera " are two letters from the king, one to the
Master-Gejieral of Prussia, the other to the Magistrates of
the City of Dantzick, recommending two of Canynge's
factors residing in Prussia, requesting all possible favour
and countenance to be shown them on account of their
employer, whom the king styles his beloved, and an eminent
Merchant of the City of Bristol." The next year the same
William Canynge obtained of the king a grant of trading
with two ships to Iceland, Halgelandt (Heligoland?) and
Finmark, for two years, notwithstanding an express Act of
Parliament prohibiting all trade there. " Thus was the
king's dispensing power set up in opposition to the law of
the land," says Hervey's " Naval History of Great Britain."
Thus, it seems to those who take another view of the
question, did the weakest and feeblest kings often show
their great wisdom and incalculably greater breadth of view
than the wisest of their subjects.
BRISTOL (sT. MARY REDCLIFFE). 359
• It is of this Canynge the younger that there still exist in
St. Mary Redcliffe "two fair monuments," one which repre-
sents the worthy citizen — who had been five times Mayor —
with his wife Joan. The other represents him as a priest.
This one is said to have been brought from the college at
Westbury, — which he had founded and of which he becauie
dean, — when Prince Rupert burned it to prevent its being
occupied by the Parliamentary forces.
The remains of an old chest, called " Canynge's CoftYe,"
serves as a connecting link between these two noble and
estimable merchants of Bristol, and one of the saddest
pages in the annals of English literature. For it was in
this coffre that Chatterton pretended to have discovered
" Rowley's Poems " — a pardonable subterfuge. The genius
of this wonderful boy, and the stupid harshness of those
who should have been proud to be patrons of one so young
and so marvellously endowed, are almost equal subjects of
astonishment. The tale is too hopelessly sad and bitter and
too well-known to be reproduced here. One great lesson, if the
reader will pardon moralizing, may be drawn from Chatter-
ton's grievous story, and that is the sublime lesson of patience
under suffering. On that terrible morning when Chatterton's
dead body was found, came a letter offering him help and
support !
Authorities. — Hervey's Naval History ; Granger's Bio-
graphical History . Murray's Handbook to Somerset.
TH0JViy^3 DE Beckynqto]m.
{Circa A.D. 1390-1465 ; Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1443-1465.)
This great prelate was a native of Somerset : his name is still
held in loving memory at Wells for his manifold good works
to both city and Church. He was probably born in the
year 1390, in the reign therefore of Richard II., in the
parish of Bekington, near Frome, and he is said to have
been the son of a weaver. Admitted to Winchester College
in 1404 — the date is still extant in a contemporary re-
gister — the boy attracted the favourable notice of William
of Wykeham by his elegant appearance and superior under-
standing, who placed him on the foundation as one of
the " seventy true-born English boys he nourished year by
year." But before the year was out, the noble-hearted old
man had passed away. Beckyngton, however, was trained
in Wykeham's school, and was one of the most honourable
among the band of statesmen-ecclesiastics who adorned the
fifteenth century. From Winchester he passed to New
College, where he was admitted Fellow in 1408, and re-
tained his fellowship twelve years. In 141 7 we find two
other Beckyngtons — probably relations — who were admitted
scholars of Winchester.
THOMAS DE BECKVNGTON. ^6 I
Thomas de Beckyngton soon made his mark. He had
several preferments, among which was the Archdeaconry of
Buckingham. It was while holding, this office that Henry V.
wrote a letter to the Pope, requesting him to grant a dispen-
sation to his " beloved Gierke, Doctor of Laws, Archdeacon
of Bucks, and Chancellor of my dearest brother Humphry,
Duke of Gloucester, from holding annual visitations," on
account of the arduous occupations, both of public and
private nature, in which he was engaged.
The doubtful right of the Lancastrians to the throne led
both Henry IV. and Henry V. to give way to the clergy,
who, in their dread of the spread of LoUardism, sought to
revive the ancient statute, " De heretico comburendo," and
they embodied it in a new one still more stringent and
severe than the old statute. Trials and convictions for
heresy became frequent, and we find Beckyngton, in con-
junction with the excellent Archbishop Ghichele, present at
the trial of William Taylor, priest, in the chapel of Lambeth
Palace, 1422. He was perhaps also a witness of his
degradation in St. Paul's Gathedral. On the same day he
was "burnt to ashes in Smythefelde." It was probably also
at Ghichele's instigation that Beckyngton wrote a treatise
against the Salique law, and in favour of Henry V.'s right to
the crown of France. His book was styled " Liber Thomae
Bekyntone de Jure Regis Angliaj ad regnum Franciae."
Ghichele, who had originally suggested the king's claim
upon France, lived to mourn his participation in it ; and it
is said that his noble foundation of All Souls' GoUege was
intended in some sort as an expiation for the misery his
advice had caused. Whether Beckyngton also learned to
362 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
regret his participation in an act which caused such bitter
woe to two nations we are not told, but this and his taking
part in the burning of a heretic are the only sins that can be
laid to his charge, and they were too much in the spirit of
the times to be looked upon as such.
It is more pleasant, however, to follow him in the honour-
able employments for which his learning and high character
caused him to be selected. But meanwhile Henry V. passed
away, leaving an infant son, whom he had never seen.
Beckyngton was chosen tutor to the young king, and, as
such, deserves no small credit for the share he had in form-
ing his character and tastes. His weakness both of mind
and body were inherited — the one from his grandfather, the
poor mad King Charles VI., and the other from his grand-
mother, Mary de Bohun ; but Henry VI. grew up pure and
saintly in character, with a strong relish for learning, and,,
had he been born in private life, would have been happy
with his learned tastes and his simple mind. He was utterly
unfit to be a king, and above all a king at such a crisis, and
he lost all that his father and his grandfather had gained ;
yet it is worth noting that the kingdom his grandfather
snatched by subtilty and treachery remained only for two
generations with his descendants, and the family itself ex-
pired with the sixth Henry's young and heroic son. The
kingdom, also, that his father had gained by his magnificent
daring and bravery, crumbled away and scarcely outlived
him ; while the work of their well-nigh imbecile son and
grandson bears fruit to the present day, and is one of the
most famous and the most characteristic of our English
institutions : and Eton boys are not only noted for the
THOMAS DE BECKYNGTON. 363
learning which their pious founder sought to promote, but
for the braver and hardier virtues in which he was so de-
ficient. "The field of Waterloo," said the great Duke,
" was won in the playing-fields at Eton."
Beckyngton was several times employed on special foreign
embassies. In February, 1432, we find him commissioned
jointly with John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir
Henry Broomflete, to go to France and negotiate a treaty
between the King of England and the Dauphin, Charles of
Valois, the same year that Henry was crowned in Paris. In
1435 ^^ embassy was sent to Arras, in Artois, with the object
of effecting a peace with France, and to this Beckyngton
was attached. Peace was made, but on terms which broke
the great heart of Bedford ; he died shortly afterwards.
Again we find him in the train of Cardinal Beaufort on an
important embassy to Calais. But France was slipping from
our grasp, and embassies only showed the weakness by
which diplomacy sought to retain some shreds of what our
arms failed to hold.
It was in 1443 that Beckyngton was employed in a more
delicate mission than any he had yet undertaken. It was no
less than to investigate and report on the respective charms,
physical and mental, of the three daughters of the Count
d'Armagnac, with a view to the selection of one as the wife
of the young bachelor-king, Henry VI. Of this mission he
kept a journal, which is of great value and interest. A
painter named Hans was also employed by the king to paint
portraits of the young ladies for his satisfaction. The king
was very explicit in his directions that the likenesses should
be perfect, requiring that they should be painted in their
364 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
kirtles simple, and their visages like as ye see, and their
stature, and their beauty, the colour of their skin and
their countenances. " The commissioners were to urge the
artist to use great expedition, and to send the picture or
ymagine over to the king as quickly as possible, that he
might make his choice between the three." There is much
correspondence in Beckyngton's journal as to these portraits,
which were to be painted in oils on canvas. But, apparently,
the Count d'Armagnac was not really in earnest, and the
likenesses, if ever taken, never reached England. Mean-
while, a portrait of .Margaret of Anjou was obtained by
another ambassador, and the young king surrendered his
heart to her charms. Beckyngton's journal gives us a
pleasing portrait of Henry, who was then twenty-four, and
who speaks pathetically of the loneliness of his condition,
and his earnest desire to live under the holy sacrament
of marriage. In spite of snares that were set for him by
some gay ladies of the Court, he remained pure in heart ;
and we hear of his quaint rebuke to some of these tempters
who appeared before him unsuitably dressed — " Fie, fie !
forsooth, ye be much to blame." On this fruitless matri-
monial embassy Beckyngton was joined with Sir Robert
Roos, one of the king's carvers, and Sir Edward Hull,
esquire of the king's body, of Enmore Hall, in Somerset.
It seems probable that Beckyngton was desired to send
home a true report of the state of things in France, for we
hear of the ambassadors sending an account of the English
reverses and the more recent successes of the French,
written, in three lines, on a strip of parchment, the whole
length of the skin, and then sewn into the garment of an old
THOMAS DE BECKVNXTOX. 365
pilgrim. What was the reason of this mysterious secrecy
does not quite appear. Roos and Beckyngton returned
home, leaving Sir Edward Hull constable of the castle of
Bordeaux, the small remains of old Queen Eleanor's great
possessions in France, and the scene of the Black Prince's
splendid Court.
This was, to all appearance, the last of his political
embassies. Whether he saw the storm that was coming
on, and wished to retire to a more sheltered life ; or whether,
upright and conscientious as he had always been, he desired
to devote the rest of his life to the service and honour of
God, to which he was of course already specially bound by
his ordination vows, we cannot tell : but it appears that
Henry VI. specially interested himself in getting him ap-
pointed to the see of Bath and Wells. Thus he returned
to live and die in his own county, after many busy years
passed in court and political life, both at home and abroad.
His consecration took place in the chapel of Eton College,
thus, in his own person, forming a link between our two-
greatest scholastic foundations. He travelled leisurely on
his way to the west, passing his living of Sutton and his
birth and name-place, Bekington. It is remarkable that
this is the only occasion on which any mention is made by
any authority of the place of his birth.
From this time he seems to have devoted all his energies
to his diocese and the improvement and adornment of his
cathedral and cathedral city. He built the western cloister,
over which are rooms, one of which is now used as a lecture-
room for the students of the Theological College. One of
the gatehouses leading to the cathedral, called " Penniless
366 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Porch," was also built by him. His rebus — a flaming torch
and a tun — with his initials, " T. B.," are carved in stone in
a niche on the right-hand side of the gate facing the Cathe-
dral Green; while his arms are on the west side, underneath
those of his master, Henry VI. The row of houses on the
north side, and the two lofty gatehouses at the east side of
the market-place, were built by Bishop Beckyngton. The
most prominent is the stately gatehouse leading to the
palace. The arch is of fine workmanship, and in the centre
are the bishop's arms and rebus.
In the palace gardens is St. Andrew's Well, and there the
cathedral is mirrored so perfectly that the lovely shadow ap-
pears well-nigh as substantial as the reality. From this well he
granted permission to the corporation and citizens of Wells
to have a conduit, which he munificently built for them. It
was supplied with water, conducted by pipes, from the well.
The bishop's grant is to this effect : " To all faithful people
in Christ, to whom this writing indented shall come, Thomas,
by Divine permission Bishop of Bath and W^ells, greeting,
in Him who, for the gift of a cup of cold water, hath
promised eternal life. Forasmuch as we know that some
of ye faithful doubt not but that those things which we sow on
earth, with regard to eternity, we shall be certain to gather
in heaven with multiplied increase ; and as we may express
ourselves by copious handfulls, we therefore, Thomas de
Beckyngton, by Divine permission the undeserving minister
of the churches of Bath and Wells, most earnestly desiring,
while time is allowed us upon earth, to labour for all people,
but more especially for our nearest and most dear sons
William Vowell, master, and the brethren and fellow-citizens
THOMAS DE BECKYNGTON. 367
and burgesses of our city or borough of Wells, do grant to
the said, &c., to have and to hold for ever, of the Bishop and
his successors, one head for a water conduit, with troughs,
pipes, and other necessary engines above and under ground,
to be supplied from certain water within the precincts of our
Palace, called St. Andrew's Well, by pipes of lead, twelve
inches in circumference, «Scc. ; the overplus, or waste water,
to run night and day for the supply of the Bishop's mills."
The said Vowell, the citizens and burgesses, binding them-
selves in return " to visit, once every year, the spot in Wells
Cathedral where Bishop Thomas should be interred, and
there pray for his soul and the souls of all the faithful
deceased:" for which service the same prelate granted them
an indulgence of forty days. Still down the streets of the
quiet old cathedral city ripples the water from St. Andrew's
Well, as it has flowed for more than four hundred years,
and its gentle music should echo the praises of the good
bishop.
Beckyngton's private letters are of great interest and
value. He carried on a correspondence with the king's
proctors or representatives at the Roman Court. Andrew
Holes, who was proctor there for eight years, was regarded
with great reverence by Beckyngton. Though educated
both at the same school and college, Beckyngton was too
much Holes' senior to have been very intimate in the few
years they were at the university together; and it is an
interesting evidence of the continued attachment of these
two busy statesmen to their own college that its interests
were not forgotten in the midst of grave business.
Among his correspondents was Biondo of Forti, Secretary
368 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to the Pope, as Beckyngton was to the king. We find
Beckyngton sending him a present of scarlet cloth. Biondo
had written a work called " Historiarum Decades III.
abinclinatione Imperii Romani." At Corpus Christi College^
Cambridge, is the second volume of this work, beautifully
written on vellum, in an Italian hand of the first half of the
fifteenth centur}-, commencing with the third book. In it is
an account of a papal mission to Abyssinia. Much of the
description of Ethiopia anticipates the discoveries of modern
travellers.
The title- page exhibits, among other ornaments, Beckyng-
ton's well-known device of the flaming beacon, which proves
to demonstration that the volume was specially prepared for
him.
Among other correspondents we find named, is the Abbot
of Glastonbury Thomas Chandler, and William Millington.
In the "Anglia Sacra," pars, ii., pp. 357, 358, is a
supposed conversation between two people, in which the
following passage occurs : — " That most beautiful church
which we discern at a distance, consecrated to St. Andrew,
the most pious apostle of the Immortal God, contains the
episcopal chair of a worthy priest. It has also adjoining to
it an extensive palace, adorned with wonderful splendour,
surrounded with flowing waters and crowned with a fine row
of turreted walls, in which dwells the most dignified and learned
prelate Thomas Beckyngton, the first of that name. This
man has, by his sole industry and disbursement, raised the
city to its present state of splendour ; fortifying the church
in the strongest manner with gates, towers, and walls, and
building the palace in which he Hves, with other edifices, in
THO-MAS DE BECKVNGTON. 369
the most sumptuous style ; so that he not only merits to be
called the founder, but more deservedly the grace and orna-
ment of the Church." Thus the palace remained for nearly
one hundred years, till the time of Bishop Barlow in 1548.
Fuller thus speaks of Bishop Beckyngton, in his "Worthies
of Somerset ": " He was a loyal Subject, kind Kinsman, and
a good Master, bequeathing 5 pound a piece to his chief
servants, and 5 marks a piece to his meaner servants, and
40 shillings a piece to his Boys. He was a Benefactor to
"Wells Church, Winchester, New, Merton, but chiefly Lin-
coln Colledge in Oxford, being little less than a second
founder thereof. His will was confirmed under the broad
seal of England." He was a most liberal benefactor to the
churches of his own diocese.
He died in his palace at Wells on January 14, 1464, or
1465, and was buried in his own cathedral. His shrine
was at the back of the choir ; the canopy under which he
lay, and which he had constructed for himself, projected
into the choir, and during late restorations it was " unwar-
rantably removed to the chapel of St. Calixtus." It is much
to be regretted that it should have been found necessary to
interfere at all with the last resting-place of so distinguished
a prelate. The monument consists of two stages. The
recumbent figure of the bishop, in alabaster, rests upon a
table slab, habited in the same way he had appointed to be
buried. On a lower stage is an emaciated figure in a winding-
sheet, the tnemento mori so much in favour at this period.
The whole shows remains of colour. The ironwork enclosing
the monument is decorated with small heads. It was to this
chantry that the mayor and corporation of Wells used to
25
37° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
repair in solemn procession annually, in order to pray for
the repose of the bishop, who had done so much for them
and for their city. It seems a pity that so pious and
graceful a custom should have been discontinued at the
Reformation. Surely it might have been divested of what
savoured of superstition. And a " gaude day " of loving
remembrance of benefactors and saints might well be kept
at Wells, where Ina and Athelm, and Elphege, the martyred
archbishop, with Bishops Robert of Normandy and Joceline
Trotman, Bishops Beckyngton and Bitton, and the saintly
Confessor Ken, would all be remembered as in a bede-roU,
when the men of Wells might meet together, and, in the
glorious words of Jesus the son of Sirach, say, " Let us now
praise famous men and our fathers that begat us. The Lord
hath wrought great glory by them through His great power
from the beginning — such as did bear rule in their king-
doms, men renowned for their power, giving counsel by
their understanding, and declaring prophecies ; leaders of
the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of
learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent in their
instruction. Their bodies are buried in peace, but their
name liveth for evermore."
Authorities. — Fuller ; Sir Harris Nicholas ; ^Memoirs
of Thomas Beckyngton ; Cassan's Lives of Bishops
of Bath and Wells ; Godwin's Lives of the Bishops ;
Anglia Sacra ; The Tourist's Guide to Wells, (Sec. ;
Miss Strickland's Life of Margaret of Anjou.
The jUegend of 3'R H'chap^d
Whittij^qtojm.
(Lord Mayor in 1397, 1406, 1419. )
The old story of Whittington and his cat might long ago
have been consigned to the limbo of forgotten myths, — and
did actually exist in our younger days only in the books of
fairy tales, which the youth of the present day are too well
instructed to read or delight in, — but that happily there
remained the stubborn fact that he was actually four times
Lord Mayor of London, once to fill up an accidental vacancy,
and three times by the actual voice and election of his fellow-
citizens.
The old tale says that he was a poor boy born in Taunton
Dene, in Somerset ; and gladly, therefore, do we follow the
ancient myth, and place him among our local worthies. A
poor boy, without father or mother, flouted by his kindred,
and half starved, was thrust out, or determined to make his
own way in the world. He made up his mind, therefore, to
go to London, whose streets, he was told, were paved with
gold, and, having no clear notions with regard to political
372 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
economy, he conceived it only necessary to get there, and
wealth would come of itself. He started on his journey. A
benevolent waggoner gave him a lift, but rudely dispelled
the poor boy's illusions by suggesting to him that if the
streets were paved with gold, the gold would long ere this
have been all picked up. However, once started, he did not
care to turn back, and in due course — a long course in those
days — arrived in the great city, where, cold, weary, and
hungr}-, he laid himself down at the door of a rich merchant,
a Mr. FitzWarrenne. This gentleman had compassion on
him, took him into his house, and made him a scullion in
his kitchen. The cook was a virago, and led him a weary^
life ; but Mistress Alice, his master's daughter, befriended
him, and on one occasion gave him the unexampled treasure
of a penny. This penny he spent in purchasing himself a
cat, for his garret was infested with rats and mice ; and now,,
if he had little rest by day from the cook's tongue and arm,
at night, at any rate, he would be in peace.
Then follows the tale of the founding of our hero's
fortunes. Mr. FitzWarrenne was sending the ship, laden
with merchandise, into foreign parts. The captain came for
instructions. The kind-hearted merchant offered to all his-
servants permission to take part in his venture. Poor Dick
had nothing but his cat : this he entrusted to the captain
with many tears. Months passed away. The poor boy now
had neither rest by day or night ; for again his sleep was
disturbed by the mice, and the cook, to her other persecu-
tions, added sneers at his venture. Dick could bear it no-
longer : he ran away, carrying with him nothing but a small
bundle of clothes, which he could honestly call his own ; for
THE LEGEND OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. 373
they had been earned by fair and honest work. He made
his way as far as Highgate Hill. There, once more lonely
and hungry, he sat himself down and burst into tears ; and
as he wept he heard the London bells ringing, with that
sweet jangling note which still prevails at times when the
turmoil of the city is hushed, and as he listened his sobs
became quieted, and his tears flowed more gently, and the
bells arranged themselves into measured words, and thus the
sounds were borne to him —
"Turn again, Whittington, turn again Whittington,
Thrice Lord Mayor of London town.''
' What," said he, jumping up, when he listened once
more — but still the burden of the bells was the same, "Turn
again, Whittington, turn again. "What," said he, "should
I be sitting here snivelling like a coward if I am to be Lord
Mayor of London not once, but three times ? I will go
back, and never mind the cook, but take what fortune God
may send me." He was back again before the cook had
had time to miss him ; and if she scolded and cuffed him as
before, what recked he while the refrain rang in his ears,
" Turn again, Whittington, turn again " ?
His patience was rewarded. It was not long after this
that one day, while Whittington was hard at work slaving
for his adversary, with a brush now and then flung at his
head to quicken his movements, a message came to him
from his master, that he was wanted in the office. There
stood Mr. FitzWarrenne and the captain — he could not forget
him who had robbed him of his only friend, his cat; no, not his
only friend, for there too stood sweet Mistress Alice smiling
374 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
upon him. " Take a seat, Mr. Whitlington," said the master-
Could Dick believe his ears ? His master, the great London
merchant, condescending to make fun of him ! He begged
to be allowed to return to his work ; and then he was told
the wonderful news. Mr. FitzWarrenne explained to Dick
how his venture had succeeded in the most wonderful and
unheard-of manner, and how the Emperor of Morocco had
sent him untold treasures in return for the treasure his cat
had proved to him in ridding the country of the swarms of
rats and mice which infested it and made their way into his
own palace. He told him that now he (Dick) was a richer
man than his master ; and to increase his bewilderment,.
and yet testify to the truth of the story, bars of gold, bag&
of gold dust, packages of ivory, were brought in by the
sailors and laid upon the floor, and he was told that it was
all his.
We all know the end. Dick Whittington became a suc-
cessful merchant, and married his master's daughter. Three
times elected Lord Mayor of London, he feasted Henry V.
and all his court at the Guildhall, and fed a fire, composed
of logs of cedar-wood, with the king's bills, on which he had
been raising money for his war with France, amounting to
^60,000.
Here, then, legend and authentic history meet. We must
give a short sketch of his real life, such as modern research
has traced it. But first of all we are met by the assertion
that Whittington was not born in Somerset, and that his life
did 7iot begin at Taunton Dene. His home was at Pauntley,.
in Gloucestershire ; and the antiquary. Dr. Samuel Lysons,,
has made it perfectly plain that it was there his family was.
THE LEGEND OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. 375
settled. But Gloucestershire is very near to Somerset, so
near that the town of Bristol belongs to both ; and as tradi-
tion says he came from Somerset, it is very possible, and
seems highly probable, that by some accident — such as
happened to two other of our heroes, Sir Ralph Hopton
and John Locke — he was born at some place other than his
own home. He was the younger son of a second marriage ;
for his mother had been previously the wife of Sir Thomas
de Berkeley. He may therefore have been crowded out of
the household of an ancient though impoverished family,
and, having run away from home, have started off to the
metropolis on his own account ; and we know how low a
waif or stray in London may be reduced. ^Ve are quite
willing to accept Messrs. Rice and Besant's explanation of
the cat. It may well have been that some small venture
with pet animal caused him to earn the first shilling or
mark he was able to lay by, and so he may have considered
it the foundation of his fortunes.
One thing is certain, that his vast wealth was honourably
earned and nobly spent. In his lifetime he built St. iSIichael's
Church, Paternoster Royal ; in that church he was buried.
Both church and monument were swept away by the great
fire, and London has never found gratitude enough to erect
a monument to its greatest citizen. He built a grand library,
which he presented to the Grey Friars, and which is now the
great hall of Christ's Hospital. ^400, equal, at the very
least, to ;,<^4,ooo in the present day, he expended on books
to fill it. He also founded, by will, a library at the Guild-
hall. The books were afterwards borrowed by that mighty
thief, the Duke of Somerset, in Edward \T.'s reign. The
376 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
present magnificent Guildhall library is a new foundation.
In his own life he was a benefactor to Rochester and
Gloucester cathedrals. He provided drinking-fountains,
and his executors rebuilt and enlarged Newgate prison,
which, from its confined limits, was full of gaol fever. He
put up almshouses, which have in our own day been
removed ; and most suitably found a resting-place at High-
gate, the spot whence he heard the prophetic strains of the
London bells. He established a college, where the clerks
were to pray daily for the souls of Sir Richard Whittington,
his wife Alice, and their parents. And mark the sweetness,
as well as independence, of the man's nature. It was in the
reign of the usurping King Henry IV. that this college was
founded ; but prayers were also commanded to be made for
the soul of the king of his youth, Richard II., who, by his
noble courage, had once saved London from destruction.
It is remarkable that his three mayoralties were in three
different kings' reigns. In 1396 Adam Bamme was Lord
Mayor, but he, dying in the year of his mayoralty, was
succeeded by Richard Whittington, who was himself chosen
mayor for the next year. This was in Richard II. 's reign.
Then, in 1406, Henry IV, being king, he was chosen for the
second or third time ; and again in the reign of Henry V.
he was mayor for the last time.
The name still remains in the descendants probably of his
brothers ; but of Dick and his wife, Alice FitzWarrenne, there
was born no child, and so they made their county and the
poor their heirs by benefactions made principally during their
lifetime, to the Church for religious and secular teaching,
and by other good works of piety and large-minded charity.
THE LEGEND OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. 377
The legendary history has hitherto so obscured the
actual, that their names have scarcely been honoured as
they deserve.
Authorities. — Fairy and Legendary Tales ■ Stowe's
Survey of London; ^Messrs. Rice and Besant's Life
of Sir Richard Whittington.
The I^eqend of the Abbot of
MUCHELNEY
(Circa 1430)
Is a local tradition of an abbot who, in mediaeval times, was
married in secret to a fair lady. They were rudely parted at
the altar, and he was hurried senseless to the abbey, of which
in time he rose to be abbot. If of high birth and large
possessions, he may have risen to that dignity when still
young. The rest of the tale is told in a poem by the late
Dean Alford, of Canterbury, who, though not a native of
Somerset, was connected with it by family and other ties.
It is too long to be given entirely, but so much of it as tells,
the story follows : —
THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNAYE.
DUODECAD THE SECOND.
I.
It is the solemn midnight, and the moon,
Hard by the zenith, holds her solemn state,
And yon flushed star will westward dip full soon
Behind the elms that gird the abbey gate.
THE LEGEND OF THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNEY. 379
There stair and hall are drear and desolate,
And even devotion doth her votaries spare,
Save the appointed ones, on Heaven that wait,
Wafting upon the hushed, unlistening air
Tu, Jesu, salva nos — their deep and night-long prayer.
11.
In low, flat lines the slumbering dew-mist broods
Along the reaches of the Parret stream,
And on the far-off vales and clustered woods
Dwells, like the hazy daylight of a dream ;
Piled over which, the dusky mountains seem
As a new continent whose headlands sleep
Within his day's fair voyage, now doth deem
Some mariner, whose laden vessels creep
Across the dim white level of the severing deep.
III.
In the mid prospect, from its shadowy screen
Rises the abbey pile ; each pinnacle
Distinct with purest light ; save where, dark, grim.
The ivy-clusters round some buttress dwell.
The sharp and slender tracerj' varying well ;
Perfect the group, and to poetic gaze
Like a fair palace, by the potent spell
Of old magician summoned from the haze
Some errant fairy knight to wilder with amaze.
IV.
But list ! the pendant on the wicket latch
Hath rung its iron summons, and the sight
Through the uncertain shadowings may catch
A muffled figure, as of some lone wight
Belated in the flats this summer night.
And seeking refuge in the abbey near :
Again those strokes the slumbering band affright,
And cause the wakeful choir, in doubt and fear.
To pause amid their chaunt, and breathless bend to hear.
380 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Slow moves the porter, heavy with the load
Of age and sleep ; some newly-happened ill,
Some wayside murder, doth his haste forbode ;
And at the wicket come, he pauseth still,
And on his brow the icy drops distil ;
Till a faint voice admission doth implore :
" Open, blest fathers, the night damps are chill ;
So may your Abbot's holy aid restore
One whose life falters now at death's uncertain door."
VI.
The smaller wicket first he turns,
For caution and assurance ; then as slow.
By the dim taper light that flickering burns.
Scans well the stranger, whether friend or foe ;
Then, stooping, draws the massy bolt below.
Well satisfied that such a form as stands
Before him now no treachery can know.
Can bear no weapon in those trembling hands.
Nor be the wily scout of nightly prowling bands.
VII.
A holy woman, is it, who desires
Speech with the Abbot's reverence. " For fear
Of God in heaven, who each one's life requires
At each one's brother's hand, call thou him here,
Or point me where he rests, that I may clear
My soul of that wherewith I am in trust :
For she who sent me to her end is near ;
And who shall make amendment, or be just.
When the pale eye hath mingled with its kindred dust ? "
VIII.
" Sister — for by thy russet garb I guess
Thou art of yonder saintly company.
Whose frequent hymns our holy mother bless,
Borne thither from St. Mary's Priory —
THE LEGEND OF THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNEY. 381
Hard is it for one chilled with age like me
To do thine urgent bidding. Close behind
The landing of yon steep stair dwells he
Of whom thou speakest ; sleep doth seldom bind
His eyelids : wakeful unto prayer thou shalt him find."
IX.
Up the strait stair the long-robed figure glides,
The while the aged man his taper's light
Trims, and with friendly voice the stranger guides,
Till the dark buttress hides her from his sight ;
And then he peers abroad into the night,
Crossing himself for fear of aught unblest ;
For sprites and fairies, when the moon is bright.
Weave their thin dances on the meadow's breast.
And sharp rays pierce the tombs and rouse the dead from rest.
X.
He looks not long ; for down the stairs of stone
Footsteps are sounding, and from forth the pile
Passes the stranger, but now not alone.
" Here, brother Francis, let the keys awhile
Rest in my keeping : I will thee assoil
From aught that in mj^ absence may befall ;
So wilt thou spare thyself thy watch and toil,
For my return, my blessing guard ye all ;
For I must forth when sorrow for my help doth call."
XI.
The Abbot speaks, and they two glide along
In the dim moonlight, till the meadow haze
Enwraps them from the sight, the trees among,
And down the winding of the gleamy ways,
They pass, and cross the Parret stream, ablaze
With flickering ripples ; then they track the moon
Even till they reach .St. Mary's Priory,
Ere which the dark-robed stranger goes before,
And without speech admits them through a lowly door.
382 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
XII.
It is an humble chamber, and a group
Of holy sisters, in their work of love.
Over some prostrate form are seen to stoop,
And in the feeble glimmering slowly move ;
And now the Abbot sees, bending above
One stretched in anguish on the pavement there ;
In wild unrest her white arms toss and rove ;
On the dark floor is spread her tangled hair,
And with convulsive gasps she draws the sounding air.
XIII.
But see, she beckons, and he draweth near ;
Again she beckons, and that sisterhood
Slowly retreats from what they may not hear ;
The last is gone : and now, -with life endued,
The Abbot's form that lady rose and viewed.
" Sir monk, I am not as I seem this hour ! "
He trembles. " Nay, let no chill doubt intrude ;
It is, it is thine own, thy bride, thy flower.
The highborn Lady Agnes of St. Dunstan's Tower ! "
DUODECAD THE LAST.
" Here is no place for greeting ; fly afar
Before the absent sisterhood return.
In my well-sembled agony, yon star
I watched, whose westering rays now faintly burn —
It symbols forth my fate ; and would'st thou learn
What bodes this meeting ? Ere it dips below
The mountain range which thou canst just discern.
Safe refuge must be won ; for as we go.
Shining it bodeth joy — but sunken tears and woe."
III.
But whither shall they fly ? The night's high noon
Hath past, and she is faint and weary grown.
" Lady, the abbey gate is reached full soon ;
There can I hide thee. In those towers of stone
THE LEGEND OF THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNEY. 383
Are secret chambers, known by me alone,
Where I can tend thee, while the coming day
• Shall bring thee rest ; then, when its light hath flown,
Mine be it in maturer thought to say
How we may shape our course to regions far away."
IV.
With hurried steps to gain those towers they press,
But ere they reached them, had that lady's sight
Not earthward dropped for very weariness,
She might have seen that clear symbolic light
First fainter wane, then vanish from the night.
The other marked its dying radiance well,
But he was one whom omens could not fright ;
But, spite his better judgment, sooth to tell,
Faintness struck through his heart, and broke joy's rapturous spell.
V.
The abbot sitteth in his chamber lone.
And by him sits the lady of his love ;
The crozier leans upon the fretted stone,
Swept by the sacred vestments from above.
He prayeth not, for he can never move
His fond eyes from that lovely lady's brow,
\Miose downcast eyes seem gently to reprove
The scheme that riseth in their wishes now
To doff the saintly veil, and break the chartered vow.
VI.
They gaze upon each other earnestly.
Scarce daring to discover but in look
What each might read of in the other's eye :
Belike ye wonder what such question shook
The firm resolve that erst their spirits took.
In sooth God's laws were on them both ; but yet
The first law in the heaven-descended book
Firmer than veil or chartered vow is set —
*' Quos Deus junxit, homo ne quis separet."
584 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
VIII.
Long hours have flown, to wedded rapture given ;
And now upon the dusk and dawning air,
\Yhich murmurs, with its quick, shrill pulses riven,
The matin bell sounds forth, calling to prayer
The abbey brotherhood and hamlets near.
Then spoke the Abbot : ' ' Part we for an hour ;
Then follow me into a refuge near,
A hiding-place within this solid tower,
Known but to those who here have held the highest power.'''
IX.
He leadeth her a dark and narrow way
Along the windings of that hidden stair ;
They might see nothing of the rising day
Until that he had brought his lady dear
Unto a chamber, nidely fashioned, near
The top roof of the abbey pile, and lit
By one small window, where the hour of prayer,
Secure from rude intrusion, she might sit
And watch the morning clouds along the landscape flit.
X.
"Say ye she left Saint Mary's Priory
This night ? Perchance she roameth in the glade
Or seeketh some lone cottage wearily.
Strict search for her in this our abbey made
Hath found no trace ; each hiding-place displayed
Shows no such tenant ; and our holy chief
Tells how he left her on your pavement laid,
What time she sunk exhausted by her grief.
After confession gave her prisoned woes relief"
XI.
Past is all peril now — the search is done ;
Past the spare meal, and spent the hour of prayer ;
The holy men are snugly pent each one,
And quickly as the anxious lover dare
THE LEGEND OF THE ABBOT OF MUCHELNEY. 385
He seeks with throbbing heart that nest secure.
" Rejoice, my wedded love, my life, my fair !
Our way is straight, our course is safe as pure ;
Our life of love and joy from disappointment sure."
XII.
He found her, as ye find some cherished bud
Of early primrose when the storm is past,
Crushed by the vexing of the tempest flood.
Prostrate and pale she lay ; for Death had cast
His gorgon spell upon her. Thick and fast
The Abbot's bursting heart did upward beat.
Awhile benumbed he stood ; Reason at last
Fled with the wild crash from her central seat,
And all his soul within him burned with maddening beat.
XIII.
Three hundred years, above the tall elm wood
One ivied pinnacle hath signified
The place where once the abbey pile hath stood.
A hundred years before, the Abbot died
A man of many woes : one summertide
They found his coffin in the churchyard wall,
And when they forced the stony lid aside,
Gazed on his face beneath the mouldered pall,
Even as the spirit left it — pale and tear-worn all.
XIV.
And often down that dark and narrow way.
Along the winding of that hidden stair,
Sweeps a dim figure, as the rustics say,
And tracks the path even to the house of prayer.
What in the dusky night it doeth there
None may divine, nor its return have met ;
Only upon the hushed and listening air
Strange words, as men pass by, are sounding yet-
Quos Deus junxit, homo ne quis separet."
26
386 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The Vicar of Muchelney, the Rev. S. O. Baker, kindly
gives me the following information with regard to Dean
Alford's ballad. He says : " It is an old legend here, but,
I think, without foundation. There is a grange across the
river Parret, about half a mile from the abbey. This is
vulgarly supposed to have been a nunnery, and to have
had subterranean communication with the abbey, the sup-
posed passage being really a drain to the river. The small
room or cupboard into which he put the nun was the
entrance at the top of a staircase into an upper room. The
stairs are removed, but the cupboard remains."
^EBA3TIA]N C/^BOT.
(1477-1557-)
■:o:-
Among our worthies there is no name that stands higher for
sincere goodness and excellence of life, for wise and far-
seeing views, for active and untiring enterprize, than the
pious and estimable man whose name stands at the head of
this paper. Of Italian extraction, it was from his Venetian
origin and by inheritance from his father that his love of
adventure and discovery was born. Nevertheless, Cabot
was an Englishman, born at Bristol about the year 1477, and
always clinging through life to the place of his birth.
When three years old he was taken by his father, John
Cabot, to Venice, where he remained for some years, so
causing a report that he was born there ; but he preferred
claiming his birthright as an Englishman, and in spite of
Venice being his father's birthplace and the home of his
early years, in spite of the high bribe that Spain offered for
his services, he, like the notable character in H.M.S.
Finafore, " in spite of all temptations to belong to other
nations, 'elected' to remain an Englishman." He made
several voyages with his father before he was twenty, and
388 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
together they discovered Prima Vista or Newfoundland.^
By them also, under the auspices of Henry VII., the
continent of America was first seen, long before it was
sighted by either Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci. The
king fully entered into their enlightened views of coloniza-
tion, and on the 5th of March, 1496, granted a patent to
John Cabot, the father, and his three sons Louis, Sebastian,
and Sancius, authorizing them to seek out whatsoever isles,
countries, and provinces, which before this time were
unknown to all Christians, and to set up the royal banner
in every place, by them newly found. For in those times
people took literally the words of Holy Writ, and it seemed
to them that they were bound in as far possible to make
" the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord
and His Christ."
Another voyage was made, but in neither of them, it is
believed, did the ancient mariner, John Cabot, sail. Sebastian
had the command in both expeditions, and sailed on his
voyage of discovery from his native place, Bristol, which
was then the second port in the kingdom. But when the
eighth Henry mounted the throne, work that promised no
quick return in money, that was neither showy nor splendid,
was either stopped or coldly neglected. Cabot bore this
for a time, but finding it hopeless to look for assistance in
his voyages of discover}^ he, at last, and reluctantly, trans-
ferred his services to the court of Spain, where he was
' Among the privy purse expenses of Henry VII. occurs : " To the
man in reward who found the new Isle, ;^io." Upon which Miss
Strickland remarks, " Scanty is the reward of the benefactors of the
human race, while those of the destroyers are blazoned before all eyes.'"
SEBASTIAN CABOT. 389
highly esteemed, and the office of Pilot-Major was bestowed
upon him.
In 1548 Cabot returned to England, a like office to that
he had held in Spain being created for him. A pension
was allotted to him by Edward, and he was consulted by
him and his council on all subjects connected with maritime
affairs. Cabot was loyal and honest to those he served.
AVhen voyaging under the flag of Spain, he visited South
America and entered the Rio de la Plate. When he returned
to England, he seems to have recognized that her mission
was to the North. He therefore advised opening a trading
intercourse with Russia, and his instructions for its conduct
are remarkable for their courtesy, humanity, and true re-
ligious feeling, as they are for the soundest principles of
■wise statesmanship. In fact, he appears to have united in
himself the best qualities of the Italian, the Spaniard, and
the Englishman. With the keen intelligence and love of
trade for which the Italians of the north coast were remark-
able, he mingled the chivalry of Spain and the common-
sense hardihood and energy of an Englishman.
It was during the latter part of the reign of Edward VI.
that a company of merchants was formed for the discovery
of unknown countries under the auspices of Sebastian
Cabot. It was styled the " Mystery, Company, and Fellowship
of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Unknown
Lands." Sir Hugh Willoughby was appointed to the com-
mand of this enterprize ; he sailed with three ships. Two
of them were hemmed in with ice, and the crews, with their
commanders, were frozen to death. The third, which was
commanded by Richard Chancellor, passing the North
39° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Cape to the westward, sailed into the Bay of St. Nicholas
on the White Sea, being the first European ship — it is
believed — that had visited those parts. He landed at the
Abbey of St. Nicholas near Archangel, and whilst there
had an audience of the Czar, John Basilowatz, who very
readily promoted the views of the English in establishing a
trade with Russia. It also opened to the English the whole
fishery of Spitzbergen, which was soon after undertaken.
In Cabot's instructions to those who were to trade in
foreign parts, he gives the following excellent rules. He
urges that " the inhabitants of the nations visited should not
be provoked with disdain, laughing or contempt, but treated
with all gentleness and curtesie," and that their own laws
and rights should be respected; while with simple and
affectionate earnestness he inculcates upon every sailor
personal purity and remembrance of his oath, conscience,
duty, and charge.
He was introduced to the Duke of Somerset, and by him
presented to his nephew, the young king, who delighted in
his conversation. He appears to have been the first who
marked the variation of the compass ; this he explained to
the king, and instructed his sailors to watch for all scientific
facts. His religion and morality were devoid of austerity,
and we are told that when the Search-thrift was despatched
for the North, "the good old gentleman, Master Cabotje,
gave to the poor most liberal alms, wishing them to pray
for its good fortune ; and then he made great cheer," says
the captain. " For very joy that he had to see the toward-
ness of our intended discovery, he entered into the dance
itself, which being ended, he and his friends departed, most
SEBASTIAN CABOT. 39 I
gently commending us to the government of Almighty-
God."
Cabot died about 1557. Strangely enough, neither the
time of his death nor the place of his burial are recorded ;
yet it is said, " On his death-bed his mind wandered again
over the ocean he loved with most pure, and true, and
faithful passion, and he spoke, in moments of wandering
fancy, of a Divine revelation made unto him of a new and
infaUible method of finding the longitude, which he was
not permitted to disclose to any mortal.'' And so passed
away one of the noblest of the sea-kings of old, as adven-
turous, as wise ; as courteous, as bold ; as gentle, as daring ;
and no one knows where rests the mortal remains of him
who first of all Europeans gazed on the mighty Western
Continent.'
Authorities. — ^Mackenzie's Universal Biography ; &c.
' It is remarkable that in the year 1884 the city of Archangel cele-
brated the tercentenary of its foundation by British traders, and tha
the Russian newspapers have teemed with compHments to this country
for the part it played three hundred years ago in laying open Russia for
the first time to the civilized world, and giving her a port where she
could carry on intercourse with Europe. Edward VI. was dying
slowly when Cabot was introduced to him, but the project was not
allowed to lapse. On Chancellor's return Queen Mary founded the
Russian Company, whose object was to trade with the north of Russia.
They built a factory first at Holmogory on the Dwina, but shifted their
quarters in 1584 to Archangel.
TyVUJMTOp^I A]MD IT3 ^TOI^Y
From A.D. 702.
■:o:-
" What ear so empty is that hath not heard the sound
Of Taunton's fruitful Dean, not matched by any ground."
Drayton.
Every town has its own story, and an interesting one it is
sure to be, if not spoiled in the telling. As has been
already pointed out, Somerset stands almost alone among
the counties of England in having no universally received
and undeniably acknowledged capital. Gradually, however,
Taunton has increased in size and importance till in the
present day it is generally recognized as the chief town in
the county.
That the Romans occupied it in some sort is certain from
the number of coins that have been found there ; but as
The Town upon the Tone it traces its existence to the times
of Ina, who fortified it as the western defence of his ever-
growing kingdom. When we talk of Ina's castle, we must
not imagine some stately building such as the Normans
built four hundred years later, but probably only a stockade
with ditch and rampart of earth, yet sufficient to serve as a
TAUNTON AND ITS STORY. 393
defence when valiantly guarded. Here Ina, for a time at
least, fixed his headquarters, and here he drew up and
promulgated the code of laws by which the west county was
governed till the time of Alfred.
The vale of Taunton Dene is one of the richest in all
England. It has not, of course, the picturesqueness of
mountainous districts, but it has a rich beauty of its own,
with its green meadows, its fair orchards, its rich grazing
districts, and its fields of waving corn. In the days of Ina
there were probably thick forests in many parts, but now
these are cleared, and well-cared and fruitful fields are
bounded by hedgerows, while magnificent elms shade the
roads whose sides they border, and make the raised
pathways a sheltered walk. And now you may see the
church towers thickly dotting the landscape, more stately
than they were in Ina's days ; yet Ina and his friend Aldhelm
did much to promote church-building in our county. It is
difficult to say which season of the year is the most beau-
tiful, as the landscape changes its dress with every changing
season. Is it when the fleeting beauty of the apple-blossom
is the chief feature in the prospect, or when the gold-
besprinkled meadows are full of red cattle, or when the
apple-trees groan under their burden, and the corn is ripe,
and the leaves are changing their colours; or when the hoar-
frost glitters on the trees and the mistletoe is sought among
the bare branches of the apple and the aspen trees?
In Ina's time Wessex was still striving with its numerous
foes. On the west and north-west was Geraint's British
Principality ; on the north was Mercia striving hard with
Wessex for priority among the kingdoms ; on the east was
394 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the small but fierce little state of Sussex ; and Ina had to
pass rapidly from one part of his kingdom to another to
preserve his boundaries intact. Taunton, then, was his
strong defence on the western frontier, though every town —
nay, almost every village — had some building to which
he resorted at times, and which was dignified by the name
of a palace. It was in one of his necessary absences
from Taunton that he left his faithful Queen Ethelburga in
command. The record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads
quaintly enough : "722. This year Queen Ethelburga razed
Taunton, which Ina had previously built, and Ealdbert the
Exile departed into Surrey and Sussex, and Ina fought
against the South Saxons." As the record stands, one would
almost suppose Ethelburga to have been some per\-erse
virago, who, as soon as her husband's back was turned,
pulled down the defences he had carefully erected : but
Ethelburga appears to have been a dutiful and devoted wife,
and she had rightly great influence with her lord.
The fact seems that Ealdbert, a Saxon who had been
banished by Ina, returned in his absence, seized the castle
of Taunton, and warred against the queen. She overcame
him, but, determined that the castle should never again be
used against their own people, she destroyed and dismantled
it, preferring to trust only to their unassisted arms. It
was a kind of fortress that could easily be renewed if it was
thought desirable.
In " Ina in Somerset," the artifice by which Ethelburga
induced her husband to leave his kingdom and make a
pilgrimage to Rome has been told. They had no son, and
Ina's brother had died before him, so Ethelheard or Ethel-
TAUNTON AND ITS STORY. 395
ward, Ethelburga's brother, was chosen as his successor.
But Ethelheard was neither so wise nor so fortunate as Ina.
In one point, however, he resembled him : he had a wife,
Fridogyd or Frithswitha, whose influence over him was very
great, and she persuaded him to make a gift of the manor
of Taunton to the church at Winchester. N'oro, such a gift
would be clearly indefensible, but in those times in all the
kingdom of Wessex there was no other bishop but that of
Winchester, and it is possible that Frithswitha thought the
surest way of providing for the safety of the town was
by placing it under the special care of the Church.
This gift of Frithswitha, strange to say, through all the
sub-divisions of the diocese, remained attached to the
church at Winchester for eleven hundred years, with the
single exception of one year during the Great Rebellion,
when the church of Winchester sold it — probably by com-
pulsion — but they redeemed it the following year; and so it
remained till the Ecclesiastical Commissioners once again
sold it for the redemption of the land tax in 1822, and thus
severed for ever its connection with the see of Winchester.
The Bishops of Winchester did not neglect their western
property, distant as it was, and William Giffard — a Norman
— the first bishop appointed after the Conquest, built a
castle at Taunton, as was the custom of these Norman
bishops. Five brothers Giftard came over with the Con-
queror, of whom this Bishop William was one. It must be
remembered that then, and for many years afterwards,
Winchester was the capital of the entire kingdom, having
been the capital of Wessex, which gradually absorbed the
other kingdoms; and it was only in course of time that
396 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
London — which had long been the chief port, and, from the
time of the consecration of Edward the Confessor's Abbey
at Westminster, was the place where the kings were hal-
lowed, and in a great number of cases where they were
buried — became recognized at last as the metropolis. What
sort of a bishop William Giffard made I am not prepared
to say, but that he was a man of great energy is certain,
and he everywhere improved the property belonging to the
see. The diocese then extended — and till very lately —
from the Thames to the coast of France, including the
Borough of South wark and the Channel Islands, and from the
borders of Sussex and Surrey to Devon. He built a mag-
nificent palace at Bankside in Scuihwark, where he could
attend to his parliamentary duties and yet reside in his own
■diocese ; and he built, as I have before said, a Xorman
castle at Taunton, of probably far stouter materials than
Ina's, so easily raised and razed. It is not wonderful, then,
that under the shadow of Bishop Giffard's strong castle,
■which represented law and order, and with the fertile vale
of Taunton as a granary, that a flourishing town grew up
upon the banks of the Tone, and " Where should I be bore
else than in Taunton Dene?" was — and perhaps still may
be — a proverb among the peasantry.
Another episcopal benefactor to Taunton was Bishop
Fox. He, with Morton, Bishop of Ely, had the chief hand
in the scheme of dethroning Richard III., and, by the
marriage of Henry Tudor with Elizabeth of York, putting
an end to the wars of the Roses. He was rewarded by
Henry VII. with large church preferment. His connection
with Taunton was twofold. Having been translated from
TAUNTON AND ITS STORY. 397
Exeter to Bath and Wells, he, as bishop of that see, knew
of course the wants and requirements of the principal
towns ; and when later translated from Bath and Wells to
Durham, and from Durham to '\^'inchester, he came into
possession of the manor of Taunton, and there founded
a grammar school for the town.^ It is specially remarkable
as anticipating by about a quarter of a century the founda-
tion of grammar schools on the fall of, and in some cases
by the spoils of, the monasteries. The connection of
another bishop, who also was translated from Wells to
Winchester, is not as honourable. Peter Mews made use of
his connection with Taunton to assist in mowing down the
poor peasants of Somerset in Monmouth's Rebellion.
The pride and glory of Taunton is the church of St.
Mary IMagdalen, which, with its magnificent tower and that
of St. James, form a noticeable feature in the prospect as the
traveller approaches the town. It was originally a chapelry
dependent on the conventual church of the priory. The
original appointment of the vicarage took place in 130S, in
the second year of Edward II., under Walter Hazelshaw^
first Dean, then Bishop, of Wells, who, upon information of
the neglected state of the parish, appointed Anthony de
Brading and Henry de Chanyngton, Archdeacon of Taun-
ton, commissioners to inquire into the matter. Accordingly,.
Master Simon de Lynn was instituted as vicar. He was to
be provided for and paid in kind, not in money. The provi-
sion was, however, ample. He was to receive twenty-one
loaves of household bread a week ; forty-two flagons of
' This grammar school has only just now been abolished, having lasted
four centuries.
39S MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
conventual ale ; seven loaves of choice boulled flour, twenty-
eight loaves of fine wheaten flour; seven flagons of brisk ale;
fifteen marks of silver a year ; six loads of hay a year ; seven
bushels of oats a week for his horse, and two shillings a year
for shoeing his horse ; and likewise all legacies bequeathed
to him in the parish. It is noteworthy that with this hand-
some provision of bread and beer there is none whatever
made for flesh meat. Was Master Simon a vegetarian, or
did the fifteen marks of silver a year provide him and his
household with sufficient meat, &c. ?
The church is remarkable as having four aisles, two on
each side of the nave. The tower was taken down, being
insecure, in 1857, and rebuilt almost stone for stone. It is
one of the finest of the many fine towers of Somerset.
The rebellion against the tax levied by Henry VII., under
the pretence of defending the country against the King of
Scots' invasion in favour of Perkin Warbeck, is a curious
episode. It began in Cornwall, but was taken up by the
people of Somerset. The Provost of Perin,' as he was called,
who collected the taxes, fled first to Exeter before the fury
of the rebels, and then took refuge in Taunton Castle ; but
he was dragged thence, and murdered. It is not necessary
to repeat the story, which will be found in the sketch of Lord
Daubeney's life. It is as well to note Henry's clemency :
the leaders were punished, but the misguided people were
allowed to go free. But Taunton was not yet clear from the
disturbances which Perkin Warbeck's, alias the Young Duke
of York's, attempt upon the crown caused. The rebellion
which resulted from the collection of the obnoxious tax
' Hume.
TAUNTON AND ITS STORY. 399
seems to have given him the idea that the west county was
in his favour ; so, passing from Ireland, he came to Corn-
wall, and there three thousand joined his standard. He
passed on to Exeter, but the people shut their gates against —
as he now styled himself — Richard IV. He passed on to
Taunton, hearing of the approach of Lord Daubeney with
his army flushed with success, and of the general rising
against him of the nobility and gentry of Devonshire.
Though his troops here numbered seven thousand, he
himself despaired of success, and, stealing away, took
sanctuary at Beaulieu. Again Henry's clemency was exer-
cised, and he pardoned the rank and file, only m.aking
examples of the leaders. The character and ill-success of
this weak attempt much resembles that of the Duke of
Monmouth just two hundred years later ; but how different
was the treatment by the sovereign. Yet Henry VII. is
systematically abused as cold-hearted, cruel, Sec, Szc. Cer-
tainly the natives of the western counties are bound to
defend his memory.
The later history of Taunton, as connected with public
affairs, will be found in the story of the Great Rebellion as
told in the lives of Lord Hopton and Blake, and again in the
grievous tale of Monmouth's disastrous throw for a crown.
We cannot omit, however, the quaint little episode of the
behaviour of George Newton, a native of Devonshire, but
Vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, close to Taunton, when Charles
I. issued the order in council recommending the Book of
Sports, and permitting those who had attended church to
pass the afternoon in wholesome and healthy amusements.
The order was commanded to be read in the churches.
400 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Naturally, all those of the clergy who leant towards Puri-
tanism were highly indignant ; but the Vicar of Bishop's
Lydeard contrived to obey the command, and yet to
manifest his strong disapproval of it. He read it,
therefore, as he was commanded, but, opening his Bible,
read also the twentieth chapter of Exodus. Then telling
his congregation that the first was the commandment of
men, the second those of God, he informed them that, as
they happened to be contrary the one to the other, they
were at liberty to choose which they liked best. How far
the " scandalous revellings on the Lord's Day," objected to
and petitioned against to the king in 1630, were the result
of the Book of Sports, I cannot say ; but it is difficult to
avoid thinking that a game of cricket or bowls under the eye
of the authorities on a Sunday afternoon would be far better,
and less objectionable, than the drinking for hours in the
alehouse or the gin-palace.
The election in Taunton borough was as democratic as
the most ardent republican could wish ; it was for years in
the hands of the potwallers or pot-wallopers — i.e. every man
who boils a pot, whether as occupier or lodger.
What else we have to say of Taunton will be found under
the heads of the different subjects to which we have referred.
Authorities. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Lives of Bishops
of Winchester, Dr. Hook, Szc. ; Hume's History of
England ; Toulmin's History of Taunton ; Oldfield's
Borough History ; and communications from Arthur
Kinglake, Esq., of Taunton.
QlX.E3 J^ORD DaUBEJMEY AjMD THE
Coi^NI3H "ReBEI^LIOJ^.
(I497-)
KING INA'S PALACE AND SOUTH PETHERTON.
The picturesque little town of South Petherton is built on
the river Parret, from which indeed it derives its name. It
possesses one of the finest relics of mediseval domestic archi-
tecture that we have remaining to us. Traditionally this is
called King Ina's palace, and though not a single stone in it
was there in King Ina's days, yet it evidently marks the spot
where stood one of the residences of " the many-palaced
Ina." No legend is connected with it, but its name bridges
over a gulf of eight hundred years, and connects the times
of that energetic and beneficent king with the times of Giles
Lord Daubeney. Could King Ina's palace, even as it now
stands, tell its tale, we should have a singularly interesting
account of a family famous in their generation.
Robert de Todenei was standard-bearer to William the
Conqueror. He accompanied him to England, and had
grants of many manors. His son, William de Albini, was
chamberlain, or butler as Camden calls him, to Henry I.
27
402 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
He eventually married his widow, Adeliza of Louvaine, and
from them were descended the Howards, the Arundels, and
the Dukes of Rutland, Their younger son, Ralph, was the
ancestor of the Daubeneys, probably another form of De
Albini. It was in the reign of Edward I. that the grandson
of Ralph de Albini became possessed of the manor of South
Petherton. The tomb of his great-grandson, Sir Giles
Daubeney, with his two wives, is to be seen in the south
transept of that church. " It is styled," says Mr. Morris,
"the Chapel of our Lady." If so, it is a most unusual place
for the Lady-chapel. The ordinary place for a Lady-chapel
is, of course, at the back of the chancel, with the pathetic
symbolic idea that after our Lord was taken down from the
cross His head lay on His mother's lap. At Glastonbury
and Durham the Lady-chapel is the entrance to the church.
If there is any symbolism in that position, it would, of course,
be such as we should be unable to sympathize with, as it would
give the idea of approaching our Lord through His mother's
intercession. But the position of that at South Petherton
must be, I think, unique.
Sir Giles Daubeney's son William seems to have been
altogether resident in South Petherton. It is therefore
highly probable, if not a matter of actual certainty, that his
son. Lord Daubeney, was. born ihere. He was apparently
a courtier from his youth, having been one of the esquires
of the body to Edward IV, In 1483, however, his manors
of South Petherton and Barrington were forfeited to the
Crown on his attainder for complicity in the revolt of the
Duke of Buckingham.
With Henry YH/s reign his prosperity returned, and he
GILES LORD DAUBENEY AND THE CORNISH REBELLION. 403
was literally loaded with favours by that king. It is not
known whether he fought at Bosworth, but in the first year
of Henry's reign he was created a baron by the title of Lord
Daubeney. He had previously been appointed privy coun-
cillor, constable of Bristol Castle, and master of the mint,,
besides having many other honourable offices conferred upon,
him. In 1487 he was made Knight of the Garter, and the
succeeding year appointed governor of Calais. In 1494^
he was made justice itinerant of the king's forests south ot'
the Trent, and in 1495 ^^ ^^'^^ appointed lord chamberlain
of the king's household in the room of Sir William Stanley,
who was executed for treason, being, as Lord Bacon says,
" a man of great sufficiency and valour, the more because he
was gentle and moderate."
This favourite of fortune was something more than a mere
courtier : he must have been a great soldier as well. To
be the special and favoured councillor of so reserved and
cautious a man as Henry VH. s-peaks well for his prudence.
He was entrusted with the command of the English forces
on the Continent, and so successful was he at this time,
in action against the French at Dixmude and Nieuport in
Flanders, and so stoutly did he defend his own fortress of
Calais, that the baffled general who commanded the attacking
party (the Lord Cordes, governor of Picardy) is credited by
Bacon with having declared, in his impotent wrath, " that he
would be content to lie in hell se\ren years, so he might win
Calais from the English " — a mighty, if profane, testimony
to the valour and conduct of the Somerset hero. This was
in 1490, and he certainly commanded at Calais till the year
1492 and later.
404 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
But in 1497 we find him in England. It was in that year
that the Cornish rebellion took place. That mysterious
personage, Richard Duke of York, alias Perkin Warbeck,
^had persuaded James IV., King of Scotland, of the truth of
his pretensions, and was engaged in an attempt to invade
'the north of England. Henry, who seized upon any and
■ every pretext to raise money, imposed a tax for the purpose
'Of raising troops to repel the invasion. The Cornish — whether
•'from concealed love to the house of York, or merely, as they
professed, from a dislike to the tax, which they were con-
' vinced was illegal, it is difficult to say — being persuaded by
"Ofle Flammock, a lawyer, who assured them that the northern
"people were bound to defend themselves, and that it was
Only an excuse for fleecing the people, rose in rebellion,
•refused to pay the obnoxious impost, and under the guidance
' of Flammock, who was of an ancient and honourable family,
■and of Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, they marched towards
London. From Bodmin, where the rebellion originated,
^they marched to Launceston, and carefully abstained from
'Committing depredations on the property or injury to the
persons 6f any excepting those connected with the collection
of the abhorred tax. Their arms were chiefly bows and
arrows, or pickaxes and tools used in their business. At
Taunton they put to death a tax collector. At Wells they
were joined by Lord Audley, a man of ancient family, but
restless, vain, and intriguing. Him they made their general.
They passed on into Kent, and encamped on Blackheath,
where, being attacked by Lord Daubeney, after a severe
conflict they were defeated with the loss of two thousand
men, the loss on the king's side being three hundred. The
GILES LORD DAUBENEY AND THE CORNISH REBELLION. 405
suppression of this revolt deserves mention, if only for the
fact that none but the ringleaders were punished ; the rank
and file, numbering, some say, sixteen thousand, were dis-
missed to their homes. Lord Audley, in consideration of
his rank, was beheaded on Tower Hill ; Flammock and
Joseph were hung, drawn, and quartered, according to the
barbarous usage which obtained for some centuries later.
But the Cornish rebels, though they had been treated
with such leniency, were either in that state of restlessness
which will break out again and again with or without provo-
cation, or because of their attachment to the house or York,
in the autumn of the same year invited Perkin Warbeck,
alias Richard Duke of York, into Cornwall. He landed at
Whitsand, near Penzance, seized St. Michael's Mount, where
he placed his wife, the Lady Catherine Gordon, for safety,
and marched on Exeter. This he besieged for some days,
and Henry desired Lord Daubeney to march to the relief of
the city. But meanwhile the gentlemen of Devonshire had
collected forces, and made so bold a front, that Perkin
retired into Somerset. Here Lord Daubeney followed him,
and Perkin, quitting his partizans in Taunton, retired to
Beaulieu, in Hampshire. The king also himself came west
with a small force; and at Taunton, Perkin, who had been
persuaded to leave his sanctuary, surrendered himself to
Henry.
Meanwhile Lord Daubeney was desired to go to St.
Michael's Mount, and take charge of the Lady Catherine
Gordon and escort her to London, where she was placed in
the charge of Henry's queen till she married her second
husband, Sir ]\Litthew Cradock.
4o6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Probably in reward of these services, and also to head the
force which was to overawe the two extreme western counties,
Lord Daubeney was made constable of Taunton Castle, and
in 1503 was holding the same post at Bridgewater, He died
on May 28, 1507, and by his will bequeathed his body to
be buried in Westminster Abbey, leaving lands to the value
of;^26 13s. 4d. yearly for perpetual masses to be said for
his soul as well as for those of his father and mother — two to
be sung in the church where he was buried, and the third in
the church of South Petherton, where divers of his ancestors
'lay interred.
Henry, the son of Lord Uaubeney, gained the perilous
distinction of being a favourite of Henry VHL, who raised
him a step in the peerage by making him Earl of Bridgewater
■in 15 39-, which, says Camden, was "the greatest honour that
this place had." But this great earl, whose marriages con-
nected him with the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of
Abergavenny, giving way to the prevailing folly of exhibiting
his grandeur at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, did so
impoverish himself that in his later years he retired to the
little village of South Perrott, near Crewkerne, where he
died, and was buried on the 12th day of April, 1548, at the
age of fifty-four. So low had he fallen in his estate, that his
funeral expenses were paid by his sister Cicely, wife of John
Bourchier, Lord Fitzwarine, Earl of Bath, who then owned
the manor of Wigborough. He is evidently one of those
alluded to by Lord Abergavenny in Shakespeare's play of
Henry VII I. ^ when, in speaking of the costliness of the
pageant the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he says —
GILES LORD DAUBENEY AND THE CORNISH REBELLION. 407
"I do know
Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
By this so sickened their estates, that never
Shall they abound as formerly." (Act i., scene i.)
His honours died with him, as he left no son ; but the
descendants of his uncle, James Daubeney, now live at Cote,
near Bristol, and at Wrington, in Somerset.
Authorities (almost exclusively). — IMr. Hugh Norris's
South Petherton in the Olden Time. For the Cornish
Rebellion, Hitchin's History of Cornwall, edited by
Samuel Drew.
J
OHN Hooper.
(A.D. 1495-1555; Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester,
1550-1555O
-:o:
THE MARIAN PERSECUTION.
That Bishop Hooper was the one native of Somerset who
suffered, though not in Somerset, during the Marian per-
secution is a strange fact, and this from no pusillanimity or
want of faithfulness on the part of the people of Somerset,
but because Gilbert Bourne, the gentle and pious Romish
bishop of the diocese, though appointed by Mary, and
holding to the old form of worship, yet would by no
means permit any persecution within his diocese. Three
persons were indeed brought before him for heresy, and
convicted in his court, but he shielded them, and they did
not suffer.
But Hooper, though a native of Somerset, was Bishop of
Gloucester, and held also the episcopate of Worcester in
coinmendam. He was a good and worthy man, but crotchety,
and wanting in manly strength of mind. He enjoys the
unenviable distinction of being, as Heylin says, " the first
Nonconformist." All biographers agree that he was born
in Somerset, but at what place in the county I have not
discovered. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford,
JOHN HOOPER. 409
and afterwards became a Cistercian monk at Gloucester.
But not finding monastic life to his taste he returned to
Oxford, where he became one of a small band who were
ardent for reformation of the Church ; but becoming ob-
noxious to the ruling powers by his outspoken and extreme
views, he was banished the University.
For a time he was steward to Sir Thomas Arundel, who
however, becoming alarmed at his reforming views, sent
nim to Bishop Gardiner of Winchester to reason with him
■ — with no success. On the passing of the Six Acts, or
Bloody Statute, Hooper went abroad, and there, in spite of
his monastic vow, married a foreigner. It is perhaps a
symptom of the man's nature, cold, harsh, and altogether
wanting in imagination, that he could find no beauty in
Switzerland, and describes Zurich as a " barren, sombre, and
unpleasant country, rude and savage."
When Hooper returned to England he became chaplain
to the Duke of Somerset, and a popular preacher. But
whilst he was abroad he had been imbibing the Genevan
doctrine, and the chastened sobriety of the English ritual
seemed to him little better than Romanism. He spoke
with contempt of the sacraments, and wanted further
changes in the direction of foreign Protestantism. He was
offered the bishopric of Gloucester; and, feeling as he did,
he should have declined it, instead of which he tried to
make terms. He refused to wear the vestments proper to
his office, and objected to the clause in the oath of supre-
macy, "by God, by the Saints, and by the Holy Gospels."
He argued against the appeal to the saints so ably, that
Edward struck out the obnoxious words with his own hand.
41 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
But his objection to the vestments was not so easily got rid
of. Cranmer refused to consecrate him unless he complied
with ecclesiastical rules. Bucer and Peter Martyr, pro-
fessors at Oxford, though foreign Protestants themselves,
gave their opinion most strongly that, though they disapproved
of the vestments, they were things absolutely indifferent,
and that compliance was wise and lawful. In the letter of
Bucer in which he gave this sensible and charitable counsel,
he bears sad witness to the grievous state of the reformed
Church, which in fact terribly needed reformation in things
of far greater importance than the colour and cut of vest-
ments, viz., "the sacrilegious invasions of the laity; that
they seized and plundered the best preferments, gave two or
three benefices to their stewards and huntsmen, but with
reservation of part of the profits to themselves : thus they
put such vicars upon the people, not those who were best
qualified, but such as would engage upon the lowest terms,
and afford the best bargains. The service of the Church
was performed in such a cold, lame, and unintelligible
manner, that the people were little better edified than if the
ofllice were said in the Phoenician or Indian language.
Neither baptism nor marriage were celebrated with that
gravity and solemnity the business required. Pastoral duties
are lamentably neglected ; there are no catechetical instruc-
tions, no private admonitions, no public censures of dis-
order. The people are promiscuously admitted to the
privileges of communion, without any proof of being
qualified either in faith or manners. ' They appear empty
before the Lord,' and take little care of the poor at their
religious assemblies."
JOHN HOOPER. 41 r
This, and much more than this, Bucer affirms of the state
of the Church in the reign of Edward VI. — or we should
perhaps say in that of the Protector Somerset and his suc-
cessor the Earl of Warwick, afterward Duke of Northumber-
land. But, in spite of the advice of his foreign friends,
Hooper persisted in his objections. Why he did not refuse
the bishopric altogether on the one hand, or why it was
forced upon him on the other, is perfectly unintelligible ; the
strange fact remains that the Reformers now began to per-
secute one another, and Hooper, because he declined to
wear the objectionable dress of a bishop — not yet being one
— after being argued with, first by Ridley and then by
Cranmer, was delivered over to the archbishop's care. He
was first confined to his own house, and then sent to the
Fleet prison for several months, and it has even been said
that there was an idea of inflicting the penalty of death ;
and then his obstinacy gave way, for he discovered that it
was not unlawful to make a compromise with his conscience,
and so he consented to wear the bishop's robes when offici-
ating in the presence of the king and on great occasions, but
at other times he was to do as he pleased. He was there-
fore consecrated, but disgracefully consented to hold his
episcopate during the king's pleasure. Heath, Bishop of
Worcester, was now deprived, a man whose learning, piety,
and gentleness were such that they are acknowledged even
by so prejudiced a writer as Burnet. Originally one of the
Reformers, he appears to have been alarmed at the out-
rageous lengths to which things were carried in the reign of
Edward VI., and to have felt a reformation based upon
plunder, sacrilege, and utter want of discipline and order
412 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
could not but be hopelessly wrong, and so he returned to
the Romish party in the Church. Why it was that Latimer,
who had been formerly Bishop of Worcester, was not re-
instated when Heath was deprived, does not appear; unless
his having formerly preached against the sin of sacrilege
may have made the ruling powers believe that he would not
be persuaded to alienate the revenues of the Church, as
Bishops Barlow and Hooper were willing to do. Certain it
is that Hooper was appointed to Worcester in co/nmendam
with Gloucester, but that he was not much the richer for
his double preferment.
One is thankful to turn from all this unfavourable retro-
spect to the latter years of Bishop Hooper. From the time
he really became a duly-appointed bishop of our Church he
seems to have risen to his position. He laboured diligently
in his two dioceses, and was rigid in the enforcement of
discipline. His piety and hospitality were equally marked,
and of his revenues he "pursed nothing; and in his palace
was a daily dinner for so many poor people in succession ;
and he exercised a special superintendence over schools."
On the death of the young king he refused to acquiesce
in the exaltation of Lady Jane Grey, and supported the
claims of Queen Mary. He was, however, sent for to
London, and, apparently principally on the excuse of his
marriage, he was treated with great rigour. He was im-
prisoned in the Fleet, and thrown into a loathsome dungeon,
which had a common sewer on one side and the Fleet Ditch
on the other ; and having no decent bedding till it was pro-
vided for him by sympathizing friends. x\fter remaining in
this place for seventeen months (where he became a martyr
JOHN HOOPER. 413
to sciatica), he was brought before the Queen in Council,
then taken to Winchester House, Bankside, and to St, Mary
Over>''s (now St. Saviour's) Church, in what is called the
Lady-chapel of which, Gardiner held his Consistory Court.
He went through the usual course of bullying and personal
abuse which was then denominated an ecclesiastical trial,
and was, of course, condemned. After being degraded by
Bonner, he was sentenced to be executed at Gloucester, his
own episcopal city. On his journey thither he was treated
by the populace with great compassion, but when a stoppage
was made at any place he passed his time in earnest devotion.
Sir Anthony Kingston, a former acquaintance, now one of
the commissioners to superintend his martyrdom, entered
his room while thus engaged. He looked at him earnestly,
and then burst into tears. He entreated him to recant,
urging him "that death is bitter, and life sweet." But
Hooper answered : " I thank you for your friendly counsel,
Master Kingston, though it is not quite so friendly as I
could have wished it. True it is, that death is bitter and life
is sweet ; but pray, consider, that the death to come is more
bitter, and the life to come more sweet."
Then Kingston, as he bade him farewell, bore a noble
testimony to the faithfulness and efficacy of the good bishop's
teaching. " Well then, my lord, I perceive that there is
no remedy, and therefore I will take leave of you ; thanking
God that ever I knew you ; for you were appointed to call
me, being a lost child. I have been both a fornicator and
an adulterer ; but by your good instructions God hath
brought me to forsake and detest these heinous iniquities."
Hooper was deeply moved by this testimony to the effect of
414 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
his ministry, and prayed earnestly that his visitor might con-
tinue to the end of his Hfe in habits worthy of a (Christian.
He was then yielded up to the municipal authorities of
Gloucester, who, though they received him affectionately and
respectfully, proposed to lodge him for the night in the
common gaol ; but the soldiers who had conveyed him
from London, and had been won by his mildness and
tractable behaviour, offered to be answerable for his security
for another night, rather than allow him to be deprived of
such comforts as his present lodgings afforded.
His martyrdom was lengthened and painful, but appa-
rently from ignorance and want of due precaution, rather
than malice. The wood was not dry, the bags of gunpowder
which were put about his person were wet. He bore all
with a patient and heroic courage ; his last act before the
fire was kindled being to join with all the spectators in the
Lord's Prayer. The voice of the people as they united in
prayer was interrupted by sobs and groans from every
quarter of the crowded area.
So died the sole Protestant martyr that Somerset yielded
to those cruel times. The moroseness and crotchety per-
verseness ^vhich characterized him in early days seem
entirely to have disappeared, and to have been succeeded
by a sweetness and stedfastness that it would be pre-
sumptuous to praise.
Authorities. — Foxe's Martyrs ; Dr; Hook's- Ecclesi-
astical Biography ; Mackenzie's Biographical Dic-
tionary ; Cunninghame's Lives of Celebrated
Englishmen ; Carwithen's History of the English
Church.
The PyvujLET3, Pawx.et3, or Pou
X.ETT3, OF Hl]MTO]M ^T. QeOI^QE.
(From 1500-1665.)
The Pawlet Hams on the Parret between Bridgewater and
the sea is the richest grazing ground in the county. Out of
it, hke islands, rise knolls scattered about : among these are
Brent Knoll and Pawlet. Here settled Hercules, lord of
Tournon in Picardy in the reign of Henry I., and took his
name from the place. From him was descended Sir John
Paulet, who died in 1378, leaving two sons; the elder, Sir
Thomas, being ancestor of the Earls Poulett. From the
younger brother were descended the ducal house of Bolton,
now extinct, and the Marquess of Winchester.
William Poulett, owner of this small lordship, was
knighted by Henry VI. for his gallantry in the French wars.
He married Elizabeth Deneband, heiress of Henton or
Hinton St. George, not far from Crewkerne. His son. Sir
Amyas Poulett, was knighted for his gallant behaviour at
the battle of Newark-upon-Trent, June 16, 1487. He
was High Sheriff of Somerset when Thomas Wolsey, the son
of the Ipswich butcher, was vicar and schoolmaster of
Limington, near Ilchester.'
' Not, as is often incorrectly stated, of Lymington in Hampshire.
41 6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The episode is a curious one, and consists of two scenes
or chapters. We will call the first —
THOMAS WOLSEY, VICAR OF LIMINGTON.
Wolsey had made his way at Oxford by his extraordinary
and early-developed abilities. At fifteen he took his degree
of Bachelor of Arts, and was distinguished at the university
by the title of the Boy Bachelor, He gained much reputa-
at the university by his skill in logic and philosophy, as well
as divinity. As to his knowledge in the latter, we are
told he acquired it by reading the works of St. Thomas
Aquinas.
He was elected Fellow of his college, and after taking his
degree of Master of Arts, was appointed master of the
school attached to the college of St. Mary Magdalen. At
this time the Marquis of Dorset had three sons at the
school, and he committed, not only their education, but the
entire charge of them to Wolsey. When they had been
some time under his tuition, the Marquis, sending for his
sons to keep Christmas with him, invited their tutor to
accompany them. Lord Dorset was so pleased with the
progress his sons had made, that at his departure he presented
him to the living of Limington, to which he was instituted
on the loth of October, 1500, being in the twenty-ninth year
of his age, at which time also he was bursar of Magdalen
College. Whilst at the university he is said to have cultivated
an acquaintance with Erasmus, and to have assisted much in
promoting the study of Greek.
Wolsey, having taken possession of his living, with the
energy natural to him, immediately set about repairing and
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETTS. 417
beautifying both his church and parsonage ; some of his
work in the former of which still remains. The initials of
his name can still be traced in the windows.
An incident, however, happened which made his position
there very disagreeable to him. It appears that Wolsey,
away from the restraints and etiquette of university life,
joined more than was wise or dignified in the amusements
of his parishioners. One day while taking part in some
junketings at a fair, he was overcome by the strong Somer-
setshire cider, and occasioned some disturbance. Sir Amyas
Poulett, who probably had the strong Puritan bias which
was shown afterwards so decidedly by his grandson and
namesake, was perhaps not averse to the humiliation of a
tripping priest, and actually had him placed in the stocks at
Ilchester ^ on a market day, a butt for the coarse ridicule of
the common peo])le.
After this we may suppose that Limington and its neigh-
bourhood was not a pleasant place for Wolsey's residence,
and so we find him not long after chaplain in the palace of
Henry Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Wolsey's personal connection with Somerset then ceased,
till it was renewed by his holding Bath and Wells in coi/i-
mendam with several others.^ But not so his connection
with Sir Amyas Poulett, who was made to know that the
' Lopen is said by some to have been the place where Wolsey was
placed in the stocks.
- Nor is Wolsey necessarily to be blamed as a pluralist. I le was quite
in favour of moderate reforms, and among other things wished for a
redistribution of dioceses, and to utilize some of the monastic funds in
creating new sees. But his great schemes were put an end to by his
arrest and death.
28
4l8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
man he had so humiliated was not generous enough to
forego his revenge for the insult and disgrace to which he
had been subjected, when he had the opportunity of re-
taliating.
CARDINAL WOLSEY AND SIR AMYAS
POULETT.
Surrounded as he now was with pomp and dignity, the
Cardinal Archbishop (of York) and Chancellor still remem-
bered the affront that had been offered to the humble Vicar
of Limington. He sent for Sir Amyas, and after a "severe
expostulation " with him concerning the treatment which he
had formerly received at his hands, he strictly enjoined him
not to go out of town without his special license. For five or
six years the knight was confined to the Temple, when he
sought to mitigate Wolsey's resentment by adorning the
gate-house next to the street with his arms, his hat, and other
badges of distinction proper to him as cardinal. Whether
this had the effect of pacifying the irate archbishop we cannot
tell, but Sir Amyas was at last discharged. The whole affair
seems to have been utterly arbitrary and illegal ; but in those
days of reckless shedding of blood Wolsey probably not
only thought himself, but actually was, merciful in his ven-
geance.
It seems to have been this Sir Amyas Poulett who built
Kinton House, and had every external stone fashioned in
the shape of a nail's head, and at the same time built the
wall which surrounds the fine park. Tradition says that it
was done to provide work for the poor during an excep-
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETTS. 419
tionally cold season. He was succeeded by his grandson,
who is chiefly remembered as the gaoler of Mary Stuart.
He was at one time ambassador in Paris, and in his train
went, as a youth, Francis Bacon.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND SIR AMYAS
POULETT.
When at Mary's own most earnest desire she was removed
from the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury, she was for a
time placed under the gentle care of Sir Ralph Sadler. Flis
indulgence being known, Elizabeth sought a man of a
severe and inflexible temper, and him she found in Sir
Amyas Poulett.' His first act was to remove the canopy
which signified her royal state, and the rest of his treatment
of her corresponded to this.
But Sir Amyas Poulett, in spite of his being a stern
Puritan, and thinking that Mary — for her real or supposed
delinquencies, as a member of the Romish Church, a
faithless wife if not a murderess — deserved severe treat-
ment, was above all a Christian and a gentleman ; and there
are not many more noble things in English history than his
' Sir Amyas had been for some years governor of Jersey, and still
held the office when he accepted the appointment of gaoler to Queen
Mary. A letter of his is extant written in 1576 to the Lord Chamberlain,
which curiously exemplifies the irregular communication that existed
between England and her very nearest possessions before the use of
steam. He writes concerning some red-legged partridges for which the
Lord Chamberlain had asked, and states that his servant had lain by
the waterside for ten weeks without being able to pass. .Sir Amyas
sent two dozen partridges at this time to the Lord Admiral and the
Earl of Leicester.
42 O MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
reply to "\\'a]singham and Davidson's shameful letter to him
and to Sir Drue Drury.
The two letters which are subjoined show both the
crooked policy of Elizabeth and Walsingham, and the noble
truth of this gentleman of Somerset.
Wahinghatn arid Davison to
Sir Amias Pan let and Sir Drue Drury.
February i, 15 86- 7.
"After our hearty commendations, we find by a speech
lately made by her Majesty that she doth note in you both
a lack of that care and zeal for her service that she looked
for at your hands, in that you have not, in all this time (of
yourselves, without other provocation), found out some way
of shortening the Hfe of the Scots' Queen, considering the
great peril she is hourly subject to, as long as the said
Queen shall live; wherein, besides a kind of lack of love
toward her, she wonders greatly that you have not that care
of your own particular safeties, or rather the preservation of
religion and the public good and prosperity of your country,
that reason and policy commandeth, especially having so
good warrant and ground for the satisfaction of your con-
science towards God, and the discharge of your credit and
reputation, which you have both so solemnly taken and
vowed, especially the matter wherewith she standeth charged
being so clearly and manifestly proved against her.
" And therefore she taketh it most unkindly that men,
professing that love towards her that you do, should in a
kind of sort, for lack of discharging your duties, cast the
burden upon her, knowing, as you do, her indisposition to
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETTS. 42 1
shed blood, especially of one of that sex and quality, and so
near her in blood as that Queen is.
"These respects we find do greatly trouble her Majesty,
who, we assure you, hath sundry times protested, that if the
regard of the danger of her good subjects and faithful
servants did not more move her than her own peril, she
■would never be drawn to the shedding of blood.
" We thought it meet to acquaint you with these speeches,
lately passed from her Majesty, referring the same to your
good judgments. And so we commit you to the protection
of the Almighty.
" Your most assured friends,
" Fra Walsingham.
"Will. Davison."
The answer to this precious document is in a different
strain. It is as follows : —
Sir Amias Paidet to Secretary Walsmgham.
" Sir, — Your letters of yesterday coming to my hands
this present day, at five post meridian, I would not fail,
according to your direction, to return my answer with all
possible speed, which I shall deliver to you with great grief
and bitterness of mind, in that I am so unhappy, as living
to see this unhappy day, in which I am required by direc-
tions from my most gracious sovereign to do an act which
God and the law forbiddeth.
"My goods and my life are at her Majesty's disposition,
and I am ready to lose them the next morrow if it shall
please her, acknowledging that I do hold them as of her
422 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
mere and most gracious favour, and do not desire to enjoy
them but with her Highness's good liking. But God forbid
I should make so foul a shipwreck of my conscience, or
leave so great a blot to my poor posterity as to shed blood
without law or warrant.
" Trusting that her Majesty of her accustomed clemency^
and the rather by your good mediation, will take my answer
in good part, as proceeding from one who never will be
inferior to any Christian subject living in honour, love, and
obedience towards his sovereign, and thus I commit you ta
the mercy of the Almighty.
" Your most assured poor friend,
" A. POWLET.
'■^ From Fotheringay, the 2nd of February, 1586-7.
"P.S. — Your letters coming in the plural number seem
to be meant to Sir Drue Drury as to myself, and yet because
he is not named in them, neither the letter directed unto
him, he forbeareth to make any particular answer, but sub-
scribeth in heart to my opinion. D. Drury."
It had been well for Davison had he followed the high-
minded example of Sir Amias Poulett, but though, like
Hubert, he could say,
" Here is your hand and seal for what I did,"
his readiness to oblige his mistress ruined him, and he
proved an exception to our Lord's maxim that " The children
. of this world are in their generation wiser than the children
of light."
From Grainger's " Biographical History " we get this
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETTS. 423
further and more particular account of Sir Amias Poulett.
He was descended from an ancient family in Picardy. In
the 13th year of Queen Elizabeth he succeeded his father,
Sir Hugh Poulett, in the government of the island of Jersey;
and in the iSth year of the same reign was appointed
ambassador to the court of France, which high office he
discharged to the entire satisfaction of his royal mistress,
who expressed her approbation of his conduct in a letter
which she wrote to him from Greenwich, October 22,
1579, He lived upon terms of great intimacy and friend-
ship with all the statesmen of his own period, and with
many of the principal nobility of Elizabeth's court, several
of whom in their private epistles to him have left ample
testimonies of their esteem for his private worth, as well as
of their approbation of his public conduct. In the 27th
year of Elizabeth the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots was
committed to his care; which painful office he discharged
with the strictest honour and integrity.
In the 29th year of Elizabeth, Sir Amias was still in
possession of the government, a member of the privy
council, ciistos rotuloriwi of the county of Somerset, and
one of the commissioners for the trial of the Queen of Scots.
The year following, on the eve of St. George, he was sworn,
at Greenwich, chancellor of the most noble Order of the
Garter.
He married Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Anthony
Hervey, of Columb John, in the county of Devon, Esq., by
whom he had three sons and three daughters. He died in
the year 15SS, and was buried on the north side of the
chancel in the church of St. INIartin-in-the-Fields, London,
424 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
where a handsome monument was erected to his memory,
with his effigies carved in full length, lying in armour ; but
when that church was taken down and rebuilt, this monu-
ment was refused a place in it : upon which John, first Earl
Poulett, caused it to be removed with his body into the
church of Hinton St. George, where the latter was deposited
in the vault of his ancestors. Several inscriptions appear on
this monument — one, written in the old French language,
exhibits his character in the most amiable colours ; the
Latin one is highly illustrative of his public and private
faith, in allusion to his motto, '■'■ Gardez lafoi;^' and another,
of four lines, over which are the initials of Queen Elizabeth,
is an honourable testimony of that princess's friendship for
him.
His eldest son. Sir Anthony Poulett, was, like his father
and grandfather, governor of Jersey ; and Iiis eldest son,
John Poulett, received King Charles the First, in 1625, in a
royal progress made in the western counties, when, on the
14th of September, he slept at Hinton House. He was
raised to the peerage in 1627 by the title of Baron Poulett
of Hinton St. George. He took up arms in the royal cause,
and was an active commander in the civil war. He married
Elizabeth Ken, daughter and co-heiress of Christopher
Ken, Esq., of Ken Court, in Somerset, thus allying himself
to the family from which the saintly Bishop Ken was de-
scended. By this marriage the Ken estate passed into
the family of the Pouletts ; William Ken, the immediate
ancestor of the good bishop, being probably uncle to Lady
Poulett.
Fuller dedicated his "History of the Holy Warse" to the
THE PAULETS, PAWLETS, OR POULETS. 425
Hon. Edward Montague and Sir John Powlett, 163S. This
must have been the second Lord Poulett, son of the above.
The fourth John Lord Poulett was apparently in great
favour at court in the time of Queen Anne. He was one
of the commissioners for the union of Scotland with Eng-
land. In the year 1706 he was created Viscount Hinton
of Hinton St. George and Earl Poulett. The queen was
godmother to one of his sons, and gave him her own
name. Lord Anne Poulett was member for Bridgewater,
and presented to the church of St Mary Magdalen, as an
altar-piece, a descent from the Cross, taken in a prize during
the French war.
A great part of the old family pictures belonging to
Hinton House passed, in some mysterious way, into the
hands of Lord Clarendon ; who, after the Restoration, sold
the protection which he offered to those who had been on
the side of the Puritans for the spoil of their finest works
of art. '
Lord Dartmouth says that Clarendon "undertook the
protection of those who had plundered and sequestered
others under the Commonwealth, and that in this way the
property of the Cavaliers passed into his hands, while the
right owners durst not claim them when they were in his
possession. In my own remembrance," he says, "Earl
Poulett was an humble petitioner to his sons, for leave to
take a copy of his grandfather's and grandmother's pictures
(whole lengths, drawn by Vandyke), that had been plundered
from Hinton St. George : which was obtained with great
difficulty, because it was thought that copies might lessen
' Cunninsjhame's " Lives of Eminent Encjlishmen."
426 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the value of the originals." It is a grievous stain to remain
on the character of such a man.^
When Monmouth's rebellion took place, Earl Poulett was
a minor. Apparently the family took no part on either
side ; at any rate, they were not troubled in the evil days
that followed.
The late Earl Poulett's three sons all died in his lifetime.
The two elder sons, John and Vere, bore successively the
title of Lord Hinton • the youngest, Amyas, an officer in
the guards, succumbed to the cold and privations of the
winter campaign in the Crimean war ; and the property and
title have passed to a cousin.
Authorities. — Burke's Peerage ; Cunninghame's Lives ;.
Grainger's Biography ; Fuller's Worthies ; Murray's
Somerset ; Miss Strickland's Life of Queen Eliza-
beth ; Life of Cardinal Wolsey ; CoUinson's Somerset;
&c., &c.
' Lady Theresa Lewis, in her " Lives of the Friends and Contem-
poraries of Lord Clarendon," does her best to exonerate her great
ancestor from the obloquy which has fallen upon him for these acts ;
and with some success. Lord Clarendon desired to form a gallery
of portraits of his contemporaries. This being known, all who wished
to propitiate hastened to offer him what he required. Moreover, many
of the Cavaliers had lost all their fortunes, and on their return had io-
sell even the portraits of tlieir ancestors.
I^ICH/RD EoVv^ARDEg.
(A.D. 1523-1566.)
■:o:-
Two years after Shakespeare was born, died one of those
early dramatists and poets who preceded him, and in some
degree prepared the way for him. Though one star died out
of the firmament as another rose, Ehzabeth's long reign
included both, and she was in some sort the patron of each.
Richard Edwardes was a native of Somerset, but what was
the exact place of his birth does not appear to be known.
He must — one would suppose — have had birth, money, and
friends able and willing to assist him, for he was educated at
Oxford, being a scholar of Corpus Christi College and also
senior student at Christ Church, then only recently founded;
yet it is said that in early life he was in some department
about the court. It seems probable, then, that he must
have been in some way brought under the notice of
Cardinal Wolsey (whose connection with Somerset as ^'icar
of Limington, and afterwards Bishop of Bath and ^^'ells,
was spread over some years) ; and that, after being at
Corpus, he was given some place about the court, where
he attracted royal or ecclesiastical favour, and was then
428 MYTHS, SCENES, AKD WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
presented with a studentship at Wolsey's new foundation —
but this is mere conjecture.
In one of the very earliest collections of miscellaneous
poems in our language, " The Paradise of Dainty Devices,"
several of Edwardes' poems are to be found ; and in the
British Museum is a small set of his poems, signed with his
initials, addressed to some of the beauties of the court of
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He became a member
of Lincoln's Inn, but was in the year 1561 constituted
a gentleman of the Chapel Royal by Queen Elizabeth, and
master of the singing boys there ; he having studied music
at Oxford under George Etheridge. It was customary in
those days for the choir boys to act plays before the court,
and he wrote several dramas for them. Of these we have
now only the names of two, Palamon and Arcite and Damon
and Pythias. "The latter was acted in 1564, but was
probably written somewhat earlier. It is a tragi-comedy
written in rhyme, and is full of all kinds of dramatic im-
proprieties and absurdities, but contains some sweet and
fanciful, though conceited poetry. Altogether it is a fair
production for the time, and may be regarded as one step
towards the perfection of the regular drama." ^ It was a
great favourite at court.
His other play, Palamon and Arcite, written to enter-
tain Elizabeth on a visit to Christ Church, Oxford, in
1566, was still more admired. Miss Strickland, in her "Life
of Queen Elizabeth," gives a most lively description of her
visit to Oxford to honour the Chancellor of the University —
' Introduction to "The Origin and Early History of the British
Drama.'
RICHARD EDWARDES. 429
her favourite, Leicester. There is also an account of the
performance of the play. It was divided into two parts,
the first half being performed on the 2nd of September, and
the last part on the 4th. At the first performance so great
was the crush that, in Stowe's quaint account, it "had such
tragical success as was lamentable, three persons being
killed by the fall of a wall and part of the staircase, on
account of the over-pressure of the crowd : which the
queen understanding was much concerned, and sent her
own surgeons to help those who were now past remedy."
When the performance was over, the queen sent for
Edwardes ; spoke warmly of the gratification which the
piece had given her; and not only thanked him for the
pleasure she had received, but gave promises of more sub-
stantial reward : "and, before her whole court, condescended
to prattle of the characters which had given her two nights'
entertainment in the hall. ' By Palamon,' said her Majesty,
'I warrant he dallied not in love, being in love indeed.
By Arcite, he was a right martial knight, having a swart
countenance and a manly face. By Trecotio, God's pity,
what a knave it is ! By Pirithous, his throwing St. Edward's
rich cloak into the funeral fire, which a stander by would
have stayed by the arm with an oath.' " ^
This circumstance appears to have amused Elizabeth ex-
ceedingly. She probably detected the absurdity of a pagan
knight of the court of Theseus being in possession of the
cloak of the royal Saxon saint. In those days it was not
considered decorous for women to act, and the part of the
fair Emilia was taken by a boy of fourteen, who was arrayed
' Anthony A. Wood.
43° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
in a dress which had belonged to the late Queen Mary ;
and in the wardrobe books of Elizabeth it appears that part
of this dress was abstracted : " at what time there was lost
one fore quarter of a gown, without sleeves, of purple velvet
with satin ground." Probably Queen Elizabeth had not been
acquainted with this fact when she made the unprecedently
generous gift of eight pounds in gold to this youth.
This probably was the proudest day of Edwardes' life.
He did not live long enough to test the value of Elizabeth's
promises, for in two months his earthly career had closed.
Twine designates Edwardes as "The flower of our realme
and Phoenix of our age," and refers to his plays as "full fit
for Princes' ears."
Puttenham also gives the palm to Edwardes for comedy
and interlude, for he was a contriver of masques and a
composer of music and poetry. " In a word," says Warton,
" he united all those arts and accomplishments which
minister to popular pleasantry. He was the first fiddle,
the most fashionable sonnetier, the readiest rhymer, and the
most fashionable mimic of the court; and his popularity
seems to have arisen from those pleasing arts, of which no
specimens could be transmitted to posterity, but which
influenced his contemporaries in his favour."
Edwardes is known to musicians by the charming part
song, " In going to my lonely bed." Many others of his
part songs and anthems are preserved in the music book of
Thomas Mulliner, an inedited MS. in the possession of Dr.
Rimbault, member of the Royal Academy of Music in
Stockholm, and musical examiner to the Royal College
of Preceptors, London. In Harrington's " Nugce Antiquae "
RICHARD EDWARDES. 43 I
are some verses of Edwardes' on seven ' maids of honour
of the queen. We subjoin this as a specimen of the vers dc
societe of those days : —
I.
" Howard is not haughty,
But of such smiling cheer,
That would allure each gentle heart
Her love to hold full dear.
II.
Dacres is not dangerous,
Her talk is nothing coy ;
Her noble stature may compare
With Hector's wife of Troy.
III.
Baynam is as beautiful
As nature can devise :
Steadfastness posses her heart.
And chastity her eyes.
IV.
Arundel is ancient
In these her tender years ;
In heart, in voice, in talk, in deeds,
A matron wise appears.
V.
Dormer is a darling
Of such a lively hue,
That whoso feeds his eyes on her
May soon her beauty rue.
VI.
Coke is comely, and thereto
In books sets all her care ;
In learning with the Roman dames
Of right she may compare.
' Strangely, each authority says eight ; but though there are eight
stanzas, the last is simply a summing up of the whole.
432 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
VII.
Bridges is a blessed wight,
And prayeth with heart and voice,
Which from her cradle has been taught
In virtue to rejoice.
VIII.
These eight (?) now serve one noble Queen ;
But if powers were in me.
For beauty's praise and virtue's sake
Each one a Queen should be."
Authorities. — Harrington's Nugoe Antiquje; Miss Strick-
land's Lives of the Queens ; Mackenzie's Universal
Biography ; British Dramatists ; Keltic ; &c.
I_(ORD CniEf Justice Pophajvi.
(1531-1607.)
-.•0.--
SiR John Poph.\m was born at Wellington, in Somerset, ih-
the year 1531, the same place from which the great duke
took his title. He was of gentle blood, being younger son
of a family which dated from Saxon times, but had for many
generations been entitled to bear arms, and which had been ..
settled in a small estate at Huntworth, in the same county..
While a child he was stolen by gipsies, and remained with r
them some months. He was branded by them with some
cabalistic mark, which he carried with him to his grave ; but
his constitution, which before was sickly, was strengthened
by the wandering life he led, and he grew up a man of extra-
ordinary stature and activity of body.
When of sufficient age he was sent to Baliol College,
Oxford. Here he was studious, and well beloved. He laid
in a good stock of classical learning and of dogmatic divinity ;
but when removed to the Middle Temple he got into bad
company, and utterly neglected his judicial studies. When
asked by a friend to go to Westminster Hall to hear a case
argued by great lawyers, he declared that " he was going
29
434 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
where he would see disputants whom he honoured more — to
a bear-baituig in Alsatia." But his superabundant animal
energy was not content with the ordinary haunts of dissi-
pation ; for it appears, on undoubted testimony, that he
frequently sallied forth at night from a hostel in Southwark
with a band of desperate characters, and, placing themselves
in ambush on Shooter's Hill, they stopped travellers, and
took from them not only their money, but any valuable
commodities they carried with them, boasting that they were
always civil and generous. It must be remembered that this
calling was by no means so discreditable as it became after-
wards. As late as during Popham's youth there was a
statute made by which, on a first conviction of robbery, a
peer of the realm or lord of parliament was entitled to
benefit of clergy, though he could not read. The extraordi-
nary and almost incredible circumstance is that Popham
continued these courses after he had been called to the bar,
and when, being of mature age, he was respectably married.
A sudden change was at last wrought by his wife's unhappi-
ness and the birth of his child.
Aubrey tells us how he spoke to his wife to provide a good
entertainment for his comrades, to take leave of them, and
after that day fell extremely hard to his studies, and profited
exceedingly. One cannot help believing that Shakespeare's
account of Prince Hal's (afterwards Henry V.) irregularities,
which are known to have been grossly exaggerated, if not
wholly imaginary, may have been taken from Sir John
Popham's career, which was actually being enacted in
Southwark about the same time that Shakespeare was
writing and acting there.
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE POPHAM. 435
How he contrived to redeem the time so lost we cannot
even conjecture, but certain it is that he became a consum-
mate lawyer, and was allowed to be so by Coke, who sneered
at all his contemporaries.
At first, probably to avoid all chance of meeting his old
associates, he took entirely to the civil practice. At the feast
he gave when he became Serjeant Popham he produced
some rare old Gascony wine, which the wags reported was
intercepted one night as it was coming from Southampton,
and destined for the cellar of an alderman.
His credit so increased, that Elizabeth wished he should
enter her service. Accordingly, when Sir Thomas Bromley
was promoted to be lord chancellor, Popham succeeded him
as solicitor-general. By the blue book returns of the members
who have served in parliament it appears that in 1572 he sat
for the city of Bristol, being recorder of that city, and in
1 58 1 (so says Lord Campbell) he was appointed Speaker.'
He must have been appointed, therefore, in the course of
the parliament which had by that time sat nine years. When
he appeared before the queen for the approval of the nation's
choice, and to demand liberty of speech for the Commons
and their ancient privileges, she gave him an admonition
" to see to it, that they did not deal or intermeddle with any
matters touching her person or estate, or Church or Govern-
ment ! "
' It is rather curious that in 1449 there was also a Sir John Popham
Speaker of the House of Commons. He was member for the county
of Southampton (Hampshire). But apparently he did not hold the
dignity for long, as he pleaded old age and infirmity, and the excuse
was admitted. Whether he was one of the Somersetshire Pophams I do
not know.
436 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The first motion made, after Popham was appointed
Speaker, was for a public fast, "so that with the service
and worship of God they might prosper in their consulta-
tions." The motion was carried by a majority of one
hundred and fifteen to one hundred. The queen was
highly incensed at this, which she considered an encroach-
ment on her prerogative as " head of the Church," and
rated Popham soundly for presuming to put the question.
Serjeant Popham was possessed of the subtle and indefinable
gift of humour, if the following story, which is found in
" The Mirror," be true :— During a barren session of parlia-
ment he was summoned one day by the queen, who said to
him: "Now, Mr. Speaker, what has passed in the house?"
He answered : "May it please your majesty, eleven weeks."
At the end of the session of 1581 he prays the queen to have
a vigilant and provident care of her safety against the mali-
cious attempts of mighty foreign enemies abroad and the
traitorous practices of most unnatural, disobedient subjects
at home.
This was Popham's last speech in the House. He soon
succeeded to the office of attorney-general, and conducted
the State trials, notably those of Babington's conspiracy. He
was present at the trial of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotherin-
gay, though he took no part ; again also in the case of the
unfortunate Secretary Davison.
He was at last raised to the office of lord chief justice.
During the mad attempt of Essex, his life was in some danger,
and for a time it was saved by Essex himself, who rescued
him and the lord keeper from the mob, and locked them up
in a dungeon. When offered his liberty on condition that
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE POPHAM. 437
the lord keeper be left behind, he refused, and remained till
they were both set free at the news of Essex's failure. At
the trial he did his best for Essex, and recommended a
pardon, which would have been given had the ring come to
light.
On the death of Elizabeth, Sir John Popham at once
acknowledged James I. as her lawful heir. In the begin-
ning of the new reign he had to take exemplary vengeance
on thieves and others. He presided at the trial of Sir Walter
Raleigh, and endeavoured to moderate the fierce coarseness
of Coke. Guy Fawkes also was tried before him. His last
appearance on a trial of any importance was at that of
Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits.
He died en the ist of June, 1607, in the seventy-second
year of his age. According to the directions in his will,
he was buried at Wellington, and in the church there is
a fine monument to his memory. He is represented, with
his wife by his side, in a judge's dress of the period. He
is stated to have been a benefactor to the town.
Sir John Popham published a volume of reports of his
decisions while chief justice. It was originally written in
French.
Authorities. — Principally Lord Campbell's Lives of the
Chief Justices.
The J-{A3t Day3 of Qla^tonbury.
(Abbot Whiting, I534-I539-)
-:o:-
" O three times favoured isle, where is that place that might
Be with thyself compared for glory and delight,
Whilst Glastonbury stood ? exalted to that pride,
WTiose monastery seem'd all other to deride.
O who thy ruin sees, whom wonder doth not fill
With our great fathers' pomp, devotion, and their skill ?
Thou more than mortal power (this judgment rightly weigh'd)
Then present to assist, at this foundation lay'd,
On whom for this sad waste should justice lay the crime ?
Is there a power in fate, or doth it yield to time ?
Or was their error such, that thou could'st not protect
Those buildings which thy hand did with their zeal erect ?
To whom didst thou commit that monument to keep,
That suffereth with the dead their memory to sleep ?
When not great Arthur's tomb, nor holy Joseph's grave.
From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save ;
He who that God in man to his sepulchre brought.
Or he which for the faith twelve famous battles fought.
WTiat, did so many kings do honour to that place.
For avarice at last so vilely to deface ?
For reverence, to that seat which had ascribed been,
Trees yet in winter bloom, and bear their summer's green ? "
Drayton's Polyolbion.
Sketches of events that have occurred at, or of persons
connected with, Glastonbury are scattered through our pages :
the legends of Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur ; its
foundation as a monastery by King Ina ; again, the
legendary history of St. Neot and King Alfred ; its fame
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 439
in the days of Dunstan and King Edgar; the tyrannical
rule of Thurstan, with its magnificent revival in the days
of Henry of Blois ; the finding of Arthur, and the visit of
Edward I., have all been recounted or alluded to. No
connected history has been attempted, but the great work it
did may be understood by the fact that seven Archbishops
of Canterbury — some say eight— and twenty-one bishops
were drawn from that monastery alone in Saxon times. To
give an exhaustive history of Glastonbury would require a
volume, perhaps volumes. It has been only attempted to
describe some of the most picturesque incidents connected
with it.
Passing over much of interesting matter, then, we come to
its "last days." One consolation there is — it fell not ignobly.
The last abbot was worthy of his high position. He fell, it
may have been, because of the sins of other societies ; but
even its bitterest enemies could find in Glastonbury " no
fault at all." It fell a victim to the ruthless tyranny, the
greedy avarice, the insatiable grasping, of "Bluff King Hal."
It is a matter of congratulation that his line expired with his
children. But for Abbot Whiting, his record is pure, his
memory unsullied. He was a worthy successor of the most
illustrious of his predecessors, and sooner than betray his
trust, he yielded himself a victim to the tyrant, willing to be
called a traitor rather than to be one.
It was in 1533 tliat Henry VIII. gave to his chaplain,
John Leland, fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford, the office
and title of Antiquary Royal. He was the first that bore it,
and the last. By virtue of the Royal Commission under
which he acted, he visited the libraries and chapter-houses
440 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
of cathedrals and monasteries, searching for records and
curious pieces of antiquity. Did he know what he was
doing, or to what he was leading the way ? Even if, as is
probable, he had no guess of the king's intentions, he was
not guiltless ; for he himself began the work of spoliation.
Finding in Bath Abbey a valuable work on papal synods, he
transferred it to the royal library. Of Wells he speaks with
enthusiasm, of " the splendour of the library, and the im-
mense treasures of venerable antiquity which it contained;"
but of Glastonbury he writes even more enthusiastically.
■" Some years ago," he says, " I was at Glastonbury, where is
an abbey at once the most ancient and the most famous in
-all our island, and by the favour of Richard Whiting, abbot
• of the place, refreshed my mind after its fatigue from long
and laborious studies, till some new ardour for reading and
learning should inflame me. This ardour came sooner than
I expected. I therefore went immediately to the library,
which was not accessible to everybody, that there I might
carefully turn over those remains of very sacred antiquity
which are there in such numbers as are hardly to be found
elsewhere in Britain. But scarcely had I entered the room,
when even the view alone of the very ancient books threw
a religious awe over my mind, or rather raised up a wild
astonishment in it ; and I therefore stopped short awhile.
Then, after a salutation to the genius of the room, for some
days I ransacked the shelves with great curiosity." '
' Whitaker, quoting this passage in his history of the cathedral of
Cornwall, adds : " This is the finest compliment that ever yet was paid
to a library by a man of genius and learning, nor could either the
Bodleian or the Vatican ever receive a finer than what is thus paid to a
library merely monastic. "
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 44 1
How far, as we before said, Leland's mission was intended
by the king to serve as an inventory of the priceless treasures
contained in the abbeys and monasteries, how far Leland
himself was aware of the spoliation contemplated, can never
be known ; but thus much we do know, that, worn out, as
it was said, by toil and study, but, to my mind, far more
likely, horrified at the sacrilege and destruction to which he
had been, as it may be hoped, an unconscious accessory,
"he was seized with a phrenzy," in which state he continued
to his death in 1552.
It was in 1533 that Leland received his commission. His
tour of inspection took six years, and so eager was the tyrant
for the spoil, that in 1539, the very year it was completed,
the crash came. The destruction of the lesser monasteries
had but whetted the tyrant's appetite for more ; and with his
avarice grew his cruelty, and, like the heathen Danes, he
demanded "gold or blood." He had both. There is no
need to palliate the errors and disorders that had crept into
religious houses. A searching reform was no doubt required ;
such corruption is inherent in all human institutions. But
all the best authorities are agreed that the state of the
monasteries was grossly exaggerated. Yet this fact — I mean
the shameless falsification and wholesale fabrication in the
reports — makes it the more extraordinary that with regard to
Glastonbury the king's commissioners could find no word of
blame to utter.
The buildings of Glastonbury Abbey were at this time (in
the year 1539) in their full beauty and perfection. Abbot after
abbot had lavished sums on its adornment and improvement ;
each one endeavoured to impress some new feature upon it.
442 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
that his name might be associated with its magnificence. In
1234 we read of Michael of Ambresbury, who left the
monastery clear of debt and the land well tilled ; of John
of Taunton (1274), who entertained King Edward and
Queen Eleanor at his own expense. He built many fioble
structures, gave books to the library and vestments to the
Church. John de Kancia, or Kent (1291), bestowed many
rich vessels and vestments upon the Church of Glastonbury.
Geoffrey Fromond, 1303 : in his time the Magna Ecclesia,
begun one hundred and thirteen years before, was dedicated ;
he gave an immense number of ornaments to it. Walter de
Taunton gave the choir screen, and set up the rood wdth the
figure of our Lord upon it and Mary and John on each side.
He also, among other rich presents, gave books to the library.
Adam de Sodbury (1322) vaulted nearly all the nave, and
ornamented it with splendid painting. He gave the great
clock, which was constructed by Peter Lightfoot, a monk,
formerly kept since the destruction of the abbey in Wells
Cathedral, now transferred to the Kensington Museum, the
oldest clock that exists in Europe ; also organs of wondrous
magnitude. He cast eleven great bells, six of which he hung
in the church tower. He endowed the Lady-chapel with
four additional priests. John Brunton built a beautiful hall,
with kitchen and other edifices. He finished the abbot's
great hall at the expense of ;^iooo. He began the abbot's
chapel, having provided glass and timber for it. He raised
the foundation of the long gallery adjoining the abbot's
apartments, &c. Abbot Walter Monington (1341) vaulted
the choir and presbytery, besides lengthening the latter by
two arches. John Chinnock (1374) finished what his prede-
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 443
cessors had begun : built the cloister, dormitory, and chapter-
house begun by Abbot Fromond.
We are drawing near the end. Abbot Beere (1494) was
the last abbot but one. Leland tells us how " he buildid
Edgare's Chapel at the east end of the Chirch — but Abbot
Whyting performed some part of it, Bere Archid on bothe
sides of the est part of the Chirch that began to cast out.
Bere made the Volte o' the Staple in the Transepte, and
under 2 Arches like St. Andres crosse els it had fallen.'
Bere made a rich Altare of sylver and gilt, and set it up
before the high Altare. Bere, cumming out of his Ambas-
sadrie out of Italic, made a chapel of our Lady of Loretto,
joining to the north side of the body of the Church. He
made the Chapelle of the Sepulchre in the south end IMavis
Eccl : whereby he is buried sub marmore yn the south Aisle
of the bodies of the Church."
The nave of the Great Church, from St. Joseph's (or St.
Mary's) Chapel to the cross, was 220 feet long; the choir
155 feet long ; each transept 45 feet long; the tower 45 feet
in breadth. Under the body of the church were three large
vaults, supported by two rows of massive pillars, in which
lay entombed the remains of the most illustrious personages.
But linger as one may with a sort of pious dread of
arriving at the ruthless act which was to put a final close to
all this loving rivalry in good works, it can no longer be
delayed. Henry had scattered to the winds the hoards that
his father had accumulated, and in the dissolution of the
monasteries he saw a means of replenishing his empty
' These arches would be similar to the inverted arches at Wells, which
are said to form a St. Andrew's cross.
444 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
coffers ; and Glastonbury, in spite of its sacred associations,
dating back to the time when our Lord had only just
quitted the earth, and connected as it was with the solemn
event of His death and burial by the sacred legend of
Avalon, Glastonbury was specially doomed on account of
its great wealth, in spite of the good work of education
carried on down to its last moments, in spite also of the
kings and princes, bishops and warriors, who were there
entombed, making it at once the Eton and the Westminster
Abbey of early mediaeval times.
It was in 1524 that Abbot Beere died, and the monastic
chapter, whether to propitiate the great minister, or, it may
be, because they were unable to agree among themselves,
or whatever may have been the reason, agreed to place
the election of their new head in the hands of Cardinal
Wolsey. One of the most cherished privileges of the abbey
was that their abbot should always be elected from their
own body ; nor did Wolsey depart from this custom. Those
with whom the election lay met at York House (the
Cardinal's town house) on the 23rd of March, a.d. 1524,
and he there selected their camerarius, or chamberlain,
Richard Whiting, and the election was inmnediately con-
firmed by the chapter. He was probably, being a mitred
abbot, consecrated by Wolsey in London, and then returned
with all ecclesiastical pomp to Glastonbury.
Let us endeavour to recall in imagination the day of
Abbot Whiting's return to the home of so many years, of
which he was now father and chief It was in the sweet
spring-time of the year 1524. He travelled, we may sup-
pose, as became his state, with a gallant cavalcade, and was
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 445
hospitably and honourably received and welcomed at the
various abbeys and religious houses where they made pauses
for rest and refreshment. As he neared his native county
he would see the orchards in their first flush of beauty, with
their delicate pink and white blossoms, while the hedges
were glowing with the lovely tints of the fair spring flowers,
the primrose and the violet and the wild anemone, with a
snowdrop lingering here and there, and now and then a
wild hyacinth or bluebell peeping forth in a sunny corner.
Lovely as the Somerset lanes are at all seasons of the year,
at no time are they so charming as in the early spring. As
the foremost horseman's feet touched the remotest confines
of the widespread abbey lands, the watcher from the
nearest village church which owned the abbot's sway pro-
claimed the fact, and out burst the joyous peal; steeple
after steeple caught up the strain, till the joyful clamour
reached the abbey itself, and then Adam de Sodbury's
glorious peal burst forth to give their glad welcome, and as
their musical chime rose and fell on the breeze, the tenants
and retainers of the abbey came forth to welcome their new
lord abbot, and swell the train as the procession passed on.
No sooner did he enter the home farm, or precincts, than
his monks — no longer fatherless — were ready with their
joyous greeting to receive him with filial love and respect;
and as, first of all, he passed to the glorious Magna Ecclesia,
entering through the grand Galilee or porch of St. Joseph's
Chapel, to give thanks and praise, he was met by the white-
robed choir. As the feet of the youngest chorister touched
the threshold, the bells stopped their joyful clamour, and
the pealing organ took up the strain, while the sweet treble
446 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
voices of the boys, strengthened by the deeper notes of the
monks, poured forth the exultant psalm. It may have been
the Levavi oailos^ they sang, or the Lcetatus sutn,^ or
the Laudate notnen,^ as, passing on, up through the im-
mense length of 580 feet, he was installed in his abbot's
chair. Then, by the whole vast assembly, the Te Deum
was sung, after which every monk, from the prior to the
meanest lay-brother, took the vow of obedience to his
superior, his father-in-God ; and all the while around them
were the silent watchers, the figures of saints and angels,
and the memorials of those who had preceded him in his
high office, with the tombs of ancient kings who had willed
to be laid to their rest in Avalon's holy aisle, and upon the
whole solemn scene poured down the many-tinted beams of
light through the rich stained glass of the windows.
The installation banquet followed in the great hall, and
after that was over, the retainers and those who held their
manors direct from the abbey, from the knight to the humble
hind who cultivated some few acres of land, took their
oaths of allegiance. Meanwhile, extra doles of meat and
bread and clothing were given to the poor, that all might
rejoice and keep their festival-day together; and then the
abbey and its indwellers, its tenants and dependants, settled
down to their accustomed order, and the rule of the last
abbot of Glastonbury had begun.
We must remember that, magnificent as was the church,
ail-but celestial as were the daily chaunts and hymns of
praise that rose unweariedly within its walls, yet this sacrifice
of praise and thanksgiving, though the chief, formed but a
' Ps. cxxi, ^ Ps. cxxii. 3 Ps. cxxv.
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 447
small part of the work of a well-ordered monastery. The
church was but the central figure of the group of monastic
buildings. From the plates taken by Hollar two centuries
ago, and the description taken from " The Little Monument,"
we can in some measure recall the state of the monastery at
that time. It was surrounded by a high wall, which enclosed
sixty acres. The grand entrance to the abbey was on the
west side, now the Red Lion Inn; this led to the Lady-
chapel, which opened into the great church. There was
also a great portal on the north side, opposite the tribunal,
or court-house, built by Abbot Beere, where the business
connected with the hides of Glastonbury was carried on.
On the south side of the church was the cloister; at the
west end of the cloister, parallel with St. Joseph's Chapel
(the monks' graveyard being between), was the great hall,
or refectory, built on a magnificent scale. South of the
refectory was the abbot's kitchen, and south of this the
abbot's dwelling-house. Adjoining the church was the
sacristy or vestry, a large room wherein were kept the
chalices which were in daily use, and all the sacred vest-
ments. Near it stood the church treasury, wherein were
kept all the most sacred relics, all the jewels and church-
plate not in daily use, the mitres, croziers, cruces, pectorales
— in a word, all the richest ornaments belonging to the
church. Near the cloister stood the chapter-house, where
the monks met for the acknowledgment and correction of
their faults, spiritual conferences, and the determination of
those spiritual and temporal concerns which required the
assent of the whole house.
In the great hall, or refectory, built or finished by Abbot
448 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Breinton, the professed monks ate together daily ; and from
a pulpit, during their meals, one of the number read a
passage from the Old or New Testament. Opening from
the cloister was the fratery, built by Abbot Chinnock for the
novices. Then came the library, as already described by
Leland. Among other books was a broken piece of history
by Melchinus, an Avalonian who wrote about the year
A.D. 560.
Adjoining the library was the scriptorium, where monks
were constantly employed in copying and transcribing books
for their own library from copies lent to them, or preparing
copies of valuable works for sale to kings and princes or to
other monasteries, for the benefit of their community. Of
course, with the introduction of printing much of this work
was unnecessary : but it is probable that for many a year a
magnificently- illuminated missal was preferred to this new-
fangled art ; and we may be sure with the increase of
books the production of new ones would be a matter of
course.
Then, too, there was the common room, the only place
where a fire was kept for the monks to warm themselves,
no fire being allowed except in the abbot's house and some
of the chief officers' rooms. There was the lavatory ; the
wardrobe, where the monks' dresses were repaired or made.
The dormitory — and oh ! for the luxurious living of these
recluses, each cell contained a narrow bedstead, upon this
was a straw bed and a mattress, a coarse blanket and a rug,
with a bolster of straw or flock. By the bedside was a
desk at which to kneel, on which stood a crucifix ; another
desk or table, with drawers for books and papers, and
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 449
cressets, or lanterns, in the middle of each sleeping-place,
with lights for the monks when they rose in the night to
their matins or for private prayer and watching.
The infirmary, where not only their own sick were nursed,
and comforts were provided and provision and preparation
made for another world. The guest-house, for the enter-
tainment of strangers and the reception of travellers. Here
all persons, from the prince to the peasant, were entertained,
according to their rank and qualit}-, and none were com-
manded to depart if they were orderly and of good
behaviour. The monks were obliged to this hospitality by
the fifiy-third chapter of their rule, where they are com-
manded to receive all comers as they would Christ Him-
self, who hereafter will say, " I was a stranger, and ye took
me in." In later times there seems to have been some
modification of this rule, and Abbot Selwood, in 1456-93,
built " The Pilgrim's Inn." It still remains one of the most
beautiful and picturesque objects in Glastonbury. The
abbot paid all the expenses of this inn, and every visitor was
treated as a guest, and allowed to remain two days.
We have left the almonry and the treasury to the last.
From the former were distributed the alms of the abbey, and
here the poor of Glastonbury and its neighbourhood found
relief. A grave monk, called the almoner, was obliged to
make inquiry after the sick, feeble, and aged and disabled
persons, such as were ashamed to beg, whom he bountifully
relieved, as well as those who came for alms. After the
dissolution the poor, the aged, the sick soldiers died by
hundreds, for there " was no man who cared for them," till,
in Elizabeth's reign, a poor-law became absolutely necessary.
30
45 O MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
And in its present state it remains a disgrace to our statute-
book. It encourages the idle and improvident, while
leaving the respectable poor (who do not care to ask for
parish relief) to starve.
The boys' apartment was a seminary for youth to be
taught Christian doctrine, music, and grammar, learning by
which means they became fit for the university.
The treasury was the place where the ready money, the
charters, registers, and accounts of the abbey were kept in
strong chests and presses of iron, and where neighbouring
gentlemen, if they pleased, by the abbot's favour, placed
their deeds or writings for better security. For the care of
these there was a treasurer and under-treasurer. The last
two who held these offices were John Thorn and Roger
Jacob or James, the two monks who were murdered with
the abbot.
Besides all these were the workshops, where bell founding,
working in metals, glass staining, bookbinding, (Sec, &c., were
carried on, in addition to the farm work, land cultivation,
and care of the orchards.
To the oversight of all these different works, both
ecclesiastical and intellectual as well as secular and in-
dustrial, succeeded Abbot Whiting, and nothing was neg-
lected. His special and immediate supervision was given
to the care of the young. His apartments, we are told,
were a kind of well-disciplined court, where the sons of noble-
men and gentlemen were sent for virtuous education, and
returned thence excellently accomplished. He could point to
three hundred prepared after this manner, besides others of a
meaner rank whom he fitted for the universities. He lived
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 45 1
in great state, as befitted his rank and position as second —
formerly first — of the mitred abbots of England. Bishop
he was therefore in his own domains, and before him in all
ecclesiastical ceremonials was carried the bishop's staff, with
its shepherd's crook, only that the crook was turned towards
him instead of outwards as before a bishop, to denote that
his authority extended only within his own domains. Till
the time when Nicholas Breakspear, the lay-brother of St.
Alban's, became Adrian IV., Glastonbury had always held
the first place among the mitred abbots, but on acceding
to the Popedom he raised his own abbey to the chief
dignity, and thenceforth Glastonbury took the second place.
Nobly did the good abbot practise the virtue of hos-
pitality without stint ; he entertained, it is said, at times as
many as five hundred at once. When his parhamentary duties
carried him to London he had an escort of more than a
hundred followers. Yet, from the whole tenour of his life
and death, this could hardly have been from ostentation,
but from a regard to the dignity of his office.
It appears that Abbot Whiting, like Wolsey and ]\Iore,
was in favour of moderate reforms in the Church ; he
realized the inconvenience of appeals to Rome, and, at the
head of his monks, signed a deed accepting the decree
which made Henry supreme head of the Church. But when
Thomas Cromwell with his iron will carried out the king's
desire for more plunder — for the greed of gold grows with
the aliment on which it feeds — then Abbot Whiting refused
to give up what had been dedicated to Christ and His poor.
They — Cromwell's minions — had brought infamous charges
against other monasteries and abbeys, and now commis-
452 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
sioners were sent to gather and rake up charges against the
abbot and his community. The visitors came in September,
1539. They began a system of inquisitorial espionage.
"Even the refuge of silence," says Green, "was closed by
a law more infamous than any that has ever blotted the
statute-book of England. Not only was thought made
treason, but men were forced to reveal their thoughts on
pain of their very silence being punished with the penalties
of treason." They gave Cromwell an account of their ex-
amination of the noble old man — he was past eighty — on
certain articles. They desired him to recall to his memory
things which he seemed to have forgotten. They searched
his study and his papers, and they found a book against the
king's divorce, but they found no letter that was material.
A second time he was examined upon the articles that
Cromwell had given them, and his answer, signed by him-
self, was sent up to court, in which — apparently for fear it
should not be discovered by the authorities — they write
"that his cankered and traitorous heart against the king and
his succession did appear, so that with very fair words'^ they
sent him to the Tower. They found that he was but a weak
man and a sickly. Having sent him away, they now pro-
ceeded to ransack the monastery. They found in it ;^3oo
in cash, and "a fair gold chalice, with other plate hid by
the abbot that had not been seen by the former visitors, of
which they think the abbot meant to make his otvn advantage.'"
They wrote that the house was the noblest they had ever
seen, of tliat sort they thought it " fit for the king and none
' " His words were smoother than oil, and yet they be very swords "
(Psalm Iv. 21).
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 453
else." But the most damning evidence of all, which removes
the smallest justification for this most guilty spoliation, with
its triple murder, is afforded by the subjoined letter to
Cromwell, dated August, 1535 :
" Pleasyth your Mastership to understand that yesterday
night late we came from Glastonbury to Bristow.
*' At Bristow and Glastonbury there was nothing notable.
The brethren be so strictly kept that they cannot offend ;
bnt fain they would if they might, as they confess, and so the
fault is not in them. From St. Austin's without Bristow,
this St. Bartilmas' day, by the speedy hand of yoar most
assured poor priest, Richard Layton."
Such was the involuntary testimony to the good govern-
ment and strict rule of the monastery. Whether any
miserable monks sought to save their wretched lives by the
words put into their mouths we cannot tell ; there are ever
some black sheep in every flock. But still no blame could
they find, earnestly as they sought occasion, against the
abbey and its venerable head.
The last act of the drama was to be played out. Back
again into Somerset the aged abbot was sent, and on
November 14, 1539, he was arraigned in the great hall of
the bishop's palace at Wells. The mock trial was held, and
Abbot Whiting was found guilty of the impossible crime of
" the robbery of his church " ! ! That was all ; no other
word could be said against him than that he endeavoured to
save some of the treasure committed to his care for the
glory and beauty of God's service from the fangs of these
ecclesiastical robbers.' Apparently he made no defence ;
' It seems probable that he reserved but the necessary vessels for
administerini' the blessed sacrament.
454 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
certainly he made no appeal. One request, however, he did
make, that he might bid his brethren farewell — and this was
denied him. He would fain have ended his monastic rule
as he began it, with united prayers in their church ; he
would fain have given them his last benediction and com-
mended himself to their prayers in his last agony. It was
refused, and to make the indignity of his death the greater,
he and his monks were drawn up the Tor Hill on hurdles.
Tiiere, while they were making the needful preparations,
casting his eyes around, as he took his last view of earth
he saw " islanded in the marshes the Avalonian hills.
In their lap lies the town, and behind it is Weary-all Hill.
Around the horizon the eye embraces in its view the Bristol
Channel, Brent Knoll, the Mendips and the Cathedral of
Wells, Montacute, Blackdown and Ham hills." He gazed
but a moment at the wide prospect — for heart and eye
alike came back to the home of the greater part, per-
haps the whole, of his long life; there beneath him in the
dull November day, lay the holy and beautiful house that
his fathers had built, and which he had so lovingly cherished
and cared for, but — surely there came to his mind " In my
Father's house are many mansions," more beautiful even
than this. We can fancy him holding out his hands and
blessing his brethren, his sons in the Lord. One bitter drop
in his cup was spared him : he could not have foreseen that
from that day the daily prayers, the service of praise, the
chanted psalms, the glorious anthems, the pealing organ, all
should cease; that the best use they could find for the
carved work of the sanctuary was — to mend the roads !
Lovingly he bade it all farewell, and as he looked, the cold
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 455
white mist rose, and, blotting it from his sight, lapped it in
the winding-sheet of death. He turned then, and, giving
his companions the kiss of peace and his last benediction,
resigned himself to his executioners. There in the sight of
the neighbourhood for miles round the brave old man was
hung between, not two thieves, but two of his staunchest
friends.
One John Russell, who appears to have presided at this
judicial murder, thus writes to Cromwell: "This is to say
that on Thursday, November 14th, the Abbot of Glaston-
bury was arraigned, and the next day put to execution on
the Torre Hyll, next to the town of Glastonbury, with two
of his monks, for robbing Glastonbury Church. The said
Abbot's body was divided into four parts. His head was
placed upon the Abbey gate ; the remains were sent to
Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgewater." He is described
as a man " venerable for his age, wonderful for the modera-
tion of his religious life ; he governed his abbey with
great prudence."
Since that sad day the whole abbey has fallen into ruins,
and of much of it not even the ruins are left. It was used
for years as a sort of quarry, and a great part of a raised
road or causeway across the marshes between Glastonbury
and Wells was made with stone taken from the abbey
buildings !
Among the spoils which passed to the king were the
ornaments of the church, the shrines, the jewels, the gold
and silver images, vestments, and relics, besides a large
amount in money. An inventory of these cosdy articles
was made by commissioners; they were delivered to the
456 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
king, who himself acknowledged the receipt of them.
Among the items two are specially interesting—" Item, de-
lyvered unto his Majestic the same day, 25th of May, in the
27th year of his reign, a super altre garnished with silver and
gilt, called ' the great Sapphire of Glasgonburge.' " This is
believed to have been the sapphire altar brought to Glaston-
bury by St. David about 544. It was hidden from the
Danes, and discovered by Henry of Blois during a searching
investigation he made into the state of the abbey.' The
second is thus described : " Item, delyvered to his Majestic
the same day a great piece of an unicorne horn, as is
supposed." (It is supposed to have been half of the ivory
crozier deposited upon the altar by King Edgar.) " Item,
delyvered more unto his Majestic, the same day, dyverse
parcells of gilte- plate of such stuff as came to his gracysuse,
from the West parties weinge ii thousand, vi hundred, thirtie
and eight unces. Item, delyvered the same day unto his
Majestic dyverse parcells of parcel gilt plate, of the same
stuff, weinge a thousand five hundred unces."
In the first year of Edward VI., that great church robber
the Duke of Somerset laid his grip upon Glastonbury ; but
he paid the penalty of many a one who laid their sacri-
legious hands on church property. He fell before another
as grasping as himself, who, in his turn, laid his head on
the block.
In the days of Queen Mary a petition was presented to
' If, as I have seen it stated, the great sapphire in the queen's crown
was this very one which had so long adorned St. David's altar at
Glastonbury, it must have a longer history than most celebrated jewels.
It would be more than fifteen hundred years old.
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 457
her through the Lord Chamberlain to be allowed to restore
the abbey. After a long preamble it continues: "We ask
nothing in gift to the foundation, but only the House and
scite, the residue for the accustomed Rent ; so that with our
labour and Husbandrye, we may live there a few of us in our
religious habits, till the charitie of good people may suffice
a greater number, and the countrye there being so affected
to our Religion, we believe we should fynde moche helpe
amongst them towards the reparations and furniture of the
same, wherbye we wolde haply prevent the ruin of moche
and repayre no little part of the whole, to God's honor and
for the better prosperitie of the King and Quene's Ma''"
w'*' the whole Realme. For, doubtlesse, if it shall j.lease
your good Lo'^^, if there hath ever been any flagitiouse dede,
since the Creation of the World, punyshed w"' the plague
of God, in our opinion the overthrow of Glastonbury may
be compared to the same; not surrendered as others, but
extorted, the Abbot prepostly putt to dethe, w"" two innocent
virtuous monks with him; that if the thing were to be skanned
by any University or some learned counsell in Divinitie, they
wolde find it more dangerouse than it is commonly taken
\\^^ myght move the Quene's Ma"® to the more speedy
erection ; namely it beying an house of such antiquitie and
of fame through all Christendome ; first begon by St.
Joseph of Arymathea, who took down the dead body of our
Saviour Christ from the Crosse, and lyeth buryed in Glas-
tonbury. And hym most heartily we beseech us, to pray
unto Christ for good successe unto your hon*"' Lo''" in
all your Lo'^p'' affairs : and now specially in this our most
humble request, that we may shortly do the same in
45 S MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Glaston' for the King and Quene's Ma"*'" as our founders,
and for your good Lo''p as a singular benefactor.
" Your Lo'^p'^ daylie Beadsmen of Westm'
" John Phagan.
" John Neolt.
" Will" Adewolde.
" Will" Kentwyne."
But we know of no response to this, and perhaps the
troubles as well as the shortness of Mary's reign prevented
her taking it in hand.
And now the abbey buildings were abandoned and
allowed to fall into decay. Between 1792-94 the ground
surrounding it was cleared, levelled, and converted into
pasturage, and cartloads of stones, capitals, corbels, pinnacles,
and rich fragments of sculpture, were used for making a new
road over the marshes to Wells !
Is it too much to hope that there may one day arise some
with heart and means like those who restored St. Augustine's
to something of its former use, to do the same for the far
older foundation of Glastonbury ? A home for aged and
poor clergy, combined with some school of training for the
young, might well mark the spot where the weary were
rested and refreshed, the young were taught, the poor
relieved, the hungry fed, for so many ages. And if it rose
in all its former beauty, every stained-glass window, every
ornament, every rich gift, might well serve as a memorial of
the many holy and illustrious men whom Glastonbury reared
and sent forth — a memorial roll which closed with the
THE LAST DAYS OF GLASTONBURY. 459
honoured name of Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of
Glastonbury.
" It is rather a bathos to record that King James I.
granted a patent to Mary Middlemore, maid of honour to
Queen Anne of Denmark, to search for treasure among the
ruins of the abbeys of Glastonbury, Rumsey, and Bury St.
Edmunds. It is probable that the Queen, who was very
profuse, being always in distress for money, was the real
instigator of a treasure-seeking expedition, only worthy of
the renowed Donsterswivel " (Miss Strickland's " Life of
Anne of Denmark").
Authorities. — Dugdale's Monasticon ; Warner's Glas-
tonbury ; CoUinson's Somerset ; Jackson's Guide to
Glastonbury ; Murray's Handbook to Somerset.
WlLl^lAM BaF^LOW AjND THE T1ME3
OF Edward VI.
(Bishop of St. Asaph, 1533 ; Bishop of St. David's, 1536;
Bath and Wells, 1549; Chichester, 1559.)
"There remayne yet," says Sir John Harrington in his
" Nugce Antiqute," " in the bodie of Wells Church, about
thirty foote high, two eminent images of stone, set there, as
is thought, by Bishop Burnell, who built the great hall there
in the reign of Henry VHI. One of these images is of a
king crowned, the other is of a bishop mitred. This king,
in all proportions, resembling Henry VHI., holding in his
hand a child falling. The bishop hath a woman and
children about him. Now the old men of Wells had a
tradition, that when there should be such a king, and such
a bisho]), then the church should be in danger of ruin.
This falling child, they said, was King Edward ; the fruit-
ful bishop they affirmed was Dr. Barlow, the first married
Bishop of Wells, and perhaps of England. This talk being
rife in Wells, made him rather affect Chichester at his return'
than Wells."
' His return from Germany, where he fled in IMary's reign.
WILLIAM BARLOW. 46 1
How, or in what way, the eminent statesman and munificent
Bishop Burnell became possessed with the spirit of prophecy,
or what caused him to embody his previsions in stone, we
have no means of knowing ; but certain it is that never was
the church of Wells — perhaps the whole Church of Eng-
land — in such terrible danger as under that wholesale eccle-
siastical robber the Duke of Somerset. How far the work of
spoliation would have gone we cannot say, and it is to be
hoped that in the other dioceses such convenient creatures
of the ruling powers as Bishop Barlow were not always ready
to hand. Here is a list — whether complete or not I do
not know — of the manors alienated by this vigilant (?)
guardian of the spiritualities and temporalities of the see of
Bath and Wells. The manors of Claverton, Hampton
Lydeard, Compton Magna, Compton Parva, Cheddar, Huish,
and Chard ; also the demesnes of Pucklechurch in Glou-
cestershire, and a messuage or palace called Bath Place, in
the parish of St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London ; the site of
the hospital of St. John in Wells ; the rectory of Evercreech,
with advowson and all the possessions formerly belonging
to the priory of Bath. Nay, so far did his complaisance go,
that he surrendered his ancient baronial palace to the king,
who bestowed it at once on his beloved uncle Somerset.
But Somerset's head fell on the block, and all his royal and
dutiful nephew could find to say in his diary on the subject
was: "The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon
Tower Hill between eight and nine o'clock in the morning"
(January 22, 1552)! After this, Sir John Gates purchased
the palace for the sake of its materials ! Some say it was
granted to him by the king as a reward on his return from
462 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the Scottish wars, with the borough and manor of Wells.
However that may be, the result was the same. Gates un-
roofed the great hall, selling the lead and timber, since
which period its roof has been the sky. One of the last
scenes witnessed in the grand old hall was the mock trial
and condemnation of Whiting, the last abbot of Glaston-
bury. Its ruin and desolation looks almost like a judicial
judgment.
It was in 1552 that Somerset lost his life. In the same
year Gates carried the work of spoliation still further, and
in the August of the next year Sir John Gates also paid the
justly deserved penalty of death.
Bishop Barlow was not covetous of the honour of martyr-
dom, and so he left his flock and fled to the continent during
the Marian persecution ; here he became superintendent of
the English congregation at Embden. On Elizabeth's acces-
sion he returned to England. As it was this queen's custom
to confer no ecclesiastical dignity without levjnng black-
mail, in the shape of alienating some endowment from the
recipient,^ Barlow would be, of course, a convenient person
to select for promotion. The curious sculptured prophecy
which has been alluded to, and which his marriage apparently
pointed at him — added probably to the popular indignation
at the desolation caused by his so easily allowing the plunder
of the Church — made him prefer to accept the bishopric of
Chichester rather than to return to his deserted flock at
' Bishop Andrews was never raised to the episcopate in Elizabeth's
reign, for this very reason. He stoutly refused to alienate the Church's
revenues as the price of his appointment. It was reserved for James I.
to have the honour of making Launcelot Andrews a bishop.
WILLIAM BARLOW. 463
Wells. I have not cared to inquire what price he paid, or
what Church property he surrendered, on this his third
translation.
It is quaint enough that Barlow — whose marriage had
evidently caused great scandal, in fact he was incarcerated
in the Fleet prison by ]\Iary on this plea alone— determined
that other bishops should share his obloquy or justify him.
He had five daughters, whom he married to as many
bishops, viz., of Hereford, Winchester, Lichfield and Coventry,
and an Archbishop of York; the fifth married William
Wykeham, the short-lived Bishop of Winchester, who was
translated from Lincoln on March, 1595, and died the
nth of June following.
It may be as well here, though the events occurred later,
just to give a sketch of the fortunes of the palace and the
dangers that beset it in after times. Bishop Montague, in
1608, repaired the palace — the same prelate who restored
Bath Abbey. During Cromwell's usurpation it was again
despoiled by a fanatic, named Cornelius Burgess. It was
again restored by Bishop Piers, 1632-1670.
The deanery underwent much the same vicissitudes. It
was built in 1472-1498 by Dean Gunthorpe, whose badge
of a gun and the rose upon a sun, that of Edward IV., the
reigning sovereign, may be seen on the bay windows and
oriels of the rich and picturesque front.
In 1497, when Henry VII. was marching against Perkin
Warbeck, he passed through Wells at the head of ten
thousand men, and was entertained at the deanery by Dean
Gunthorpe. In Cromwell's time the palace, deanery, and
chapter-house were sold to Dr. Cornelius Burgess, for a
464 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
nominal sum, by the parliament/ Burgess had been ap-
pointed to "preach God's word in the late Cathedral Church
of St. x'\ndrew's, Wells." His sermons were not palatable
to the citizens, who showed their distaste for them by walk-
ing up and down the cloister all service time.
At the Restoration he had to give up his church spoils,
and he died in jail, where he had been immured by the
corporation.
Authorities. — Phelps's Somerset; Murray's Handbook
of Somerset ; Tourist's Guide to Wells ; Dr. Smith's
History of Britain.
' It is strange to see history repeating itself, and to note the unholy-
union between infidelity and Dissent striving noii) to bring about the
same result.
I^OBERT PaR30J^3, or pERgON^.
(1546-1610.)
Of this man — to whom we cannot accord the title of one of
the Worthies of Somerset — it is next to impossible to get an
impartial life. Born with the stain of illegitimacy upon him,
he seems to have been through life at war with the world,
and the means by which he apparently sought to revenge
himself are discreditable enough. He was born at Nether
Stowey, near Bridgewater, in 1546, Having some talent
he was educated by the clergyman, one John Haywood,
vicar of the parish, and formerly canon regular of Tor
Abbey, in Devonshire.
His friend and instructor (who was thought by some to
bear a still nearer relationship to him) sent him to Baliol
College, Oxford; he took his M.A. in 1563, and then be-
came chaplain-fellow in 1568, He managed here to make
himself most obnoxious to the master and to others on the
foundation of the college. In 1573, in conjunction with
another, named Stancliff, he was appointed bursar. And
Stancliff, being a man of little character, allowed Par-
sons to manage everything as he would ; the result being
31
466 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
that large defalcations appeared in the accounts, and Parsons
was considered answerable. Why this was not used as the
pretext for getting rid of him, instead of what seems the
strange one of illegitimacy — which, however, by the statutes
was a perfectly lawful objection — we do not knowj possibly
it was out of consideration to spare his character, which was
none of the best, or possibly because though there was strong
presumptive evidence it did not amount to proof. Any way he
could not face an inquiry, and requested permission to resign
his fellowship. This was in 1574. He went abroad, and
immediately joined the Roman communion. Passing from
Calais to Antwerp and Louvain, at first he thought of
studying physic, then turned his attention to the law, and
went to Bologna to obtain the necessary qualification. His
resources failing he went to Rome, and became a Jesuit in
June, 1575. His perversion to Romanism seems, therefore,
to have been simply the revenge of a proud, vindictive
nature ; his joining the Jesuits as a matter of necessity,
because he was witiiout funds.
And now he was chosen as a fit instrument by the Jesuits
for their attempt to restore England to the Roman Church.
In 1578 he was ordained priest; in 1580 he started on his
mission to England, in conjunction with Father Campion
and eleven other persons, lay and clerical, at the instance of
Cardinal Allen, and with the blessing of the Pope. They
were specially desired by the chief of their order to avoid
politics, and to confine themselves to the religious object of
their mission. This Campion appears to have endeavoured
at least to do, but Parsons stirred up the Romanists against
the queen, and at least covertly suggested the Queen of
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS. 467
Scots as the rightful sovereign. There was a mighty struggle
then going on whether popery should again enslave the
minds and souls of Englishmen, or whether the freedom
which the truth had won should make them free indeed.
The pendulum swung from side to side, and the reaction
was so great that at one time freedom degenerated into
license ; in another, truth was lost in tyranny. Parsons and
Campion did their best or worst. Campion, whatever his
mistakes were, was a Christian and a gentleman. " He was
labouring," says Dr. Hook, " in what he believed to be the
path of duty." The desire on the part of the government
to apprehend Parsons and Campion was augmented by the
popular clamour against Queen Elizabeth's encouragement
of the Duke of Anjou's matrimonial aims. People thought
their queen fascinated by this gay young Frenchman, and
that through his influence, in the words of Cambden [sic),
" religion would be altered, and popery tolerated. It is
terrible to think that^ for the mere purpose of vindicating
the queen from such a suspicion, it was determined to insti-
tute an active search for Campion, and to destroy him. He
was to die in order to allay the fears of the people, which
would have been more effectually allayed by the mere cessation
of a flirtation on the part of the queen." Campion was racked
for several days successively. Whilst upon the rack he called
continually upon God, and prayed for his tormentors and
those by whose orders they acted. His last words when on the
scaffold, in answer to the question of Lord Charles Howard,
" for which queen he prayed ? whether for Elizabeth the
queen?" were, "Yes, for Elizabeth, your queen and my
queen."
468 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
But Parsons was of a fiercer, meaner nature, and to his
intrigues was mainly due the creating a schism in the Church
of England. The compromise between those who adhered
to the ancient worship of the Church and those who em-
braced the new was at an end. Those who held the
Romish doctrine could no longer communicate with those
of the Reformed Church, and " for the moment their success
was amazing. The eagerness shown to hear Campion was
so great that, in spite of the denunciation of the Govern-
ment, he was able to preach with hardly a show of conceal-
ment in Smithfield."
From London the missionaries wandered, in the disguise
of captains or serving men, or sometimes in the cassock of the
English clergy, through many of the counties, and wherever
they went the zeal of the Catholic gentry revived. The list
of nobles reconciled to the old faith by the wandering
apostles was headed by the name of Lord Oxford, Burghley's
own son-in-law, and the proudest among English peers.
The success of the Jesuits in undoing Elizabeth's work of
compromise was shown in a more public way by the unani-
mity with which the (Roman) Catholics withdrew from
attendance at the national worship.
A statute was passed which enacted that "all persons
pretending to any power of absolving subjects from their
allegiance, or practising to withdraw them to the Romish
religion, with all persons after the present session willingly
so absolved or reconciled to the see of Rome, shall be guilty
of high treason." Under this statute no layman was brought
to the bar or the block. The oppression of the (Roman)
Catholic gentry was limited to an exaction, more or less
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS. 469
rigorous at different times, of the fines for recusancy or
non-attendance at public worship. The work of blood-
shed was reserved wholly for priests. The Jesuits were
tracked by Walsingham's spies, dragged from their hiding-
places, and sent in batches to the Tower. So hot was
the pursuit that Parsons was forced to fly across the Chan-
nel, while Campion was brought a prisoner through the
streets of London. Campion earned for himself the crown
of martyrdom ; Parsons lived to be discredited alike by
all parties. His tactics were opposed and disowned by
the Romanists themselves. In 1583 he returned to
Rome, where the management of the English mission was
confided to him, and in 1586 the students of the English
seminary at Rome chose him for their rector. In 1588, the
year of the Armada, he was sent by the general of the order
into Spain, where he employed every engine to promote
Philip's designs for the conquest of England. In 1596,
after the death of Cardinal Allen, he went to Rome with the
hope, it is thought, of succeeding him in the cardinalate.
He was, however, not only disappointed in that expectation,
but, from severe complaints against him from the English
secular priests on the ground of his meddling and factious
conduct, he found the Pope so ill-disposed towards him
that he thought proper to retire to Naples, where he remained
till the death of Pope Clement VIII. In 1606 he returned
to Rome, having assiduously employed himself during this
interval in superintending the English mission, and writing
a number of books for the advantage of his religion and
order. He died at Rome on the 18th of April, 16 10.
His works were several of them published under fictitious
470 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
names, such as "John Howlet," and "Philopater" and
"Doleman." One is glad to add that, at least on one
occasion, he wrote a work of much value, "A Christian
Directory guiding Men to their Salvation." This is an
excellent work, done into modern English by Dean Stan-
hope. Had it not been for his persistent attempt to en-
courage the conquest of England by Spain, one might have
hoped that his character had been softened and purified.
As it is, it is impossible to feel much charity for one who
would fain have worked such ill to his country.
Authorities. — Dr. Hook's Ecclesiastical Biography;
Mackenzie's Biographical Dictionary, &c.
The highly Protestant ballad that follows is taken from
Percy's " Reliques of Ancient Poetry." He introduces it
with this short preface :
"This excellent old ballad is preserved in the little
ancient miscellany entitled 'The Garland of Goodwill.'
Ignorance is here made to speak in the broad Somerset-
shire dialect. The scene we may suppose to be Glastonbury
Abbey."
PL.\1N TRUTH AND ELIND IGNORANCE.
Truth.
God speed yon, ancient father,
And give you a good daye ;
What is the cause, I praye you,
So sadly here you staye ?
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS. 47 1
And that you keep such gazing
On this decayed place,
The which for superstition
Good princes down did raze !
Ignorame.
Chill tell thee, by my vazen,'
That zometimes che have known
A vair and goodly abbey
Stand here of bricke and stone ;
And many a holy vrier
As ich may say to thee,
Within these goodly cloysters
Che did full often zee.
Truth.
Then I must tell thee, father,
In truth and veritie,
A sorte of greater hypocrites
Thou couldst not likely see ;
Deceiving of the simple,
With false and feigned lies ;
But such an order truly
Christ never could devise.
Ignorance.
Ah ! ah ! che zmell thee now, man,
Che know well what thou art ;
A yellow of mean learning.
Thee was not worth a vart ;
Vor when we had the old lawe,
A merry world was then,
And everything was plenty
Among all zorts of men.
Truth.
Thou givest me an answer.
As did the Jewes sometimes
Unto the prophet Jeremye,
When he accused their crimes :
' /. e. faithen, or faith.
472 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
'T'was merr)', sayd the people.
And joyfull in our rea'me,
When we did offer spice-cakes
Unto the queen of Heav'n.
Ignorance.
Chill tell thee what, good vellovve.
Before the vriers went hence,
A bushell of the best wheate
Was zold vor vourteen pence ;
And vorty egges a penny.
That were both good and newe ;
And this che zay my zelf have zeene,
And yet ich am no Jewe.
Truth.
Within the sacred bible
We find it written plain.
The latter days should troublesome
And dangerous be, certaine ;
The we should be self-lovers,
And charity was colde ;
Then 'tis not true religion
That makes thee grief to holde.
Ignorance.
Chill tell thee my opinion plaine.
And choul'd that well ye knewe,
Ich care not for the bible booke ;
'Tis too good to be true.
Our blessed ladyes psalter
Zhall for my money goe ;
Zuch pretty prayers, as there bee '
The bible cannot zhowe.
Trtith.
Nowe hast thou spoken trulye,
For in that book indeede
No mention of our lady,
Or Romish saint we read ;
' Probably alluding to the illuminated psalters, missals, &c.
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS. 473
For by the blessed Spirit
That book indited was,
And not by simple persons,
As was the foolish masse.
Tgnormtce.
Cham zure they were not voolishe
That made the masse, che trowe ;
Why man 'tis all in Latine,
And vools no Latine knowe.
Were not our fathers wise men,
And they did like it well ;
Who very much rejoyced
To heare the zacring bell ?
Truth.
But many kings and prophets,
As I may say to thee,
Have wisht the light that you have,
And could it never see ;
For what art thou the better
A Latin song to heare,
And understandest nothing,
That they sing in the quiere ?
Ignorance.
O hold thy peace, che pray thee.
The noise was passing trim
To hear the vriers singing.
As we did enter in :
And then to zee the rood-loft
Zo bravely zet with zaints ; —
But now to zee them wand'ring
My heart with zorrow vaints.
Truth.
The Lord did give commandment,
No image thou shouldst make.
Nor that unto idolatry
Vou should yourself betake ;
474 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The golden calf of Israel
Moses did therefore spoile ;
And Baal's priests and temple
Were brought to utter foile.
Ignorance.
But our lady of Walsinghame
Was a pure and holy zaint,
And many men in pilgrimage
Did shew to her complaint.
Yea, with sweet Thomas Becket,
And many other moe,
The holy maid of Kent ' likewise
Did many wonders zhowe.
Tritth.
Such saints are well agreeing
To your profession sure :
And to the men that made them
So precious and so pure ;
The one for being a traytoure
Met an untimely death ;
The other eke for treason
Did end her hateful breath.
Ipio7-ance.
Yea, yea, it is no matter,
Dispraise them how you wille,
But zure they did much goodnesse,
Would they were with us stille !
We had our holy water
And holy bread likewise,
And many holy reliques
We zaw before our eyes.
Truth.
And all this while they fed you
With vaine and empty showe
Which never Christ commanded.
As learned doctors knowe ;
' By name Elizabeth Barton, executed April 21, 1534. (Stowe, p. 570.)
ROBERT PARSONS, OR PERSONS. 475
Search thou the holy scriptures
And thou shalt plainly see
That headlong to damnation
They al waves trained thee.
Ignorance.
If it be true, good vellowe.
As thou dost zay to mee,
Unto my heavenly fader
Alone then will I flee :
Believing in the Gospel,
And passion of his Zon.
And with the subtel papistes
Ich have for ever done.
However little convincing argument there is in the above,
it is certain that such ballads, scattered as they were doubt-
less through the land on broad sheets, and read or sung by
parish clerks to admiring audiences on village greens, or at
village ale-houses, would have great influence with the
ignorant multitude in promoting the cause of the Reforma-
tion.
Yet it must have been difllicult at first to find any argu-
ment convincing enough to prove to the poor and sick that
the good brothers and sisters at the monastery gate, who
fed them, nourished them, and in sickness nursed and
tended them, were leading them " headlong to damnation."
But a ballad well sung had a wonderful effect. It pro-
moted inquiry, it fostered excitement, and gradually made
its way into the minds of the people ; though they sadly
missed the daily doles, and even when Elizabeth's poor-law
made some provision for them, it was meagre enough
when compared with the free-handed gifts provided by the
liberality of the laity who made the monks and nuns the
almoners of their bounty.
Henry Cuff
(1560-1601),
An unfortunate gentleman, was born at Hinton St George
in 1560, and educated at Oxford, where he was chosen
fellow of Merton College. Afterwards he obtained the
Greek professorship, and served the office of proctor, but
quitted the university and became secretary to Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex. He was engaged in his rising in
1600, and, being arraigned at Westminster, was cast ; it being
proved against him that whilst Essex was in consultation
with his complices this Cuffe had, for promoting that plot,
alleged this verse out of Lucan —
" Viribus utendum est quas fecimus, Arma ferenti
Omnia dat, qui justa negat " '
for which he suffered. He wrote an excellent book of the
difference of the ages of man's life, together with the original
causes, progress, and end thereof.
Authorities. — Fuller's Worthies and Watkins' Biogra-
phical Dictionary.
' " We must use such arms as we have made.
Who denies what is just gi\-es arms to his enemies."
3iF^ John H/vrrijmqton.
(1561-1612.)
-:o:-
The father of Sir John Harrington was John Harrington,
Esq.,' of Stepney. He was attached when young to the
court of Henry VHI., and was much in his confidence. He
married Ethelred Make, or Dyngley, the king's illegitimate
daughter, and obtained with her a large portion of the con-
fiscated Church lands, which the king gave for her use and
benefit. Among these was Kelston, near Bath, where
Harrington settled with his wife. She only sur\aved her
marriage two years. After her death, Harrington entered
the service of Seymour, Lord High Admiral. At his trial
he was strictly examined by the council on the relations
which existed between his patron and the Lady Elizabeth,
but he could neither be entrapped or cajoled into any
admission tending to criminate them. After Seymour's
execution, Mr. Harrington passed into the service of the
princess, and remained faithfully attached to her interests
' Miss Strickland invariably calls him Sir John Harrington the elder,
but he remained Mr. Harrington to the end of his life.
478 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to the end of his life. As his second wife, he married the
beautiful Isabella Markham, one of her maids of honour.
In the " Nugoe Antiquse," a collection of essays, letters,
and poems by the two Harringtons, father and son, there is
a poem written while in Elizabeth's service, when she dwelt
at Hatfield, entitled —
THE PRAYSE OF SIX GENTLEWOMEN ATTENDING ON
THE LADY ELIZABETH HER GRACE AT HATFIELD.
I.
"The great Diana chaste
In forest late I met, ■
\Vho did commande in haste
To Hatfield for to get ;
And to you six a-row
Her pleasure to declare,
Thus meaning to bestow
On each a gift most rare."
The ladies were respectively named Grey, Willoughbie,
Markham, Norwyche, Saintloe, Skypwith. He addresses
one stanza to each ; and the fourth, which is addressed to
Isabella Markham, afterwards his wife, is as follows : —
IV.
" To Markham's modest mynde
That Phoenix-bird most rare,
So have the gods assygnede
With Gryfydde to compare.
Oh ! happier twice is he
Whom Jove shall do the grace
To lynke in unitie
Such beautie to embrace."
He was a devoted lover and husband, and addressed one
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 479
poem to her as "Sweet Isabella Markham," which begins,
" Whence comes my love ? " It is inferior to few similar
pieces of the same time. There is another from "John
Harrington to his Wyfe, 1564."
When Elizabeth was sent to the Tower by IVIary in 1554,
these two faithful friends and servants were imprisoned like-
wise — Harrington, apparently, on no other charge than his
having carried a letter to the princess from his master, the
admiral, in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. ;
his wife on the graver charge of being a heretic. At first
they were sequestered from their mistress, but later on were
allowed to wait on her ; for Sir John Harrington says that
his parents " had not any comfort to beguile their affliction
but the sweet words and sweeter deeds of their mistress "
and fellow-prisoner, the Princess Elizabeth.
Sir John Harrington attributes the harshness with which
they were treated to Bishop Gardiner. He says : " The
plots he laid to entrap the Lady Elizabeth, his terrible hard
usage of all her followers, I cannot yet scarce think of with
charity, nor write of with patience. My father, only for
carrying a letter to the Lady Elizabeth, and professing to
wish her well, he kept in the Tower twelve months. My
mother, that there served the Lady Elizabeth, he caused to
be sequestered from her as a heretic, so that her own father
durst not take her into his house, but she was glad to
sojourn with one Mr. Topclife ; so, as I may say, in some
sort this bishop persecuted me before I was born." As both
Mr. and Mrs. Harrington belonged to the Puritan party, they
were probably suspected of being the medium of communi-
cation with those who wished to supplant Mary by Elizabeth.
480 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
At any rate, their imprisonment does not appear to have
been very rigorous.
It was on the discharge of Mrs. Harrington, which took
place some months before that of her husband, that she was
refused an asylum by her father. Harrington, becoming
weary of his long incarceration, vented his indignant feelings
in some satirical verses, which he sent to Gardiner, who
instantly ordered him to be released from his captivity,
observing that, but for his saucy sonnet, he was worthy to
have lain a year in the Tower.
On their release they retired to Kelston, where their son
John was born in 156 1, and to him the queen stood god-
mother, and remained his faithful friend through life ; and
he repaid her with a sincere and loving admiration.
He was educated at Eton, and took his degree at Christ
Church, Cambridge. He soon appeared at court, where he
became noted for his sprightly wit. It is seldom indeed that
we meet with a father and son so alike in character, talent,
and disposition ; for both were celebrated for their bon mots,
epigrams, and satires. There is a quaint story told of his
fame in this respect, that when dining once at an inn m
Bath with a company, of whom many were of higher rank
than himself, a maid who was waiting at table paid him
most elaborate attention, and when he asked her the reason
of her singhng him out in particular, she answered : " Oh,
sir, I understand that you are a very witty man, and if I
should displease you in anything, I fear you would make an
epigram of me." This fear Queen Elizabeth herself affected
to share ; but her witty godson was too good a courtier to
lose her favour for a jest. One of the most pregnant and
I
I
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 481
well-known epigrams on record is attributed to him in the
" Nugoe Antiquae " —
•' Treason dothe never prosper. What's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
The first literary work of Harrington's that attracted notice
was his translation of the episode of Alcina and Ruggiero
in Ariosto's " Orlando Furioso." With this the queen pre-
tended to be displeased on account of its licentiousness, and
then, as a penance, commanded him not to see her face
again till he had translated the whole ! This he did with the
help of his brother Francis. It is chiefly remarkable as being
the first translation of one of the Italian classics into English
verse 3 but its poetical merits are small, and it has long been
superseded by other translations. It was published in 1591,
when he was thirty years of age. His satires upon some of
the courtiers were so stinging, as well as, it must be confessed,
gross and indelicate, that at one time he was threatened with
the Star Chamber. The queen's favour, however, saved him,
but he had to retire into Somerset for a time.
In 1582 he had lost his father, when he was the age of
twenty-one. He married, but I know not at what date,
Mary, the daughter of Sir George Rogers, of Cannington
in Somerset, by whom he had eight children. In 1587 his
house at Kelston was rebuilt, under the superintendence of
Barozzi, an Italian. It was said to have been the largest
house in the county. And in 1591 he was honoured by a
visit from his royal godmother. Either this visit — for the
honour was ever a costly one — or the expense of building
and keeping up his mansion at Kelston, brought Sir John
32
482 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
into difficulties, and he was obliged to part with some of his
estates, amongst them one called Nyland. Riding one day,
he passed the property which had been formerly his. He
turned to his attendant, and said —
"John, John, this Nyland
Alas ! was once my land."
To which John replied with great readiness, and at least
equal wit and poetry —
" If you had had more wit, sir.
It might have been yours yet, sir."
In 1599 he accompanied Essex to Ireland, and was
knighted by him on some field fought there. This is
said to have displeased the queen, who, after showing him
such constant marks of her favour, was hurt that he should
have taken his knighthood from any hand but hers. He
shared her displeasure with Essex, and again had to return
to Kelston ; but her grateful affection to his parents, and her
personal regard for him, seem to have soon restored him to
favour.
In was early in the year 1601 that Harrington was placed
in a great dilemma between his affection for and sympathy
with the Earl of Essex, and the duty and love which he
owed his sovereign and godmother. The crack-brained
attempt at rebellion by the earl caused Harrington real
trouble ; for he would not willingly desert his friend in
distress. From this difficulty he was saved by the queen's
own care for him. In the midst of the grief and anxiety
which caused her reason to totter, she had thought enough
for the child of her two faithful friends to send him a
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 483
message by Lord Buckhurst. But the account shall be given
in Harrington's own words: '« The madcaps" (Essex and
his followers) " are all in riot, and much evil threatened. In
good sooth, I fear her Majesty more than the rebel Tyrone,
and wished I had never received my lord of Essex's honour
of knighthood. She is quite disfavoured and unattired, and
these troubles waste her much. She disregardeth every costly
cover that cometh to the table, and taketh little but manchet
and succory pottage. Every new message from the city dis-
turbs, and she frowns on all her ladies. I had a sharp message
from her, brought by my Lord Buckhurst, namely thus —
' Go, tell that witty fellow, my godson, to get home ; it is no
season to fool it here.' I liked this as little as she did my
knighthood, so took to my boots, and returned to my plough
in bad weather. I must not say much, even by this trusty
and sure messenger, but the many evil plots and designs
have overcome all her highness's sweet temper. ... I
obtained a short audience at my first coming to court, when
her highness told me ' if ill-counsel had brought me so far,
she wished Heaven might mar the fortune which she had
mended.' I made my peace on this point, and will not
leave my poor castle of Kelstone for fear of finding a worse
elsewhere, as others have done."
In following Sir John's fortunes at court and wiih the Earl
of Essex we have rather anticipated matters, and must
return to the year 1592, the year after he received the
queen ; and it may have been a consequence of this very
visit that in this year he was pricked for high sheriff. Being
now setded at home for some time, he renewed some rules
his father had made for the guidance of his household.
484 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
They are worth reproducing ; for, if carried out, Kelston
must have been a model house.
ORDERS FOR HOUSEHOLD SERVANTS IN 1 566.
Imprimis, that no servant bee absent from praier, at
morning or evening, without a lawfull excuse to bealleged
within one day after, upon paine to forfeit for every time 2d.
Item, that none swear any othe uppon paine for every
othe id. , , £ J ^.u
Item, that no man leave any doore open that he findeth
shut, without there be cause, uppon paine for every time id.
Item, that none of the men lie in bed, for our Lady-day
to Michaelmas, after 6 of the clock in the morning ; nor out
of his bed after 10 of the clock at night ; nor from Michael-
mas till our Lady-day in bed after 7 in the morning, nor out
after 9 at night, without reasonable cause, on pame of 2d
That no man's bed be unmade, nor fire or candle-box
unclean, after 8 of the clock in the morning, on pame of id.
Item, that no man teach any of the children any unhonest
speeche, or evil word, or othe, on paine of 4d.
Item, that no man waite at table without a trencher in his
hand except it be uppon some good cause, on pame of id
Item, that no man appointed to waite at my table be
absent at that meale, without reasonable cause, on paine
of id.
Item, if any man breake a glasse, he shall answer the price
thereof out of his wages ; and if it be not known who breake
it the buttler shall pay for it, on paine of i2d.
Item, the table must bee covered half an hour before n
at dinner and 6 at supper, or before, on paine of 2d.
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 485
Item, that meate bee readie at ii, or before, at dinner,
and 6, or before, at supper, on paine of 6d.
Item, that none be absent, without leave or good cause,
the whole day, or any part of it, on paine of 4d,
Item, that no man strike his fellow, on paine of loss of
service ; nor revile, or threaten, or provoke another to
strike, on paine of lad.
Item, that no man come to the kitchen without reasonable
cause, on paine of id., and the cook likewise to forfeit id.
Item, that none toy with the maids, on paine of 4d.
That no man weare foule shirt on Sunday, nor broken
hose or shoes, or dublett without buttons, on paine of id.
Item, that when any stranger goeth hence, the chamber
be drest up again within 4 hours after, on paine of id.
Item, that the hall be made cleane every day by eight in
the winter, and seven in the sommer, on paine of him that
should do it to forfeit id.
That the court gate be shutt each meale, and not opened
during dinner and supper, without just cause, on paine to
porter to forfeit for every time id.
Item, that all stayrs in the house, and other rooms that
neede shall require, bee made cleane on Fryday, after
dinner, on paine of forfeyture of every on whome it shall
belong unto, 3d.
All which sommes shall be duly paide each quarter day out
of their wages, and bestowed on the poore or other godly use.
Good and worthy man as Sir John Harrington was, he
appears— if an anecdote told of him^ is true — not to have
' In " The Mirror," vol. xxii. p. 36.
486 MYTHS, SCENES, AND \VORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
been above the meanness of the age in currying favour %vith
the rising star. His godmother Elizabeth was an aged
woman, and in spite of herself and her determination not
to acknowledge the infirmities of age, she was visibly failing;
so in the Christmas of 1602, the very year before she died,
he sent to the King of Scotland a New Year's gift of a dark
lantern. The top was a crown of pure gold, serving also to
cover a perfume pan ; within it was a shield of silver, em-
bossed, to reflect the light ; on one side of which were the
sun, moon, and planets, and on the other side the story
of the birth and passion of Christ, as it was engraved by
David II., King of Scotland, who was a prisoner in Notting-
ham. On this present the following passage was inscribed,
in Latin : " Lord, remember me when Thou comest into
Thy Kingdom." Such a text, chosen for the simple purpose
of ingratiating himself with his future sovereign, appears
profan-, not to say blasphemous ! but it was in the taste
of the age, and probably Sir John Harrington had no
thought of irreverence. He appears to have won the
approbation of James on his succession to the throne, and
soon became a favourite. He was created a Knight of the
Bath, and corresponded with the king, his literar>- tastes
recommending him to James. He wrote his " Briefe View
of the State of the Church of England " for Prince Henry.
He has the credit of having had the principal hand in the
restoration of the Abbey Church of Bath. It was in course of
rebuilding in the time of and by Prior Bride and Bishop Oliver
King, but it was still unfinished when, at the dissolution,
it was surrendered to the Crown, by Prior Holway, 1539-
Stripped of its lead, glass, and iron, its shell only remained,
SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 487
the city refusing to buy it of the Crown. At length, by one
or two patriotic citizens, it was purchased, and its restoration
taken in hand ; but only the choir and transepts were in a
state to be used. In 1608 James Montague was appointed
bishop, and now Sir John Harrington, with his religious
feeling and his artistic tastes, saw an opportunity for getting
something done towards finishing the work. Walking one
day with the bishop near the abbey church, it chanced
to rain, and he proposed taking shelter among the ruins.
He took him into an aisle which had been spoiled of its
lead, and was nearly roofless. The bishop remarked it did
not shelter them from the rain. " Doth it not, my lord ?
Then let me sue your bounty towards covering our poor
church ; for, if it keep us not safe from the waters above,
how shall it ever save others from the fire beneath ? "
At which jest the bishop was so well pleased that he
became a liberal benefactor, both of timber and lead ; and
the north aisle was completely roofed in, after having laid in
ruins for many years. This was in 1609.
Sir John Harrington died in 161 2, leaving, besides the
works already mentioned, " The Englishman's Doctor of
School of Salerne," " The History of Polindor and Flostella,"
and the " Nugoe Antique," from which much of the above
has been borrowed. It contains most amusing descriptions
of the court of Elizabeth, and is not without sly hits at the
pedantry of her successor.
Authorities.— Nugoe Antiquoe ; Shaw's English Litera-
ture; Miss Strickland's Dives.
The Wadham3.
(A.D. 1561-1609.)
-:o:-
WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD; ILMINSTER,
MERRIFIELD, ILTON.
No less than four parishes take their name from the little
River He, whose tiny stream threads together Ilminster, or
the minster on the He ; Ilton, or the town on the He ; He
Abbots, which takes its name from the Abbots of Muchelney,
to whom it belonged ; and He Brewers, or He de Briwere,
■whose name may be traced to Sir William Briwere. Of
these, Ilminster is the only one that rises to the dignity of a
town. It is an ancient place, and its market dates from the
Saxon times. King Ina, it is said, bestowed the manor upon
Muchelney, but as Muchelney is said to have been founded
by Athelstane, as an atonement for his share in the death
of his young brother, this could hardly be ; unless, as often
happened, King Athelstane's endowment was but the restora-
tion and enlargement of an ancient foundation. Be that as
it may, Ilminster retains some of its monastic privileges to
the present day, for at the dissolution in some mysterious
THE WADHAMS. 489
way it was let alone ; and though the great tithes and the
advowson were sold, it remained independent of episcopal
supervision, and the Vicar of Ilminster was his own ordinary.
It is what is called a peculiar.
The river He falls into the Parret somewhere between
Muchelney and Langport, at almost the same spot that the
Yvel also joins that river. On the Yvel is Ilchester or,
more properly, Yvelchester, but even as early as the time
of Henry VIII. the name of that town had been corrupted
into its present form ; and poor Leland notes a wearisome,
but very natural mistake into which he fell. He must have
had a list of the names of places given him, but no charts,
no maps, and no handbooks ! so it was natural enough,
when he saw Ilchester, that he should take it for another
of those towns that clung to the banks of the little River
He. But the similarity of the names was simply a snare and
a delusion, and he had a weariful journey only to discover
that the home of Ilchester was the banks of the Yeo or Yvel,
which also gives its name to Yeovil.
Ilminster Church is one of the two finest cruciform churches
in the county, the other being at Crewkerne. It is like most
of the churches of Somerset — of Perpendicular work. The
tower, transepts, and porch were built by Sir William Wadham,
time of Henry VII. * In the register of Athelney Abbey,
preserved probably among the records of Muchelney Abbey,
appears one John de Ilminster as the owner of the estate
of Merrifield, in the parish of Ilton. The manor passed
' I should suppose also the chancel, a very deep one. The nave was
rebuilt just sixty years ago, well and substantially, but, alas ! a great
eyesore and heartbreak to a lover of ecclesiastical architecture.
49° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
through many hands. "We find the name of John de Beau-
champ, who, in the thirty-first year of Edward III., died
without issue, and his estate devolved upon his two sisters.
Cicely and Margaret. Cicely owned Merrifield, and granted
it to Fulk de Bernyngham, Knight. From thence it passed
to the Pophams ; and Elizabeth, heiress of Stephen Pop-
ham, married John Wadham. They made Merrifield their
residence. From this Sir John Wadham must have been
descended Sir William W'adham, who built Ilminster
Church ; and, ultimately, Nicholas W'adham, who married
Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Petre, Knight. Sir
William founded the Petrean fellowships at Exeter College,
and is duly remembered on the gaude day at the thanks-
giving for the benefactors of the foundation. Dorothy was
his most worthy daughter, and in marrying Nicholas Wadham
she allied herself with one of like mind.
Fuller thus describes him in his " Worthies of Somerset " :
" Nicholas Wadham, of Merrifield, Esq., having great length
in his extraction, breadth in his estate, and depth in his
liberality, married Dorothy, sister to the first Lord Peters
[Petre]. His hospital [hospitable] house was an inn at all
times, a court at Christmas. This worthy pair, being issue-
less, erected the college of Wadham, in Oxford. His estate
after his death descended to Strangwayes, Windham, White,
&c. He was buried in the church at Ilminster." He died
in 1609. His wife Dorothy, surviving him, completed the
work he had begun, and Wadham College was the first
founded after the Reformation. She died in 16 18, and was
also buried at Ilminster. A fine altar-tomb, on which are
memorial brasses, stands in the north transept of the
THE WADHAMS. 49 1
church. There are two other monuments to members of
the same family.
The town was formerly famed for its chantries, of which
there were several. At the west end of the church, now
divided from it by a road, stands a quaint old house still
called the Chantry. Formerly it must have opened into the
churchyard, but the road was cut to facilitate communication
between the north and south of the town.
The old grammar school founded by Humphrey Walrond
was another of these chantries. It is a picturesque building,
possessing a cloistered walk both outside and within the
building. Over the doorway was the legend : '■'■ Ingredere ut
ProficiasT It fronts the north side of the church. In one
respect, Ilminster has been fortunate in seeing a monastic
building applied to a charitable and religious use ; but, alas !
the grammar school, fifty years ago the most flourishing in
Somerset, is now turned into a girls' school. Dean Alford,
late of Canterbury, was educated at Ilminster school.'
To return to the Wadhams : as we have said, there are
monuments to the family besides that to the founders
of Wadham College, in the north transept of Ilminster
Church. And at Ilton the north aisle is still called the
Wadham aisle. Under the communion table is the following
inscription on a brass plate : —
" Prey for the soul of Nycholas Wadham, son to Sir
' Under my father, the Rev. John Allen, to whom he dedicated a
book called, I think, "Chapters on the Greek Poets." He also com-
memorates him in a novel written by himself and his wife's niece,
alluding to his magnificent tenor voice, and menti<.)ning other peculiari-
ties, such as his addressing the boys as " gentlemen."
492 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Nycholas Wadham, Knyght and Captain, of the Isle of
AVight, whyche depted. owte of this worlde the viii. day
of December, in the year of our Lorde mdviil, on whose
soule Ihu have mercie. Amen."
Of a sister of the worthy Nicholas (who founded Wadham
College), a curious tale is told. Her name was Florence.
She was not only his sister but co-heiress, and carried her
share of the property to the Wyndhams. In 1561 she
married John Wyndham, or Wymondham, of Orchard
Wyndham, near St. Decuman's, Watchet.
The year after her marriage she fell ill, died, and was
buried. The sexton, as he was closing the vault in St.
Decuman's Church, hearing a noise in the coffin, had her
hastily taken up. She was shortly delivered of a son, after-
wards Sir John Wyndham. Among the monuments of the
Wyndhams in St. Decuman's Church is that of Sir John and
his wife, the Lady Florence.
Authorities. — Collinson's Somerset ; personal know-
ledge ; Murray's Handbook to Somerset.
(1562-1619.)
:o:-
The poets of Somerset are not many, or at least not such
as are known to fame ; the more therefore should we make
of those that we possess. The name of Samuel Daniel is
however by no means as well known as it deserves. He
may not stand in the first rank, but his merits are not
small ; and one of his greatest is the effort that he made
to improve and refine the English tongue.
Born at Taunton in the sixteenth century, he was a star,
if not of the first magnitude, yet one who did his share in
illuminating the brilliant hemisphere of the Elizabethan
period. He is now most undeservedly neglected. He was
one of those who dared to use the English language as it
had never been used before, who enriched and polished it,
moulded it, and gave it fresh vigour and new life, and
earned for himself among his compeers the title of "the
well-languag'd Daniel." Yet so new was the idea that
English was anything more than a barbarous tongue, that
two such masters of it as Bacon and Daniel scarcely seemed
to think it likely to survive. Bacon says, speaking of his
494 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
" Essays " : "I do conceive that the Latin volumes of them,
being in the universal language, may last as long as books
last." He evidently had no such assurance with regard to
his English ones ; yet now Bacon's " Essays " are a text-
book in the numerous examinations of the day, and, pro-
bably, for one who reads his Latin " Essays " five hundred
read his English ones.
Daniel shared this doubt of the stability of the English
tongue, and in his " Musophilus," a defence of learning cast
into the form of a dialogue between Musophilus and Philo-
cosmus, alternates between a lamentation on our " unknown"
tongue and a prophetic inspiration as to its future glories.
Thus in one mood he says :
" Oh that the ocean did not bound our style
Within these strict and narrow limits so,
But that the melody of our sweet isle
Might now be heard to Tiber, Arne, and Po ;
That they may know how far Thames doth outgo
The music of declined Italy."
Again he speaks of England as —
" This little point, this scarce discovered isle,
Thrust from the world, with whom our speech iinhnoivn
Made never traffic of our style."
But anon, with a truer and more hopeful vision, he
exclaims —
" Who knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory will be sent
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores ?
What world in the yet unformed Occident
May come refined with accents that are ours? "
SAMUEL DANIEL. 495
Such was the poet's vision, and we know how its wondrous
truth is being yearly more and more exemplified.
Daniel was the son of a music-master, and born near
Taunton, and, for all his court life, remained attached to
his native county, where he returned some years before
his death. At the age of seventeen he was admitted com-
moner of Magdalene College, where he devoted himself
chiefly to the study of history and poetry. At the end of
three years he quitted the university without taking a degree,
"his genius being," according to Anthony a Wood, "more
prone to easier and smoother subjects than in pecking and
hewing at logic." He resided for some time in the Pembroke
family, and was subsequently appointed tutor to the Lady
Anne Clifford, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, who
showed her love and respect for her old master by erecting
a monument to his memory. He is said to have succeeded
Spenser as poet-laurtate to Queen Elizabeth ; if so, he was
afterwards superseded by Ben Jonson. " His own merit,"
says George Burnett,' "joined to the recommendation of
his brother-in-law John Florio, author of an Italian diction-
ary, procured him the patronage of Queen Anne, consort
of James I., and he was appointed by her to the ofiEice of
groom of the privy chambers. Here he acted as master of
the revels, and, as author as well as stage manager, directed
the elaborate masques which were the queen's great delight.
Perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful of these ever
performed was one under his auspices, to celebrate the
creation of Henry Stuart as Prince of Wales. Why the boy
' Of Balliol College, Oxford, author of " Specimens of English Prose
Writers."
496 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
did not receive the title immediately on his father succeed-
ing to the English throne does not appear. There had been
no Prince of Wales for three reigns, Edward VI. being the
last, and James seems to have thought " Prince of Great
Britain" had superseded the old time-honoured dignity of
Prince of Wales ; but now that Prince Henry was come to
man's estate, the people willed that he should bear the
ancient title, and it was made an occasion of grand state
ceremonial and gorgeous and graceful court masques.
Ben Jonson wrote an address in verses, which recapitu-
lated the deeds of preceding Princes of Wales, and pro-
duced a masque in which the prince was represented as
awakening the dying genius of chivalry.
But that prepared by Daniel was not performed till a few
days after the prince's investiture. In this "glorious
masque " the queen and all the most beautiful ladies of the
court took part. The palace at Whitehall was the scene of
this graceful poem in action. Queen Anne herself was
Tethys, the Ocean-Queen, the Empress of the Streams, and
around her were clustered her ladies, who personated each
the stream which watered their father's or husband's estate.
The Lady Elizabeth, Princess Royal of Great Britain, was
the Nymph of Thames. Drawn from the quiet shades
of Coombe Abbey, how little could she have guessed in her
gracious beauty of the weary, anxious, eventful life that
would be hers. Lady Arabella Stuart, whose griefs and
sorrows form one of the saddest blots on James's reign, was
the Nymph of Trent. The Countess of Arundel represented
the Arun : the Countess of Derby the Derwent. The
learned Lady Anne Clifford, Daniel's pupil, who never
SAMUEL DANIEL. 497
forgot her accomplished tutor, represented the naiad of her
native Aire, the lovely river of her feudal domain of Skipton.
The Countess of Essex, then a girl-beauty of fourteen, as
yet innocent of evil, was the Lady of Lea ; Lady Haddington
represented the Rother ; and Lady Elizabeth Gray, daughter
of the Earl of Kent, the Medway, Little Prince Charles,
in the character of Zephyr, attended by twelve little ladies,
presented the queen's presents to his elder brother. Eight of
the handsomest noblemen of the court performed as tritons,
and were the partners and attendants of the river nymphs.
These tritons began the masque by the following song in
four parts, accompanied by the soft music of twelve lutes.
It was addressed to Zephyr, who was to bear a message to
the Ocean-Queen. It gives an idea of sweetness and
melody not unworthy of a greater poet than Daniel :
" Youth of the spring, mild Zephyrs, blow fair,
And breathe the joyful air
Which Tethys wishes may attend this day.
Who comes her royal self to pay
The vows her heart presents
To these fair compliments.
Breathe out new flowers which never yet were known
Unto the spring, nor Ijlown
Before this time to beautify the earth ;
And as this day gives birth
Unto new types of state,
So let it bliss create.
Bear Tethys' message to the Ocean-King,
Say how she joys to bring
Delights unto his islands and his seas :
And tell Meliades,
The offspring of his blood,
How she applauds his good."
33
498 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The scenery represented Milford Haven and the fleet of
Henry VH. The introduction of Henry VII. must have
been to show the joint ancestor of the Tudors and the
Stuarts.
Then followed a ballet, where Prince Charles danced,
encircled by his twelve naiads, the children being dressed
in satin tunics of the palest water-blue, embroidered with
silver flowers. Their tresses were hanging down in waving
curls, and their heads were crowned with garlands of water-
flowers. When the first dance was ended the scene of
Milford Haven was withdrawn, and the Queen, as Tethys,
was seen seated in glorious splendour on a throne of silver
rocks; round her throne were niches, representing little
caverns, in which her attendant river-nymphs were grouped.
Her daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, as the nymph of
Thames, was seated at her mother's feet. Dolphins, shells,
and seaweed adorned the throne.
As the poem which explained the motive of the masque
proceeded, the reciter put into the hands of Prince Charles
a trident, which he gave to his father, and the queen's
splendid present of a sword and scarf, which he gave to his
brother the Prince of Wales. Then one more dance by the
children, and another by the queen and her river nymphs,
" and by the time that was finished the summer sun showed
traces of his rising."
Such was the graceful and exquisite entertainment which
celebrated the restoration of the title of Prince of Wales,
after having lain dormant for sixty-three years. Ben Jonson
lent his services, and composed the personal address to the
queen ; Inigo Jones contrived all the arrangements so that
SAMUEL DANIEL. 499
they might harmonize with the magnificent banqueting-
hall in the newly-erected palace of Whitehall; but the
moving and presiding genius was Daniel, who in his three-
fold capacity as groom of the chambers, master of the
revels, and author, must have had almost entire control
over the whole of this quaint and beautiful device.
Within three years, the hero of the hour in whose honour
this gorgeous entertainment was planned, Prince Henry,
was dead ; the Princess Elizabeth had left her native
country "as Electress Palatine j Frances Howard, Lady
Essex, was divorced; and Lady Arabella Stuart was a
prisoner in the Tower !
Daniel is said to have succeeded Spenser as poet-laureate
to Queen Elizabeth. The office must have been no sinecure
in those days, for Elizabeth was ever greedy of the sweet
incense of adulation. But, much as Daniel was prized by
Queen Ann (of Denmark), by whom he was introduced at
court to all the celebrated men of the day — such as Sir John
Harrington, himself a native of Somerset ; Sir Robert
Cotton, and Sir Henry Spelman — yet he appears to have
yielded his office to Ben Jonson, who, as the favourite poet
of this queen, wielded the sceptre of poesy.
Daniel cannot be called a great poet, but he deserves a
high place in our Hterature for the purity of his diction,
while his works abound with passages of real beauty.
Thoughtful, grateful, right-minded and gentle-hearted, pure
in mind and manners, there is no poet in any language of
whom it may be inferred with more certainty from his
writings that he was an amiable, a wise, and a good man.
His prose works were, " A Defence of Rhyme," in 1611,
500 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and a "History of England, from the Norman Conquest to
the reign of Edward III." In his apology for omittmg the
earlier history of our country he shows a much closer insight
into what authentic history was than Milton, who seems to
have taken the wild tales of Geoffrey of Monmouth as truth,
and speaks of the disputes between the Anglo-Saxon
monarchs as of no more value than the quarrels of kites
and crows. The critical faculty seems to have been as
yet undeveloped, and perhaps Daniel was wise to reject
what he was unable to sift. Burnett speaks of this work
as displaying good sense and a manly taste; the narrative
is clear and simple, and the language is remarkable for
being more correct and elegant, and more resembling our
modern style, than that of any writer of his age. His
history was continued to the death of Richard HI. by
John Trussel, a trader and alderman of the city of Win-
chester, the inferiority of whose continuation may perhaps
account for the differing opinions of his merits as an
historian.
His most celebrated poetical works were his " History of
the Civil Wars" (of the Roses), and his "Complaint of
Rosamond;" " Musophilus ;" two tragedies, " Cleopatra »
and "Philotas;" two pastoral tragi-comedies, "Hymen's
Trhimph" and "The Queen's Arcadia;" besides various
minor pieces, elegies, epistles, masques, songs and dramas,
in which his poetical taste most strongly displayed itself.
Enjoying as he did the friendship of such men as
Chapman, Camden, Fulke Greville, Selden, and Shakspeare
himself, he could have afforded to pass by the sneers of
Ben Jonson, whose imperious temper could ill brook a rival.
SAMUEL DANIEL 50I
But Jonson spoke with derision of some of his verses, and
his words appear to have mortified the gentle poet. He
retired from court, and towards the close of his life settled
on a farm at Beckington, not far from Frome, in his native
county, where he died in October, 1619, "beloved, honoured,
and lamented." He was buried at Beckington, where Lady
Anne Clifford, afterwards Countess of Dorset, placed a
monument to his memory.
Authorities. — Various Biographies ; Miss Strickland's
Lives of the Queens; Chambers' Cyclopcedia of
English Literature : Reid's English Literature ;
George Burnett's Prose Writers.
Dr. John B^JhU
(1563-1628.)
-:o:-
IT is Strange, but true, that of a man famous in his own time,
and whose praise passed even then into foreign countries,
there should yet be left two such important circumstances
in doubt ?is— first, the exact place of his birth ; secondly,
as to whether he was or was not the author of " God Save
the King."
Of the first uncertainty there seems no tradition save only
that he was a native of Somerset, and allied, it is said, to the
noble family of Somerset. The second is a subject of con-
troversy to the present day. His early education appears to
have been slight, and how his genius was turned in the
direction of music we are not told. He received his musical
education, however, from Blythman, organist of the Chapel
Royal to Queen Elizabeth, a musician highly celebrated in
his day, but of whose compositions none now remain. At
the death of his master in 1591, Bull was appointed his
successor; and in 1596, on the queen's recommendation,
he was created first professor of music to the new institution
of Gresham College, having before obtained the degree of a
DR. JOHN BULL. 503
doctor of music at Cambridge. A special dispensation was
necessary to enable him to hold the ofifice, as the laws of the
institution required that his lectures should be read in Latin
as well as English, to the former of which he was not com-
petent — a great tribute in itself to the appreciation in which
he was held in his own day.
In 1 60 1 he went on the Continent for his health, and of
this time Anthony k Wood tells the following story : — "While
travelling incognito through France and Germany, he heard
of a famous musician belonging to the Cathedral of St. Omer,
and applied to him to see his works. The musician having
conducted Bull to a vestry or music-school adjoining the
cathedral, showed him a lesson or song of forty parts, and
then made a vaunting challenge to any person in the world
to add one more part, supposing it so complete that it was
impossible to correct or add to it. Dr. Bull having requested
to be locked up for two or three hours, speedily added forty
more parts, whereupon the musician declared that ' he that
added those forty parts must be either the devil or Dr. John
Bull.' " Some discredit has been thrown upon this story by
Dr. Burney, who declared the feat to be im[;ossible ; but Dr.
Rimbault and Mr. Macfarren pronounce it to be perfectly
feasible. In any case, the anecdote shows how high was Dr.
Bull's musical reputation.
On the queen's death he was appointed first organist to
James I. : and on the i6th of July, 1607, he entertained his
Majesty and Prince Henry at the Merchant Taylors' Hall
" with excellent melodic upon a small paire of organs placed
there for that purpose onlie." It was on this occasion— so
says tradition — that Dr. John Y>u\\ first performed in iniblic
504 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
what has since been our National Anthem, " God Save the
King." It was not much more than a year and a half since
the Gunpowder Plot, and the royal family and parliament's
happy deliverance from Guy Faux's contemplated " explo-
sion." The verse which sounds so oddly, and is yet almost
invariably sung with such exuberant enthusiasm—
" Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks ;
On him our hopes we fix :
God save the King " —
was at that time singularly appropriate, and was doubtless
suggested by the occurrence then so fresh in every one's
mind. Such is the legend or tale with regard to Dr. Bull's
authorship of our National Anthem. There are, however,
several other claimants. Their respective merits are ably
discussed in " Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time."
But we of Somerset will not hghtly resign our belief that the
author is any other than our celebrated fellow-countryman,
Dr. John Bull.
In 1613, the year that the Princess EHzabeth was married
to the Prince Palatine, he left England and entered the
service of the Archduke of the Austrian Netherlands. He
afterwards settled at Lubeck, where he is supposed to have
died in 1622. What made him so un patriotically leave his
country, and spend his talents and his life in the service of
another sovereign, we do not know.
An interesting letter, written by the Chevalier Leon de
Burbure in answer to an inquiry from Mr. Chappell as to
whether any of Dr. Bull's MSS. were in the library of the
cathedral at Antwerp, may filly close this notice.
DR. JOHN BULL. 505
The letter bears date the 19th of June, 1856.
" Impossible de rien vous dire sur le manuscrit dont vous
me parlez dans votre lettre d'hier. I'ignore si jamais la
Cathedral d'Anvers en a possede' du Docteur John Bull,
mais en tout cas il n'en reste plus de traces depuis long-
temps. Les seuls faits relatifs a John Bull que j'ai decouverts
sont ; qu'il devint organiste de Notre Dame k Anvers en
161 7, en remplacement de feu Rumold Waebrant : qu'en
1620 il habitoit la maison joignant I'Eglise du cote de la
Place Verte ; actuellement habitee par le Concierge de Notre
Dame; qu'il mourut le 12 on 13 Mars, 1628, et fut enterre
le 15 du meme mois; que pendant le temps qu'il fut organiste
h Anvers, en grande partie k la raccommendation du magis-
tral de cette ville. Sa signature est k peu pres celleci. . . .
Dans les comptes et quittances Flamandes on I'appelle Doctor
Jan Bull. Dr. John Bull n'etoit, du reste, pas le seul Anglais
residat k Anvers a la meme epoque ; je trouve parmi les
pretres chapelains Joannes Beake (en Latin Beckins), Anglus
1598 a 1607; Joannes Starkens 1613 a 1636; Anthoinus
Sanderus, Anglus, 161 1 a 1622 ; Adamus Gordonius, Scottus,
1627 a 1640 ; Thomas Covert 1598; Edmundus Lewkenor
1598 ; Gulielmus Clederoe 1598; Robertus Bruckius 1598 ;
Fitzgerald 1600."
Authorities. — Mackenzie's Biographical Dictionary ;
Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time.
TH0JV1A3 COF^YATE,
OF ODCOMBE, IN SOMERSET.
(1577-1617.)
Thomas Coryate, of Odcombe, near Montacute, was a
sinsular character who lived at the end of the sixteenth and
bec^innins of the seventeenth centuries. He was born in the
year 1577, and was popularly known as Tom Coryate, or, as
he styled himself, " The Odcombian Leg-stretcher." His
father, the Rev. George Coryate, rector of Odcombe, was an
elegant writer, especially of Latin verse. Fuller places the
son among the worthies of Somerset, and thus describes
him : " Tho. Coriat, born at Odcombe, and bred at Oxford,
a great Grecian, carried folly— which the charitable called
merriment— in his face, and had a head in form like an
inverted sugar-loaf He lay always in his cloaths, to save
both labour and charge in shifting. Prince Harry " (Henry
Stuart, eldest son of James L) " allowed him a pension, and
kept him for his servant. Sweet-meats and Coriat made up
the last course at all entertainments, being the courtiers'
anvil to try their wits upon. Sometimes he returned the
hammers, as hard knocks as he received. His book, called
THOMAS CORYATE. 507
* Coriat's Crudities,' is not altogether useless. Being hardy,
he undertook to travel on foot to the East Indies, and dyed
in the middle of his journey."
From other sources we gather that in i6oS he took a
pedestrian tour through Europe, and is said to have walked
nine hundred miles in one pair of shoes. On his return he
hung them up as curious relics in Odcombe Church. He
published his travels under the title "Crudities Hastily
Gobbled Up in 5 Months' Travel." In 1612, the year of
his patron Prince Henry's death, he went on a tour in the
East. He travelled through Constantinople, Greece, Egypt,
Palestine, visiting Alexandria, Jerusalem, Cairo, the Pyra-
mids, Babylon ; thence he proceeded to Lahore and Agra,
where he was received at the court of the Great Mogul ;
finally, after a short illness at Surat, he died in 16 17.
During this tour he lived, as he said, upon twopence a
day ; yet to this eccentric being, who seems to have despised
all the conventionalities of life, we owe the introduction of
forks into England. He says in his " Crudities " : "I
observed a custom in all these Italian cities and towns
through which I passed that is not used in any other country
that I saw in my travels, neither doe I think that any other
nation of Christendom doth use it, but only Italy. The
Italians, and also most strangers that are commorant ^ in
Italy, doe alwaies at their meals use a little fork when they
cut their meate. For while with their knife, which they
hold in one hand, they cut their meate out of the dish, so
that he be that sitting in the company of others at meate,
should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers
* Commoralion, tarrying or dwelling in a place (Bailey's Dictionary).
5o8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
from which all at the table doe eat, he will give occasion of
offence unto the company, as having transgressed the laws
of good manners, in so much that for his error he shall be at
the least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in words. This
form of feeding, I understand, is generally used in all places
of Italy, their forkes being for the most part made of yron or
Steele, and some of silver ; but these are used only by gentle-
men. The reason of this, their curiosity, is, because the
Italian cannot by any means endure to have his dish touched
with fingers, seeing all men's fingers are not alike clean.
Hereupon I myself thought good to imitate the Italian
fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was
in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England
since I came home : being once quipped for that frequent
using of my fork by a certain gendeman, a familiar friend
of mine, one Mr. Laurence Whitaker, who, in his merry
humour, doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for
using a fork at feeding, but for no other cause."
The Italians must have been far ahead of the rest of
Europe in the most ordinary matters of civilization ; for
Coryate mentions "the umbrella" with some care, as he
evidently doubts the name being understood. How the
word became misused, as it is in England, for a shelter from
rain, instead of a shade from the sun, does not appear. But
Coryate thus describes it : " Here will I mention a thing,
that although perhaps it will seem but frivolous to divers
readers that have already travelled in Italy, yet because unto
many that neither have been there, nor ever intend to go
thither while they live, it will be a mere novelty, I will not
let it pass unmentioned. Many of them doe carry other fine
THOMAS CORYATE, 509
things of a great price — that will cost at least a duckat —
which they commonly call in the Italian tongue umbrellas,
that is things that minister shadow unto them for shelter
against the scorching heat of the sun. These are made of
leather, something answerable to the forme of a little canopie,
and hooped in the inside with divers little wooden pegs
that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compasse. They
are used especially by horsemen^ who carry them in their hands
when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of
their thighs ; and they impart so long a shadow unto them,
that it keepeth the heat of the sun from the upper part of
their bodies.
Authorities. — Fuller's Worthies and Coryate's Crudities.
John P y jvi .
(A.D. 1584-1643.)
■:j:-
The name of Pym is so indissolubly united with that of
Hampden that it is scarcely possible to speak of one without
the other. They share the honour of having no self-
interested views in the side which they took in the great
rebellion; then also, although Puritans, they were nof
sectarians, but remained attached to the Church of their
forefathers till their death : they also may be considered
happy in both alike dying before the rebellion which they
promoted culminated in the death of the king.
Pym was born, in 15 84, of an old Somerset family. Their
seat was Brymore House, near Canington. In his fifteenth
year he entered as a gentleman commoner of Broad-gate
Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford, where he had for his
tutor Degory Wheare. He appears not to have taken his
degree, but leaving college, possibly because he showed
his principles too plainly, he entered one of the inns of
court and studied common law.
In December, 1620, he entered parliament, and sat for
Calne, in Wiltshire. He took part in the remonstrance
JOHN PYM. 511
against Popery, which James was supposed to favour in the
Spanish marriage which he proposed for Prince Charles ;
and gave speech to the discontent which was felt in the
country at James's scant assistance to his son-in-law, the
Elector Palatine. James heard of the intended remon-
strance, and wrote a letter to the Speaker (after the manner
of Queen Elizabeth), sharply rebuking the House for de-
bating matters above their reach and capacity. The House
of Commons framed a remonstrance, which they delivered
to the king at Newmarket by the hands of twelve deputies,
one of whom was Pym. The king sarcastically ordered
stools to be brought for the " rival kynges." James was
far-seeing enough to see the storm that was brewing, though
he lacked dignity and tact to guide it, as his son did the
suppleness that would have bent before it. But it is highly
improbable that the most gifted or supple sovereign could
have long delayed, or at all, averted the struggle ; the
Stuarts were heirs to the arbitrary measures and the reck-
lessness of human life that distinguished the Tudors : and,
though far more conscientious, and a thousand times more
merciful, they were not imbued with that resolute will which
bore down all opposition, or with the wise elasticity which
knew when to give way.
In his answer to the deputies, the king told them that
their privileges were derived from the grace and permission
of his ancestors. When this was reported to the House
of Commons they entered a protest, in which they declared
"that the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdiction
of parliament are the ancient and undoubted right and
inheritance of the subjects of England." The king sent for
512 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the journals of the House, tore out the leaf with his own
hand, and ordered his reasons to be inserted in the council-
book. Several of the leading members of the House,
among whom were Pym and Sir Edward Coke, were com-
mitted to the Tower for resisting the king's authority.
In 1623, the last parliament of James I., Pym sat for
Tavistock, and continued to sit for that borough in suc-
cessive parliaments till his death. Curiously enough, he
appears in the blue-book return of members of parliament
as John Pym, of Brummer (Brymore), in the Short Par-
liament, which sat barely a month, and was so hastily
dissolved by Charles ; but in the Long Parliament, which
was summoned in the same year, there is no return for the
borough of Tavistock, for which, however, he sat in con-
junction with Sir William Russell, who afterwards became
Duke of Bedford.
After the accession of Charles, the activity and influence
of Pym increased, and he became daily more conspicuous.
He was soon one of the recognized leaders of the party who
were determined to reduce the prerogatives of the Crown.
With him were joined Sir Edward Coke, Sir Edwin Sandys,
Sir Robert Philips, Sir Francis Seymour, Sir Dudley Digges,
Sir John Elliott, Sir Thomas Wentvvorth, and Mr. Seldon.
They used their constitutional power of granting supplies
to force, or endeavour to force, upon the king concessions
of his rights and privileges.
In 1626 Pym was one of those who conducted the im-
peachment of the Duke of Buckingham, which, however,
was quashed by the dissolution of parliament.
In 1640, on the eve of the Long Parliament, Pym rode
JOHN PYM. 513
through England (says Green, in his " History of the
English People ") to quicken the electors to a sense of
the crisis which had come at last ; and on the assembling
of the Commons he took his place not merely as member
for Tavistock, but as their acknowledged head. " Pym's
temper was " — says the same authority — " the very opposite
of the temper of a revolutionist. Few natures have been
wider in their range of sympathy or action. Serious as- his-
purpose was, his manners were genial and even courtly : Re-
turned easily from an invective against Strafford to a chat
with Lady Carlisle. It was this striking combination of
genial versatility, with a massive force in his nature, which
marked him out from the first moment of power as a born
ruler of men. He proved himself the subtlest of diplomatists
and the grandest of demagogues. No English ruler has ever,
shown greater nobleness of natural temper or a wider
capacity for government than this Somersetshire squire."
Unable as the writer feels to agree with this eulogy, it is-
gladly reproduced as a proof of the estimation in which a
son of Som.erset was, and still is, held by high authorities.
The Long Parliament met on November 3, 1640, and
immediately began, with the impeachment of Strafford.
Pym, Hampden, and St. John were chosen to conduct,
the matter, but it was Pym who took the leading part.
It is said that when Sir Thomas Wentworth became Earl;
of Strafford, meeting some of his former friends he said,
" Well, you see, I have left you ; " and Pym's answer was —
" Yes, yes, my lord ; but we will never leave you while that
head is on your shoulders." Relentlessly, pitilessly, un-
scrupulously, did Pym carr)' out his threat. We know the
34
514 MYTHS, SCENES, AXD WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
end, and how by subversion of every rule of equity and
justice, that noble gentleman was brought to the blocL
That deep malignity was at the bottom of it seems proved
by the fact of Pym's taking so prominent a part. He pro-
fessed to consider Strafford's conversion to the royal cause
as a piece of treachery to his country, paid for by the king
with his coronet. But there appears no reason to doubt that
Strafford saw what was coming, and that, like many others,
he had reached the point at which he considered resistance
to authority lawful : he foresaw that liberty would become
license till overruled by a far more crushing despotism than
the Stuarts ever aimed at. And so little did Pym consider
honour or truth, that he was not ashamed to make use
of private papers stolen from the desk of the elder Vane by
his son, when entrusted with the keys for a particular purpose,
and thus to give such slight pretence of justice as could be
found for the earl's condemnation.
In 1642, an accusation of high treason was entered in
parliament by the attorney-general against five members
and Lord Kimbolton. The five commoners were Hollis,
Hazelrig, Hampden, Pym, and Strode. It is well known
that when Charles would have personally arrested them "the
birds had flown." Pym had received intelligence from the
beautiful traitress and political spy, Lady Carlisle, and
the blow was turned aside. Queen Henrietta had confided
the secret to her friend, who, on her part, had given notice
to Pym. Charles's intention — a bold, if not a rash one —
though not illegal, was one which nothing but success could
justify, and that success failed through the tattling of the
queen and the treachery of Lady Carlisle.
JOHN PYM. 515
In order to inflame the people against the king, petitions
to parliament were encouraged from all parts of the kingdom.
" The very women were seized with the same rage. A
brewer's wife, followed by many thousands of her sex,
brought a petition to the House : in which they expressed
their terror of the papists and prelates, and their dread
of like massacres, rapes, and outrages with those which had
been committed upon their sex in Ireland. ' They had been
necessitated,' they said, 'to imitate the example of the
women of Tekoah ; and they claimed equal right with
the men, of declaring, by petition, their sense of the public
cause : because Christ had purchased them at so dear a rate,
and in the free enjoyment of Christ consist equally the
happiness of both sexes.' Pym came to the door of the
House, and having told the female zealots that their petition
was thankfully accepted, and was presented in a seasonable
time, he begged that their prayers for the success of the
Commons might follow their petition."^
There is no doubt that, from the meeting of the Long
Parliament, Pym's power for good or evil was practically
unlimited. His opponents named him King Pym, and in a
collection of loyal songs there is one in which he is named
as the undoubted leader of the Roundheads : —
" God save the King, the Queen, the Prince also,
With all loyal subjects, both high and low.
The Roundheads can pray for themselves, ye know :
Which nobody can deny !
Plague take Pym and all his peers !
Huzza for Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers !
W'hen they come here, these hounds will have fears :
W'hich nobody can deny !
' Hume.
5l6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
God save Prince Rupert and Maurice withal,
For they gave the Roundheads a great downfal,
And knocked their noddles 'gainst Worcester wall :
Which nobody can deny !" ^
There can be little doubt that if Pym had continued to act
on the principle which regulated the first proceedings of the
patriotic party in the Long Parliament, and had limited his
demands to objects essential to good government and com-
patible with the genius of the constitution, the manifold
evils of the civil war would have been obviated ; and the
monarchy and representative institutions of the country
brought into concord, without any further struggle.
Unfortunately, however, as we have seen in the last
anecdote, he abandoned the moderate and constitutional
position he had hitherto occupied; and framed and pro-
posed the grand remonstrance, confessedly for stemming
the current of returning loyalty, reanimating the discontent
almost appeased, and guarding the people against the con-
fidence they were beginning to place in the king's sincerity.
He proposed the famous " nineteen propositions," the
adoption of which would have annihilated the monarchical
element in the constitution ; and in his determination to
deprive the king of all power for evil,, he advocated a policy
which ultimately led to the destructioa of the constitution
itself.
It was in 1643 that the triu,mphant campaign took place
in the west, where the Royalists, under Sir Ralph Hopton
and Sir Bevil Grenville, Sir John Stawell and Sir Nicholas
Stanningj droye the Parliamentary forces out of the west
' M.iss. Strickland^
JOHN PYM. 517
county. Then Pym turned to the Scotch, and bargained
with them to force Presbyterianism on the Enghsh and give
up the Episcopal Church, of which he himself was a member;
whilst Charles took the disastrous resolution of opposing
Irish Roman Catholics to English rebels. But amidst these
new elements of strife the two great leaders and friends were
called away. Hampden was wounded on Chalgrove field,
and died in July. Pym followed him on the 8th of Decem-
ber in the same year, displaying a calm and manly fortitude
in his last hours, and praying fervently for the prosperity
of the king and people. His disease was brought on, it is
believed, by the toils and anxieties of his self-imposed
labours. His way of living is said to have been marked
by a simplicity approaching to austerity ; yet he left debts
amounting to :^ 10,000, which were paid by the parliament,
who also undertook the care of his family. He was voted
a magnificent public funeral, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey.
" He was, at the time of his death," says Clarendon, " the
most popular man that ever lived. He had a very comely
and grave way of expressing himself, with great volubility
of words, natural and proper; and understood the temper
and affections of the kingdom as well as any man."
Authorities. — Clarendon's History of the Rebellion ;
Hume's History of England ; Warburton's Prince
Rupert and the Cavaliers ; Miss Strickland's Lives
of the Queens of England ; Green's History of the
English People ; Mackenzie's Biography ; Blue-Book
Returns of Members of Parliament.
^\Y\ AjVIIA3 Pf^E^TON.
(Circa A.D. 1588.)
" Sir Amias Preston was descended of an ancient family,
who have an habitation at Cricket (St. Thomas), nigh Crew-
kerne, in this county. He was a vahant Soldier and an
active Seaman. Witnesse in 1588, when he seized on T/ie
Admiral of the Galliases., wherein Hugh de Mon^ada, tlie
Governor, making resistance, with most of his men, were
burnt or killed ; and Mr. Preston (as yet not Knighted)
shared in a vast treasure of gold taken therein. In 1595
he took the isle of Puerto Santo, and the isle of Cochi,
surprised the Fort and Town of Coro, sack'd the City of St.
Jago, put to ransom the Town of Cumana, and entred
Jamaica (all in the West Indies) : and returned home
safely, with little loss, some profit and more honour," says
Fuller.
" He sent a challenge to Sir Walter Raleigh, then Privy
Councillor, which w\is by him refused, Sir Walter having a
Wife and Children, and a fair estate ; and Sir Amias being
a private and single person, though of good Quality.
Besides, Sir Walter condemned those for ill Honours,
where the Hangtnan gives the Garland. These two Knights
were afterwards reconciled, and Sir Amias dyed about the
beginning of the Reign of King James."
Authorities. — Hakluyt's Voyages ; Fuller's Worthies.
Admiral BLy\KE.
(1599-1657.)
The niche in the Temple of Fame occupied by Robert
Blake should undoubtedly be a very prominent one ; nor,
to decide that he filled it worthily, is it necessary that our
sympathies or our prejudices should be always on his side
in the part that he played. He was an Englishman far
more than a partizan, and the greater portion of the services
he rendered his country were independent of party.
Blake was descended from a respectable family in Somer-
set. His grandfather was mayor of Bridgewater. His father
was not only a landowner but a merchant. He had ships
of his own, which he filled with his own cargoes, and carried
on a trade with Spain. His mother was co-heiress of a
knightly family. But Burke, in his "Peerage," carries up our
hero's pedigree to afar higher source; he affirms that he was
descended from one of the branches of the house of Blake,
of the county of Galway, in Ireland. Their immediate
ancestors having gone over to Ireland witli Prince, after-
wards King John, in 1185. But even this remote ancestry
does not suffice, for the name Blake is but Ap Lake, says
the great Herald; and the celebrated Lancelot du Lake — the
greatest of the knights of King Arthur's round table, yet
520 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
whose sin caused its utter destruction — was the ancestor of
all the Blakes, and therefore, of course, of that great hero
" whose name yields to none in the roll of antiquity."
Blake's birthday is not certainly known, but the parish
register supplies the date of his baptism — the 27th of
September, 1599. He was therefore probably about
four months younger than Oliver Cromwell. The early
part of his education was supplied by the free school
of the town, after which, at the age of sixteen, he went
to Oxford ; he matriculated at St. Alban's Hall, but
afterwards removed to Wadham College, then recently
founded by his father's friend, Nicholas Wadham. His
portrait is still to be seen in the hall at Wadham. But as
■ Blake intended to devote himself to learning, he tried for a
fellowship at Merton, but was rejected by Sir Henry Savile —
then warden — for the strange reason given that he was not
of sufficient stature ! He took his M.A. degree, and re-
mained there altogether nine years. His father's health
failing, Robert Blake was now called home to attend to
family affairs ; his father soon died, leaving an estate and
business burdened with debt as the support of his widow
and large family. Blake was now twenty-five ; he took
everything upon himself, paid his father's debts, and found
himself possessed of two hundred pounds a year and the
house at Bridgewater. Upon this slender income he took
care of his mother, educated and placed out in life his
brothers and sisters, and had the satisfaction of seeing them
all attain to positions of independence — some of them to
wealth and consideration.
In the Short Parliament of 1640 he first took his seat as
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 52 I
member for Bridgevvater. In the Long Parliament, Sir Peter
Wroth and Edmund Wyndham, Esq. were elected for the
borough ; but one having died and the other been expelled
by the dominant party upon some excuse, Sir Thomas Wroth
and Robert Blake were elected in their place, probably about
1645. I^ 1642 the civil war broke out, and Blake took
an active part on the side of the Parliament. In the
memorable Western Campaign, in 1643, his first prominent
appearance was at the siege of Bridgewater. Colonel
Fiennes was in command, and Blake defended a small
fort called Prior's Hill. Prince Rupert besieged the
place ; the princes tried lo pass the fort, but were driven
back again by desperate valour and incessant and well-
directed fire. Commander succeeded commander, and
each in turn went down. Lord Grandison led a fresh
attack, and went down ; his followers retreated, and were
pursued by Blake and his men. Colonel Owen took his
place — he went down ; and Blake, having cleared the hill,
retreated to his fort again. Meanwhile Colonel Fiennes
had agreed to surrender ; but Blake did not understand
giving up his position, and, after the agreement was made,
continued the fight, killing several of the king's forces.
Prince Rupert was, with reason, greatly exasperated, and
threatened to hang Blake, which he would have been per-
fectly justified in doing; he was saved, however, by the
entreaty of several gentlemen, who pleaded his inexperience
of the rules of war in excuse of his rashness. On the other
hand Colonel Fiennes was tried by court-martial for sur-
rendering the city, and condemned to be shot, but was
pardoned by the Lord- General Essex.
522 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
After this, Blake was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Pop-
ham's regiment ; with a portion of this force he endeavoured
to surprise Bridgewater, which had been taken by Lord
Hopton, with Taunton and Dunster, after the brilliant fight
at Stratton. Here, whilst besieging their native town, his
brother Samuel was killed. On being informed of his
brother's death, Blake remarked, "Sam had no business
there ; " but Sam's two children were taken charge of, and
Robert Blake was ever a father to them.
But not even Blake could subdue the loyalty of the
western counties, and town after town in Devonshire fell
before Prince Maurice, who remained in command till only
Plymouth, Lyme, and Poole remained. Blake held Lyme,
and Prince Maurice marched against it. It is a small sea-
port town, and contained then only one thousand inhabi-
tants; it had few defences, and is overlooked on the land side
by high ground — altogether as indefensible a place as can be
conceived. Blake occupied it with five hundred men and
some volunteers. Prince Maurice sat down before it, and
remained there two months, but made no impression on
"the little vile fishing town." It was at this juncture that
the turning point of the war came. Hampden and Pym
were dead ; the self-denying ordinance was passed ; Essex,
who had proved himself incapable, was compelled to retire;
and Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Cromwell as his lieutenant-
general, succeeded to the command; but still the west was
true to the king.
Blake then resolved to do his best to hamper the royal
movements, and in the summer of 1644 he occupied Taun-
ton. Ten thousand troops besieged the town, yet he held
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 523
it for more than a year, in spite of Goring and his dissolute
troopers, in spite of Sir Richard Grenville's rash vow that he
would never leave the place till Blake was out of it. But Sir
Richard was not made of the same stuff as his grandfather
and namesake of Queen Elizabeth's time, and fell far short
of the ideal perfection of a Christian knight to which his
brother Sir Bevil attained; and Blake's downright dogged
persistence was more than a match for the hectoring swagger
of those rufifianly Royalists, who were a disgrace and injury to
their cause. These, and such as these, made Blake feel
that he was not only fighting for what he believed to be
religion and liberty, but for the honour and safety of hearth
and home.
When summoned to surrender, Blake declared he would eat
his boots first. At last a breach was actually made j whole
streets were burned down by mortars and grenades, and the
Royalists were in possession of part of the town ; but at the
approach of Fairfax the siege was raised, and Blake's stern
defence relieved. During April, 1645, Blake reduced
Dunster Castle, and this was his last military service in
the war.
In writing the lives of two Somerset men who took oppo-
site sides in the great contest (Hopton and Blake), one is
glad to be able to mark one point of resemblance, viz., the
excellent discipline they each kept, the high religious tone
of their character, and the stern resistance they opposed to
rapine, plunder, and licentiousness, as much in their own
forces as those of their opponents.
How Blake passed the time between 1644- 1649 does not
clearly appear; probably as governor of Taunton, and so
524 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
holding a sort of command in the west, but away from the
political centre. But he evidently showed his dislike and
disapproval of the way things were tending, for when the
trial of the king was decided on, part of the troops under
Blake's orders were disbanded, so that he might have no
means of opposing the violent measures of the army.
His humane disposition and his disapproval of the king's
murder, together with the high and generous feelings of his
nature, which raised him to an immeasurable height above
mere partizanship, obtained for him the respect both of the
Republicans and Royalists, while it kept him from taking
part in the perplexed and conflicting politics of the age.
But Cromwell knew a good man and how to use him, and
he found employment for him as a patriot, and in a way that
has made his name famous to the present day.
In 1648 the fleet, which had ever been more loyal than the
army, mutinied ; they put their commander, Ramsborough,
with other Republican officers, on shore, and being supplied
with provisions by the king's friends in Kent, steered their
squadrons to the Brill, and delivered the fleet to the Duke
of York, whom the king had appointed Lord High Admiral
of England. This revolt of the navy made out of two of
England's best generals its finest admirals. Prince Rupert
was soon placed in command of the Royalist fleet, but brave
and noble as he was,^ from the time he first trod the deck of
his gallant ship he assumed the bearing and tone, as well as
the habits, of the ancient Viking. The Prince of Wales
and all his court were almost famishing in their exile, and
looked to Rupert's squadron to supply them with the very
' " Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers," iii. p. 256.
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 525
necessaries of life. Whenever a ship was seen she was
pursued, and a sail in sight and a well-secured prize soon
became synonymous. There was something very attractive
in this sort of adventurous life, and it required all the native
characteristics of gentlemen to prevent the sea-going cava-
liers from carrying their buccaneering to excess. But it was
not carried to excess : at least all was done fairly and above
board ; no cruelty was practised, fair terms were offered and
honourably kept towards the victims of this predatory war.
This being the state of things, it is not to be wondered at
that Cromwell thought it time to fit out a fleet, to protect
not only the shores of England, but the allies of the country,
from this strange admixture of loyalty and piracy.
Blake pursued Prince Rupert to Kinsale, in Ireland ;
thence to the Tagus, where the prince, with his brother
Maurice, lay under the protection of the Portuguese king.
Blake blockaded the port of Lisbon, but the princes escaped
with seven vessels, being assisted by the king; in retaliation
Blake seized twenty Portuguese vessels, richly laden with
treasure from the Indies. From the Tagus he followed
them to Carthagena and Malaga, where Prince Rupert cap-
tured some English merchantmen. Blake instantly attacked
them, burnt and destroyed the greater part of their ships,
while the two princes escaped with the remainder to the
West Indies.
Returning home, Blake encountered a French ship of
forty guns, the commander of which, not having heard of
the commencement of hostilities between the English and
French, accepted an invitation from Blake to go on board.
On being informed of the war, and asked whether he would
526 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
resign his sword, the French captain answered directly in
the negative. Blake then desired him to return to his vessel
and defend himself as best he could. This he did, and after
a brave resistance of two hours he surrendered.
In 1 65 1 Blake was appointed one of the admirals for the
year. During the period he was principally employed in the
reduction of the Scilly Islands, Jersey, and Guernsey. At
the close of this year he was elected a member of the coun-
cil of state. The relations between the Dutch and the
English became what is known in modern parlance as
strained, and negotiations were going on between the
countries with regard to the compensation claimed by the
English for injuries inflicted by the Dutch at Amboyna,
Persia, Muscovy, and Greenland. Whilst these conferences
were pending, a Dutch fleet, under Van Tromp, appeared in
the Downs. Blake was sent with such ships as were in
readiness to watch him. As the English fleet came in sight,
Van Tromp weighed anchor and bore up, without striking
his flag, an honour always paid to England in the narrow
seas. Blake reminded them of their duty by firing a gun
without ball; this he did three times, but Van Tromp's
reply was firing a broadside into the English admiral's vessel^
The battle lasted from four p.m. till nine, with fifteen ships on
the side of the English against forty-two on that of the Dutch .
then, about eight o'clock, appeared the rest of the English
fleet, consisting of eight ships more, under Major Bourne,
and an hour afterwards the Dutch fleet sailed away, with the
loss of two ships and one disabled.
Having recruited his strength, he instituted a solemn fast
on board the fleets for success on their enterprises ; and
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 527
finding that there was a sufficient force to defend the
Downs, Blake sailed on the 2nd of July, 1652. Bearing
northwards, he soon fell in with the Dutch fishers, who were
in great numbers, under the protection of twelve ships of
war. These defended the convoy with great determination,
but Blake made good his demands, and exacted and com-
pelled the pa3'ment of the tenth herring, and then permitted
them to depart. The war thus begun was continued by
Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt, but in almost every
action Blake maintained his superiority. In November,
1652, considering that the season of the year would prevent
further operations, he dispersed his fleet in various direc-
tions, twenty sail to protect the colliers from Newcastle,
twelve to Plymouth, while fifteen sailed up the Thames to
repair the damage they had received in a storm, he himself
siill riding in the Downs with about thirty-seven ships. Van
Tromp, hearing of the reduced state of the English fleet,
put to sea with seventy-seven ships of war. They fought
the whole day, till night parted them ; two of Blake's ships
fell into the hands of the Dutch, three were sunk ; yet for
this inconsiderable triumph over a force only half the
strength of his own, Tromp was in so great a state of exul-
tation that he passed through the Channel with a broom at
his masthead, to show, as he valiantly boasted, that he had
swept the English from the narrow seas. His triumph was
short-lived. Cromwell had perfect confidence in Blake ;
the fleet was re-formed, and in February of the following
year Blake went in search of his old enemy. It was on the
1 8th of the month that the English descried the Dutch
fleet steering along the coast of France, near Cape la Hogue,
528 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and immediately bore down to give them battle. For three
days this desperate fight continued. Blake was wounded
in the thigh, and his vessel much shattered. Van Tromp's
fleet had been acting as convoy to some merchantmen ; the
result of the whole engagement was eleven ships of war
and thirty merchantmen taken from the Dutch. About
fifteen hundred men were killed on each side. Only one
English ship was lost, the Sampson^ which her captain find-
ing disabled, sank. In this action Blake availed himself of
a large body of soldiers, who acted as marines, and whose
small arms did great execution.
The Dutch and the English were of the same metal,
neither knew what it was to own that they were defeated ;
and in the spring of 1653 Van Tromp convoyed a large
fleet of merchantmen round by the north — the route by
the Channel was too dangerous to be attempted — and
escorted them out and home in safety ; he then entered the
Downs with his men-of-war, made some prizes, and, as a
kind of bravado, battered Dover Castle. But he was soon
chastised for his boasting. Two actions, took place, one on
the 2nd of June, another on the 31st of July; in both the
Dutch were worsted with great loss, and in the second Van
Tromp was killed. The Parliament voted gold chains to
the commanders, Blake, Monk, Vice-Admiral Penn, and
Rear-Admiral Lawson, and medals to the captains. The
Dutch were now anxious for peace, and it was ratified on
the 5th of April, 1654. By this treaty the Dutch consented
to yield the great point in dispute, and to lower their flag in
the narrow seas. They abandoned the interests of Charles II.,
paid eighty-five thousand pounds as an indemnity for losses
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 529
sustained by the English East India Company, made
various other concessions and compensations, and entered
into a defensive league with England.
In the summer of 1654 Cromwell prepared two great
fleets, and sent them to sea with sealed orders, under the
command of Blake and Admiral Penn. The secrecy that
was maintained with regard to the destination of the fleets
alarmed the families of the sailors, and Cromwell was one
day pursued by a mob of the wives demanding to know
where their husbands were to be sent. He only answered
with a smile, " The ambassadors of France and Spain would
each of them willingly give me a million to learn that."
Blake sailed first to Leghorn, and demanded ;z£"i 50,000
of the Grand Duke for his beha\'iour to a former English
fleet under Appleton : he obtained ^60,000. From Leghorn
he proceeded to Algiers, when he sent an officer to the
Dey to demand satisfaction for the piracies inflicted on the
English, and requiring the release of all captives belonging
to his nation. This was conceded. At Tunis Blake made
the same demand, but was met with defiance; but Blake
soon showed them that they could not insult England with
impunity : he entirely destroyed the vessels of the Tunisians,
and forced them to conclude a treaty glorious and profitable
to this country. The Algerines were so humbled that they
were accustomed to stop the Salee Rovers, from whom
thay took every English prisoner and returned them to
Blake.
Cromwell's commands were, that at the proper time
Blake should attack Spain ; but before these instructions
were made known an incident happened which is worth
35
530 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
relating, as showing the high estimation In which Blake
insisted that England's dignity should be held. Some of
his seamen going ashore, as he lay in the roads of Malaga,
met a priest carrying the sacrament to some sick person
with the ceremonies usual in Roman Catholic countries.
They ridiculed and insulted the procession. The priest,
resenting this behaviour, incited the populace to set upon
them, and they beat them severely. On their return to
their ships the men complained to the admiral, who
instantly, by sound of trumpet, demanded that the priest
should be sent to him. The viceroy answered that he had
no power over a priest, and could not therefore comply with
the demand. Blake replied that if he were not sent within
three hours he should bombard the place. The priest was
sent on board immediately. When he was brought before
the English admiral, he pleaded the insolent behaviour of
the English sailors in excuse for his conduct. Blake
answered, " If you had complained to me I would have
punished them severely, for I would not suffer any of my
men to affront the religion of the place where I touched ;
but you were to blame in setting the Spaniards upon them,
for I would have you and the world to know that none but
an Englishman should chastise an Englishman."
The other fleet which was sent out at the same time with
Blake's, under Penn and Venables, had been sent against
the Spanish possessions in the West Indies. They had
taken Jamaica, but failed at San Domingo, and now, of
course, there was open war between England and Spain,
and Blake's duty was to intercept the Spanish treasure-ships
which were constantly bringing store of the precious metals
ADMIRAL BLAKE. ^'31
from America. In one fleet that he intercepted, two milHons
of pieces of eight were found.
In April, 1657, Blake was cruizing before the haven of
Cadiz when he gained intelligence of a Plate fleet that had
put into Vera Cruz, in the island of Teneriff'e. He arrived
before the town on the 20th of the month, when he dis-
covered the flota, consisting of six galleons richly laden,
and ten other vessels. These latter lay within the port, with
a strong barricado before them ; the galleons were drawn
up without the boom, because they drew too much water to
lie within it. The harbour itself was strongly fortified,
having to the north a castle, well furnished with artillery,
and seven forts, which communicated with each other, all of
which were defended with a numerous garrison. The
Spanish governor considered the place as so secure, both by
nature and art, and so well provided with the means of
defence, that when the master of a Dutch ship applied to
him for leave to sail, because he dreaded Blake's attacking
the ships in the harbour, he scornfully answered, " Go if you
will, and let Blake come if he dare."
The English admiral, after surveying the situation of the
enemy and the strength of the place, called a council of war,
wherein it was resolved to attack the ships in the harbour,
and endeavour to destroy them, it being considered imprac-
ticable to carry them off. Captain Stayner was appointed
with a small squadron to this honourable and desperate
service. He soon forced his passage into the bay, the wind
blowing right into the harbour, while other frigates played
upon the forts and line. Supported by Blake, Stayner
boarded the galleons, and in two hours the whole Spanish
532 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
fleet was destroyed. The greatest danger still remained to
the EngHsh ; they were exposed to the fire of the castles
and the forts, which, with all their caution, they could not
expect to silence ; but while they remained in this perilous
situation the wind, suddenly shifting, carried them out of
the bay, leaving the Spaniards in astonishment at the
intrepidity and good fortune of the English. The whole
loss sustained was only forty-eight men killed and one
hundred and twenty wounded.
When the news of this great success was brought to
■Cromwell, he sent his secretary, Thurloe, to the Parliament,
which was then sitting, and they immediately appointed a
day of general thanksgiving, and voted a ring of five hundred
pounds to Blake as a testimony of his country's gratitude ;
the sum of one hundred pounds to the captain who brought
the intelligence, and their thanks to all the officers and
soldiers concerned in the action.
One anecdote must not be omitted of this action. For
some misdemeanour, whether apparent fear or what not,
Blake, so strict was his discipline, brought his brother,
Captain Benjamin Blake'' before a court-martial ; being
pronounced guilty, he was dismissed his ship and sent
home, yet so great was his regard for him that he made him
his heir.
His last act was one of peaceful glory ; he demanded the
release of the Christian captives who were in the hands of
the Salee Rovers (and this incident recalls the fact that
Defoe's immortal tale of " Robinson Crusoe " is laid in this
period). But not a shot was required. The whole maritime
' In some accounts the name of this brother is given as Humphry.
ADMIRAL BLAKE. 533
world knew that Blake was master of the ocean, and the
corsairs feared his just vengeance too much to refuse his
demands. But Blake's work was done, and finding that his
ships were becoming foul, and feeling his health on the
decline, he sailed for England. By this time he was
afflicted by a combination of scurvy and dropsy. On his
passage home he became much worse, and as he perceived
his end approaching, he frequently inquired with great
earnestness whether they were in sight of land, anxious to
breathe out his last in his native country. But this satis-
faction he was not to enjoy ; he died as his ship (the Sf.
George) entered Plymouth Sound, on the 17th of August,
1657, aged fifty-nine years.
" Never man," says Hume, "so zealous for a faction, was
so much respected and esteemed by opposite factions. He
was by principle an inflexible republican, and the late
usurpation, amidst all the trust and caresses he received
from the ruling powers, were thought to be little grateful to
him. ' It is still our duty,' he would say to the seamen,
' to fight for our country, into what hands soever the
government may fall.' He was disinterested, generous, and
liberal, ambitious only of true glory, dreadful only to his
avowed enemies; he therefore forms one of the most perfect
characters of that age, and the least stained with those
errors and violences which were then so predominant."
The day after his death the body was embalmed and
wrapped in lead, his bowels taken out and buried in the
great church of Plymouth ; his body was, by order of
Cromwell, conveyed by water to Greenwich, where it lay
in state for several days ; it was carried thence, in a superb
534 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
barge, on the 4th of September, to be interred in AVest-
minster Abbey. This procession was accompanied by the
relations and servants of the deceased admiral, by Cromwell's
council, the commissioners of the navy, &c., the Lord
Mayor and aldermen of the city, the field officers of the
army and numerous persons of distinction, in different
barges and wherries covered with mourning, marshalled and
superintended by the heralds at arms. When arrived at
Westminster Bridge, where they landed, the procession con-
tinued through a guard of several regiments of foot, at the
head of whom Blake's intimate friend. General Lambert,
appeared, though at the time not on friendly terms with
Cromwell. The body of Blake was interred in a vault
made for the purpose in Henry VIL's Chapel. At the
Restoration it was reverently removed, and re-buried in St.
Margaret's Church.
It is worth noticing that notwithstanding Blake's services
in the civil war he does not find a place in " A Survey of
England's Champions and Truth's Faithful Patriots," by
Josiah Ricraft. I can only find his name once mentioned
incidentally as having taken Dunster Castle. He was pro-
bably too independent and too liberal to suit that most
bitter and prejudiced writer.
Authorities.— Hervey's Naval History; Naval Bio-
graphy, 1805 ; Macaulay's History; Green's History ;
Warburton's Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers ; Par-
liamentary Reports ; Burke's Peerage.
W)j:.LIAJVl pRYjNf^E.
(A.D. 1600-1669.)
-:o:-
The character of Prynne is one of the most curious among
the host of names that became celebrated on both sides
during the Great RebeUion. Narrow-minded, but strictly
conscientious, whatever lay straight before him seemed to him
to be for the time the sole truth ; and though a voluminous
writer and a great constitutional lawyer, his horizon never
enlarged, but only shifted its point of sight : he never
appears to have had room for more than one idea at a time.
He was born in 1600 at Swanswick, near Bath, and edu-
cated at a grammar school in that city, and he ever retained
his connection with his own county, and never ceased to
regard it with affection and interest. At the age of sixteen
he was entered as a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford.
After remaining there four years, he took his Bachelor's
Degree, and removed to Lincoln's Inn for the study of law.
Here he studied not only law, but church government and
controversial theology. The lecturer was one Dr. Preston,
a zealous Puritan, and he imbued Prynne with Genevan
ideas of discipline, and attached him to his own party.
536 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
What led him to take upon himself the office of Censor of
the Stage does not appear ; but once having the idea in his
head, he pursued it with his characteristic impetuosity.
The " Histrio-Mastix " of Prynne — a lawyer distinguished
for his constitutional knowledge, but the most obstinate and
narrow-minded of men — says Green in his History of Eng-
land, marked the deepening of Puritan bigotry under the
fostering warmth of Laud's persecution. The book was an
attack on players as the ministers of Satan, on theatres as
the devil's chapels, on hunting, may-poles, the decking of
houses at Christmas with evergreens, on cards, music, and
false hair. The attack on the stage was as offensive to the
more cultured minds among the Puritan party as to the
court itself. Selden and Whitelocke took a prominent part
in preparing the grand masque by which the Inns of Court
resolved to answer its challenge, and in the following year
Milton wrote his masque of " Comus " for Ludlow Castle.
To leave Prynne, however, to the censure of wiser men
than himself was too sensible a course for the angry primate.
No man was ever sent to prison before or since for such a
sheer mass of nonsense. But in his "Histrio-Mastix"
Prynne specially attacked women's acting; and as the queen,
Henrietta Maria, was herself to perform in a court masque,
and as there were thrown out sundry diatribes against
popery. Sec, it was supposed to be specially directed against
her. It is certain that if all the bad names he gives to
female actresses were really directed against the queen,
there was plenty of reason for taking action against him.
Yet the treatment he received sounds shocking enough in
these days. He was prosecuted before the Star Chamber,
WILLIAM PRYNNE. 537
condemned to pay a fine of ;^5,ooo, to stand twice in
the pillory, to lose his ears, to have his book burnt by
the common hangman, to be expelled from the society of
Lincoln's Inn and from the University of Oxford, and to
be imprisoned for life. All this was strictly legal — nay
Sacheverel was in danger of the same punishment nearly a
hundred years later. Though imprisoned he still continued
to write, and a pamphlet entitled " News from Ipswich "
again roused Laud to — shall we say? — righteous indignation.
He was condemned to pay another fine cf ^5,000, to
stand in the pillory, to have the stumps of his ears cut off,
and to be branded on both cheeks S. L. (seditious libeller).
This sentence was carried out ; he was imprisoned, first in
Caernarvon Castle, afterwards in Mount Orgueil in Jersey.
In 1640, at the meeting of the Long Parliament he was
released, and the sentence against him decided to be con-
trary to law. In the same month he entered London
amidst the triumphant acclamations of the people, to the
number of ten thousand persons, with boughs and flowers
in their hands. On his arrival in town Pr) nne presented a
petition to the House of Commons, complaining of the
persecutions which he had suffered from Archbishop Laud,
and the house voted him the sum of ^4,000 by way of
reparation — but it was never paid.
Prynne's views had become somewhat modified, and he
became a staunch Presbyterian, and would establish that
form of church-government in exclusion of all others. He
advocated persecution, from which he himself had suffered
so much, and wrote a book entitled " Truth triumphing over
Falsehood — Anticjuity over Novelty ; or a vindication of
538 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the undoubted jurisdiction and coercive power of Christian
emperors, kings, and parHaments in matters of rehgion."
In 1647 Prynne was one of the parhamentary visitors of
the University of Oxford, and during the Long Parliament
sided zealously with the Presbyterians. When Cromwell
and the pohtical Independents, however, acquired more
influence, Prynne exerted himself to the utmost against
them, and endeavoured to support Charles. But Prynne,
like many another, found it easier to set the demon of rebel-
lion in motion than to stay it when crushing all alike in its
course.
After the death of the king, Prynne still opposed Crom-
well, and was in consequence committed a close prisoner to
Dunster Castle. After a considerable time he obtained his
release by insisting strongly on Magna Charta and the
liberty of the subject, and again entered zealously into the
religious controversies of the day.
Being considered one of the secluded members of the
House of Commons, he was in 1659 restored to his seat,
and on the movement for the restoration of Charles II.,
was particularly zealous for that measure. In 1660 he was
elected member for Bath in the new Parliament, was restored
to his office of recorder, and made one of the commissioners
of appeals.
And now this strange man became as strenuous an advo-
cate for royalty and the divine right of kings as ever he had
been for so-called freedom and Puritanism. The Queen,
Catherine of Braganza, found great difficulty in getting her
annual income paid her; and Prynne, who had suffered so
much for maligning Henrietta Maria, now set himself to
WILLIAM PRYNNE. 539
improve her revenue by maintaining her claim to the
"aurum regin^e," or queen's gold. He even exerted his
antiquarian talents and research in writing a book on the
subject, which he dedicated to the queen. Charles was
highly amused at the devotion manifested by the stern old
Puritan to his popish consort, and his zeal for her pecuniary
interests ; but the right to the queen's gold had, during the
reigns of two successive female sovereigns, merged in the
Crown, and Charles, with his extravagant habits, being
always in want of money, was not likely to relinquish what
had become part of the Crown property for four reigns, to
his neglected wife.
Prj'nne's restlessness — for it was a necessity of his
character to be always agitating upon some crotchet or
other — became troublesome to the Government, and they
asked the king what course to pursue with him; and Charles,
with the clear common sense which was so great an ingre-
dient in his character, but which he seldom took the trouble
to exercise, immediately replied : " Odd's fish ! he wants
something to do ; I'll make him keeper of the tower re-
cords, and set him to put them in order, which will keep
him in employment for the next twenty years." The
activity of the antiquarian republican exerted itself to good
purpose in reforming the chaos that was committed to his
care. Studying the ancient records imbued him with a
reverence for royalty, and the man who had refused to
drink King Charles's health, or to dofif his hat while others
drank it, became a stickler for the divine right of kings and
an advocate for the restoration of the privileges and immu-
nities granted in the good old times to their consorts. He
54° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
even went so far as to justify the severity of the sentence of
the Star Chamber, by declaring that " if they had taken off
his head when they deprived him of his ears, he had only
been given his deserts."
Prynne died in October, 1669. He was a laborious and
voluminous writer. His works, contained in forty volumes,
he presented to the library of Lincoln's Inn. It is said
that, reckoning from the time he arrived at manhood, he
wrote a sheet for every day of his life. He read or wrote
during the whole day, and, that he might not be interrupted,
had no regular meals, but took refreshments of bread and
cheese and ale, which were placed by his side. His prin-
cipal law-books are " Records," in three volumes, folio ;
" Parliamentary Writs," in four parts, quarto; "Sir Robert
Cotton's Abridgement of the Tower Records, with amend-
ments and additions," folio; and "Observations on the
Fourth Part of Coke's Institutes," folio.
Authorities. — Cunninghame's Lives ; Mackenzie's Bio-
graphical Dictionary ; Green's History ; Miss Strick-
land's Life of Catherine of Braganza.
^\F{ }{/\hPH, Lof^D HOPTON,
(A.D. 1601-1652.)
In everything but the mere accident of birth, Sir Ralph
Hopton was a loyal son of Somerset. His father's seat was
at Stratton on the Fosse, an ancient village, as its name
implies, being on the lines of the great Roman road. It is
situated between Wells and Frome. His mother was
visiting some friends in Monmouthshire, when his birth took
place unexpectedly, but he was of course brought up and
educated in Somerset.
" His training was such, that he learned to pray as soon
as he could speak, and to read as soon as he could pray.
Before three years old he read any character or letter what-
soever in our Printed Books, and within a while, any
tolerable Writing Hand, getting by heart at four years and a
half, five or six hundred Latin and Greek words, together
with their Genders and Declensions."
The religious impressions gained at his mother's knee
deepened as he grew older, and we shall find them continu-
ing with him through his life.
" From a strict School and able School-master in the
Country, he was sent to a well-governed CoUedge, and an
542 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
excellent Tutor, Mr. Sanderson (afterwards Dr. Sanderson,
Bishop of Lincoln). But he soon discovered that he was
born for action, the life of a man, rather than speculation,
the life of a scholar. Letting it suffice others to meditate
upon the great things which former ages have done, while
he did great things which future ages might meditate upon.
" From the University therefore he goeth to the camp,
putting off his gown to put on his corslet, and exchanging
his Pen for his Sword. First exercising himself in the Low
Countryes — the then Nursery of English Gentry— as a
volunteer, and afterwards practising in the Palatinate as a
Captain." '
Here he fought for the Elector Palatine in his vain
attempt to hold the kingdom of Bohemia, making one of
a body of enterprising cavaliers, who, weary of the pacific
policy of James I., longed for some opportunity of distin-
guishing themselves. Chivalry as an institution was dead,
but the spirit of chivalry will exist as long as gallantry and
self-devotion are the characteristics of English gentlemen.
The battle of the White Mountain— better known as the
battle of Prague— was fought on the 19th of November,
1620, and the Imperial party triumphed. The stern
Maximilian was at the gates of the city, and eight hours
were all that was allowed to frame such terms of capitula-
tion as might save it from the horrors of assault. Before
then, or never, the young queen must be far away over the
rugged mountain passes through the wintry snow. Nor did
she hesitate ; delicately nurtured as she was, and within a
few weeks of her confinement, the brave Englishwoman
' Lloyd's " Memoirs of the Cavaliers."
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON. 543
preferred any fate to that of captivity and disgrace. Her
devoted followers offered to set the enemy at defiance and
defend the city to the death to cover her retreat. " Never !"
she exclaimed to Bernard Count Thurm, " never shall this
devoted city be exposed to more outrageous treatment for
my sake. Rather let me perish on the spot than be remem-
bered as a curse ! "
The carriage that was to convey the royal fugitives stood
ready for their flight, when, a sudden alarm being given, they
were hurried away by their servants, and borne off with
desperate speed over the level plain, attended by a few
faithful followers, and up by rarely trodden paths to the
mountains, where wheels could no longer move ; there the
poor queen was placed on horseback, and the proud
privilege of saving and guarding the " Pearl of Britain," the
" Queen of Hearts," as Elizabeth the fugitive queen was
called, was given to the young ensign, Ralph Hopton, who
rode for forty miles with this lovely woman on a pillion
behind him.
He was but nineteen when entrusted with this precious
charge. From henceforth he was one of the most enthu-
siastic of those who, like the chivalrous knights of old,
remained devoted to the service and distant worship of one
lady as their guiding star. Yet it deserves to be recorded
that in spite of this romantic devotion of Sir Ralph Hopton,
Lord Craven, and others, not even a breath of detraction
ever sullied Elizabeth's fair fame.
In was in November, 1620, that this perilous ride was
taken. On the 22nd of December, 1620, Prince Maurice
was born.
544 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
In 1625 we find him again in England. He was returned
in that year to Parliament as member for Wells. He sat
again for the same borough in 1640, in the Long Parliament.
He saw its commencement — perhaps he was happier in not
living to see its close, and the bitter disappointment of the
new reign. In 1630 we find him subscribing to a petition
to his Majesty, with other gentlemen of Somersetshire, to
prevent unlawful and scandalous revellings on the Lord's
Day, So great was his piety, that he was reckoned a
Puritan before the wars for his strict life, and a Papist in
the wars for his extraordinary devotion.
But all he saw of the factious proceedings in Parliament
led him to return to the west to make provision for the
struggle that he foresaw must eventually come; yet not till
he had opposed their acts with both his tongue and his
sword : for he spoke and argued well on the king's side,'
and in his own county he provided arms and ammunition at
his own expense, and fortified all such places as were
tenable in Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Devon — forty, it is
said, in all : and in conjunction with Sir Bevil Grenville and
Sir Nicholas Slanning, both Cornish men, and Sir John
Stawell, a Somersetshire man like himself, he raised a large
force on the king's side. In January, 1643, they began
that glorious campaign by which for a time they cleared the
whole western peninsula from the rebels to the king's
authority.
At Liskeard, in Cornwall, the western forces were assem-
'In March, 1642, he was imprisoned by the Parliament for dissenting
in his place in Parliament from the virtual declaration of war sent to
the king at Theobalds.
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON. 545
bled under their respective commanders, Lord Mohun of
Boconnoc, Sir John Berkley, and Colonel Ashburnham ; but
seeing that by the commission. Lord Mohun brought from
Oxford, all four were of equal rank, it was generally agreed
to elect one as chief, and the choice fell on Sir Ralph
Hopton, who indeed had seen much service, and -had good
military training and experience on the Continent.
The first general order he gave was that pubhc prayers
should be read at the head of every squadron, and it was
done accordingly; which the enemy observing, styled it
saying of mass.' On the 19th of January, 1643, ^ brave
battle was fought in Cornwall on Bradock Downs, near Bod-
min, by Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir Bevil Grenville. After
solemn prayers at the head of every division, they charged
and carried all before them. '' He caused the Foot to be
drawn up in the best order they could, and placed a Forlorn
of Musequeteers in the little Inclosures, wringing them with
the few Horse and Dragoons he had. This done, two
small Minion Drakes speedily and secretly fetched from
Lord Mohun's House, were planted on a little Burrough within
random-shot of the enemy, yet so that they were covered
out of sight with small parties of Horse about them. These
concealed Minions were twice discharged with such success
that the enemy quickly quitted their ground, and all their
army being put into a rout, the King's forces had the execu-
tion of them ; which they performed very sparingly, taking
1,250 Prisoners, all their Canon and Ammunition, and most
of their colours and arms, and after public thanks taking
' His chaplain was Thomas Fuller, best known as the author of
" Fuller's Worthies."
36
546 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
their repose at Liskeard." ^ Such was the battle of Bradock
Down between Liskeard and Lostwithiel.
Thence Hopton advanced towards Plymouth, and sat
down for a short time before its walls, and, in conjunction
with Sir John Berkley, took Saltash.
Soon afterwards both parties agreed to observe an exact
neutrality in Devon and Cornwall. But the Parliament
refusing to ratify this, about the beginning of May ordered
the Earl of Stamford to march into Cornwall, which he did,
with 5,400 foot and 1,400 horse, and posted himself on the
top of a very high hill near Stratton, the ascents to which
were exceedingly steep, and which he also rendered still
more formidable by placing thirteen brass ordnance and a
mortar piece to defend the heights. While in this situation
the earl detached his horse, under the command of Sir John
Chudleigh, to Bodmin, to surprise the sheriff and principal
gentlemen of the county who were there. Upon which Sir
Ralph Hopton formed the bold resolution of marching
from Launceston, with his small force of 2,400 foot and 500
horse, and forcing the enemy's camp during the absence of
their horse, notwithstanding all the advantages of their
post, and great superiority of numbers. Accordingly on the
1 6th of May he approached, and ordered the attack to be
made in four places at once, having divided his army into
four brigades, the first led by himself and Lord Mohun on
the south side; the second by Sir John Berkley and Sir
Bevil Grenville ; the third by Sir Nicholas Slanning and
Colonel John Trevanion to the north side ; and the fourth
by Colonel Basset and Colonel William Godolphin. Each
' Lloyd's " Lives, of the Cavaliers."
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON. 547
of the brigades had two pieces of cannon, and the horse
were under the command of Colonel John Digby, who had
directions to avail himself of every opportunity that might
present itself.
In this order, about five o'clock in the morning, a des-
perate attack was made. The engagement continued with-,
doubtful success till word was brought that their powder was.
failing. They determined to advance without firing any more •
shot till they reached the top of the hill. Then Major-
General Chudleigh, seeing the king's troops gaining upon,
them, charged, sword in hand, the party led by Sir John.,
Berkley and Sir Bevil Grenville with such determined fury
that they were thrown into some disorder, and Sir Bevil, ia
the shock, was thrown down. He, however, quickly recovered
himself, and Chudleigh was taken prisoner ; and between,
three and four o'clock the commanders of the king's forces,,
by their various ways of ascent, met, to their mutual joy, on
the top of the hill, which the routed enemy confusedly,
forsook. In this service they lost very few men and no.
considerable officers, killing about three hundred of the-
enemy and taking seventeen hundred prisoners, all their
cannon being thirteen pieces of brass ordnance, seventy
barrels of powder, a magazine of biscuit, and other provision .
proportionable.
For this victory public prayer and thanksgiving was made
on the hill, and the army was disposed of to improve their,
success to their best advantage. In memory of this battle,
Sir Ralph Hopton was created Baron Hopton of Stratton.
After this victory the army marched to Chard, in Somerset,
where it was joined by the Marquis of Hertford, and in three.
548 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOiMERSET.
days took possession of Taunton, Bridgewater, and Dunster
Castle. The government of Taunton was committed to Sir
John Stawell, that of Bridgewater to Edmund Wyndham.
After the battle of Stratton, Hopton found himself free to
march northward in search of Waller. When joined by
Lord Hertford, Prince Maurice, and Lord Carnarvon, his
army was fully equal to any that the Roundheads could
oppose to him. Advancing by Wells, Frome, and Bradford,
he endeavoured to secure some fair position in AValler's
■ neighbourhood, whence he might check his movements, or
'force him to a battle, as circumstances should decide.
Meanwhile Sir William Waller had taken up his quarters
at Bath, where he was joined by Sir John Horner and
ethers with the wreck of the Stratton fight. Thus rein-
•forced, he proceeded to encounter his old and venerated
friend. Lord Hopton. The better men on both sides could
fight to the death with sincere and undiminished respect for
their worthier opponents. But between Prince Maurice and
Lord Hertford, the commander-in-chief, a breach well-nigh
arose, the marquis severely censuring the license and irregu-
larities allowed by the prince.
Since the junction of the forces, the leaders were more
desirous than ever to force the enemy to a fight. But Sir
William was comfortably lodged at Bath with abundance of
provision for his troops, while the Cavaliers were obliged to
keep the field. At last Waller was compelled to take the
field, and offered the Cavaliers fight. On the 5th of July,
1643, was fought the battle of Lansdowne. Sir William
Waller's position gave him immense advantage, and at first
the king's forces declined the combat ; but Waller, sending
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON, 549
his whole body of horse and dragoons down the hill, routed
the king's cavalry, who had never before turned from any
enemy. The officers did their best with great courage.
Eventually the horse were rallied by Prince Maurice, who
charged the enemy's horse aga-in, and totally routed them.
It was whilst the battle was raging in the woods around
Lansdowne, and victory alternating from one side to the
other, that Sir Bevil Grenville advanced with a party of
horse. He sustained two full charges, but in the third
charge his horse fell, and he received a blow on the head
with a pole-axe, and fell with many of his officers about
him.
Either party was sufficien-tly tired and battered to be con-
tented to stand still. In the night the parliamentary drew
off, leaving the field to the king's forces, and Sir William
Waller being so much disordered as to leave great stores of
arms and ammunition behind him.
The honour of the day, therefore, such as it was, remained
with the Royalists; but a terrible loss to their cause was the
death of the Cornish hero. Clarendon says : " That which
would have clouded any victory, and made the loss of others
less spoken of, was the death of Sir Bevil Grenville. In him
a brighter courage and gentler disposition were never married
together to make the most cheerful and innocent conver*
sation."
Many others, with Hopton himself, were severely wounded;
almost all the ammunition expended ; and of two thousand
cavalry that entered the field and fought gallantly under
Prince Maurice and Lord Carnarvon, only six hundred could
be mustered when the sun went down.
55 O MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
The rout of Waller's army at Roundway Down scarcely
comes into our tale, as it took place in Wiltshire, and Lord
Hopton was absent, probably on account of his wounds.
Next followed the siege of Bristol ; to which, on its surrender
by Colonel Fiennes, Lord Hopton was appointed governor
by the Marquis of Hertford. But the jealousy which existed
between that commander and Prince Maurice caused Prince
Rupert (who highly esteemed Lord Hopton, not only as a
gallant soldier, but as his mother's friend, not willing to set
^p any of his own army in opposition to him) to ask of the
•king the governorship for himself. To this the king assented
before he heard from Lord Hertford. He then perceived
how delicate a predicament he was placed in, and hence his
expedition to Bristol. His presence calmed the strife between
the parties. Prince Rupert offered at once to make Hopton
his lieutenant-governor, which the latter willingly accepted ;
and then the prince assured him he would soon resign
to him his own command. Lord Clarendon relates the
whole affair with admirable tact and gracefulness, throwing
especially a bright light on Hopton's nobly disinterested
character.
It was at this time that the king created Sir Ralph, Lord
Hopton of Stratton, and leaving him at Bristol to recover
from his wounds, he marched away to Gloucester. About
this time (August 15) Lord Hopton was able to inform the
prince that a vessel had reached Bristol laden with arms for
the queen. The king now laid siege to Gloucester, and
Lord Hopton not only sent all his garrison to his assistance,
but "with zealous ingenuity raised considerable forces from
Bristol."
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON. 551
At the end of this year, 1643, and the beginning of 1644,
Lord Hopton and his old friend and antagonist, Waller,
were opposed to each other in the south. But the days
were darkening round England, and we find letters from this
chivalrous nobleman complaining of the difficulties that
beset him. After he had done as much as courage, con-
duct, and activity could do, he, for want of supplies, was
forced to retire before Fairfax, and approved himself as
great a general in his retreat as he had done before in his
victories. In besieging Taunton in 1645 ^^ "^^^ grievously
hurt in the face by the blowing up of a powder magazine.
At Brandon Heath, near Winchester, he was defeated,
though with little loss, by Waller, The embers of the fight
burned on, but jealousy and self-seeking were eating the life
out of what had been a noble contest for high principles.
Sir Richard Grenville, the unworthy brother of the chivalrous
Sir Bevil, refused to serve under Lord Hopton, presumably
because the latter was a native of Somerset; and in 1646
Fairfax obliged Lord Hopton to disband his forces. He
took refuge in the Scilly Islands, where the Prince of Wales
(afterwards Charles II.), Lords Colepepper and Capel, were
already, and where their governor, Sir John Grenville, still
held out for the king. But for the present the cause was
lost ; Sir George Ayscough and Admiral Blake attacked the
islands, and the garrison surrendered on articles to the
enemy, and were shipped off to England, Scotland, Ireland,
and France.
Lord Hopton retired abroad, and died at Bruges in 1646,
leaving "no issue besides those of his own soul, his great
thoughts and greater actions." His barony of Stratton was
i
552 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
conferred on Sir John Berkley, younger son of Sir Maurice
Berkley, of Strattoa
Thomas Fuller, who acted as Lord Hopton's chaplain in
his campaign in the west, is said to have gathered much of
his material for his " Worthies " of the western counties
during the war.
Lloyd, in his notice of Lord Hopton, says that when
chosen commander-in-chief of the west, in half a year he got
forty garrisons well maintained, twelve hundred men well
disciplined ; one thousand pounds a month contributions
regularly settled ; above four hundred old officers, soldiers,
and engineers out of the Palatinate, the low countries, and
Ireland usefully employed ; a press to print orders, declara-
tions, messages, and other books to instruct and undeceive
the people.
Nine reasons are given by Lloyd for Sir Ralph Hopton's
general success in his undertakings. These, put shortly,
may fitly conclude the life of this great and excellent
man.
1. The great care he took in the choice of his Deputies
and officers.
2. The strict Discipline he enforced.
3. By paying his men regularly, pinching himself to
gratify them. His three words were — Pay well, Command
well. Hang well.
4. By this to keep open the Trade of the Countries under
his command by Sea and Land.
5. By his solemn familiarity, neither the Mother of Con-
tempt nor the Daughter of Art, and treating his men not as
SIR RALPH, LORD HOPTON. 553
Milites, but Comilitones. It was not Goye, but Gaivee."-
6. By sharing with them in their wants, observing their
deserts, and rewarding them.
7. By preserving his Souldiers from all unnecessary fatigue
and danger, and being careful over them.
8. By understanding his enemies' way and the country's
situation, so as to take every advantage possible, and pre-
vent all disadvantages by his watchfulness.
9. By his Piety, keeping strict communion with God, all
the while he was engaged in a war with men. He published
Orders for the strict observance of the Lord's Day, and was
very severe in these two cases — i. Rapines committed among
the people ; 2, Prophaneness against God.
Such was the character of the greatest captain in the king's
army. He died before the Restoration, thereby avoiding
the bitter disappointment that the character of the second
Charles caused to all those who trusted that his return to his
father's throne would be a blessing to the land. Lord
Hopton married Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Capel, Esq.,
of Hadham, in Hertford, and widow of Sir Justinian Lever.
In April, 1644, she was taken prisoner by the Parliament in
Hampshire, but was honourably treated, and sent to Oxford.
Authorities. — Lloyd's Memoirs of the Cavaliers ;
Gilbert's History of Cornwall ; Heath's Account of
the Scilly Islands ; Warburton's Prince Rupert and
the Cavaliers ; Green's History of England ; contri-
butions to Notes and Queries.
' It reminds one of the two French captains and the consequent
unpopularity of the one contrasted with the devotion the other inspired,
the difference only being between " AUez, mes enfants," and " Allons,
mes enfants."
PhILO^OPHEF^S of ^0/v1EF^3ET.
-.•(?;-
RALPH CUDWORTH, 1617-1688.
In the four hundred years that elapsed between the days
of Roger Bacon and Ralph Cudworth, it is not necessary
to suppose that philosophy was wholly dead in Somerset,
but only that no name has been discovered of sufficient
importance to place by the side of these other eminent men.
In some respects the period in which Cudworth lived was
not unlike that in which the earlier philosophers flourished.
The seventy years of his life are among the most momentous
in our history. Born in the quiet days of James I., when
the pent-up forces, which had been smouldering in the times
of the later Plantagenets and the Tudors, were now covered
by so thin a crust that those w'ho had eyes to see could fore-
tell the upheaval that would shortly take place, he grew to
manhood during the troublous days of the Rebellion. All
through Cromwell's usurpation he lived apart, engrossed in
his religious and philosophical studies, nor did the evil days
of the Restoration, nor the fatal period of the second James's
reign, disturb him from his philosophic quiet ; but when
another great crash seemed impending, he went to his rest
just before the, so-called, " Glorious Revolution."
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 555
Ralph Cudworth was born at Aller, in Somerset, of which
place his father was rector, and which Camden speaks of in
his time as " a village consisting only of a few poor cottages,
but which seemeth to have been a town of good account ; "
yet Aller has memories of no small interest — the baptism
of the Danish King Guthrum in 878, and the defeat of the
royal forces by Fairfax which took place there in Cudworth's
own time.
The death of his father left young Cudworth at a very
early age without an instructor, but on his mother's second
marriage his stepfather, Dr. Houghton, gave him a most
careful education. In 1630 he was admitted a pensioner
of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he pursued his
studies with great diligence, and in 1639 obtained the
degree of M.A. with great applause. He was soon after
chosen fellow^ of his college, and became one of the tutors,
in which capacity he rose to such eminence as to have at
one time the unprecedented number of twenty-eight pupils
under his care, amongst whom was the celebrated Sir William
Temple. After some time, in the year 1641, he was pre-
sented to the rectory of North Cadbury, a neighbouring
height to the hill fort of Cadbury — the ancient Camelot.
He appears to have lived so entirely apart from politics as
to have been disturbed by neither party, though his sym-
pathies were evidently with the Puritans.
In 1662 he was presented by Sheldon, Bishop of London,
to the vicarage of Ashwell, in Herefordshire. In 1678 he
was installed Prebendary of Gloucester, and he there pub-
lished in folio his famous work, " The True Intellectual
Svstem of the Universe " — intellectual meaning as opposed
556 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to physical. This famous and learned work (which is,
however, unfinished) was written in opposition to the
fatalists, and to oppose atheism. But alas ! for the per-
versity of human nature, this good and learned man, who
devoted his whole life and learning to the confutation of
infidelity, was accused not only of Arianism, but even
of atheism, because he endeavoured to state fairly the
arguments which he proceeded to overthrow.
He left an only daughter, Damaris, Lady Masham, the
wife of Sir Francis Masham. She attended her father in
his last illness, and forms a connecting link between him
and our next biographical notice. She was the friend of
Locke, and was in attendance on him when he died in her
house at Gates, in Essex.
Dr. Hook gives a list of Cudworth's works, and adds :
" These writings long reposed quietly in the library at Gates,
but about the year 1762 they were sold by Lord Masham as
lumber to a bookseller, from whose hands, after suffering
many perils and mutations, they at last found their way to
the British Museum, The only public use of them was
made by Dr. Dodd, who ransacked them for notes to the
Bible published with his name."
Authorities. — Cunninghame's Lives of Eminent Eng-
lishmen ; Dr. Hook's Ecclesiastical Biography ;
Smith's English Literature.
Oj^ W1TCHE3.
■:o:-
MRS. LEAKEY, OF MYNEHEAD, SOMERSET.
" How whistle rash bids tempests roar." That this is
a general superstition is well known to all who have
been on ship-board or who have conversed with sea-
men. The roost formidable whistler that I remember to
have met with was the apparition of a certain Mrs. Leakey,
who, about 1636, resided, we are told, at Mynehead in
Somerset, where her only son drove a considerable trade
between that port and Waterford, and was owner of several
vessels.
The old gentlewoman was of a social disposition, and so
acceptable to her friends, that they used to say to her and
to each other it were pity such a good-natured, excellent old
lady should die ; to which she was wont to reply that what-
ever pleasure they might find in her company just now, they
would not greatly like to see or converse with her after death,
which nevertheless she was apt to think might happen.
Accordingly, after her death and funeral, she began to
appear to various persons by night and by noonday, in her
own house, in the town and fields, at sea and upon shore.
So far had she departed from her former urbanity, that she
558 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
is reported to have kicked a doctor of medicine for his
impolite negligence in omitting to hand her over a stile. It
was also her humour to stand on the quay and call for a
boat. But especially as soon as any of her son's ships
approached the harbour, "this ghost would appear in the
same garb and likeness as when she was alive ; and, standing
at the mainmast, would blow with a whistle, and though it
were never so great a calm, yet immediately there would
arise a most dreadful storm, that would break, wreck, and
drown all ships and goods." When she had thus proceeded
until her son had neither credit to freiafht a vessel nor could
have procured men to sail it, she began to attack the persons
of the family, and actually strangled their only child in the
cradle.
The rest of her story, showing how the spectre looked
over the shoulder of her daughter-in-law while dressing her
hair at a looking-glass ; and how Mrs. Leakey the younger
took courage to address her, and how the beldam dispatched
her to an Irish prelate, famous for his crimes and misfor-
tunes, to exhort him to repentance, and to apprize him that
otherwise he would be hanged; and how the bishop was
satisfied with replying that if he was born to be hanged he
should not be drowned — all these, with many more parti-
culars, may be found at the end of one of John Dunton's
publications, called " Athenianism " (London, 17 10), where
the tale is engrossed under the title of "The Apparition
Evidence."
Authority. — Note vii. to Canto Second of Rokeby (Sir
Walter Scott.)
ON WITCHES. 559
TRIAL BY ORDEAL, BY TOUCHING A CORPSE
TO DISCOVER THE MURDERER.
In the year 1613 there hved on the southern border of
Somerset, near Wambrook, a Master Babb, who advanced
his suit to marry a widow near Taunton. She gave him a
refusal ; but he afterwards secreted himself in her brewhouse,
in order to have an opportunity of again preferring his suit.
The widow, when she heard his offer, exclaimed, in the
emphatic language of the time : " Have thee, base rascal ?
No ! " and struck him on his head with a pewter candlestick.
Babb killed her with sixteen wounds, and put the knife in a
wound, and in her hand, to make it be believed it was a case
of self-destruction,
Mr. Warre, a magistrate, of Hestercombe House, a seat
near Taunton, believed the common opinion of the time,
that if the murderer touched the corpse of his victim the
blood would immediately flow from the wound and discover
the guilty person. The active magistrate caused the body
to be disinterred, that all the inhabitants living within a
circle of three miles might assemble to touch the body and
go through the painful ordeal. Babb ran away, to escape
this dreadful mode of testing each neighbouring inhabitant's
innocence. His conscience left him no repose : he returned
and yielded himself up to justice. The assizes for Somerset
were held at Chard in 16 13, where Babb was tried, and
received sentence. He was hanged near Wambrook. Sir
Symonds d'Ewes went to see the execution from his school
or from Coaxden Hall ; and to this noted writer we are in-
debted for the narrative.
Authority. — Roberts's Social History of the Southern
Counties of England.
Phii.o^ophe^3 of ^O'^^R^^'T'-
-:o:-
JOHN LOCKE, 1632-1704.
The life of a philosopher who studied deeply the most
abstruse subjects in religion and morals, one moreover whose
health was always delicate, would not, one would suppose,
give much scope for a biography. But Locke lived in stirring
times. Born in the days of Charles L, he lived through
three of the great R.'s — the Rebellion, the Restoration, and
the Revolution. At different times in his life he had three
roads to preferment opened to him, Theology, Medicine,
and Politics \ he declined them all, and though for a short
time he practised as a physician, he deliberately chose the
life of a student. It would be a curious and instructive
study to trace Locke's mind passing from the contemplation
and analysis of the physical sciences to his psychological
studies and analysis of the mind and intellect. His great
work was his essay concerning "Human Understanding";
it was in contemplation for twenty years, and was finished
the same year as Newton's " Principia." It has been much
assailed as tending towards Arianism and infidelity; but
Locke himself was a devout believer, and indignantly re-
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 561
pudiated the charges brought against him. His great
object was to open the portals of the Church wide enough
to admit all those who answered to the test provided by the
apostles that " Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
He was born and baptized at Wrington, in Somerset, but
his home was at Belluton, in the parish of Pensford. In
his latter years he lived with Sir Francis and Lady Masham,
at Oates, in the parish of High Laver, Essex, where his tomb
may still be seen. Lady Masham was the daughter of the
philosopher Cudworth. Though varying schools of thought
will of course differ on the value of Locke's writings, we
may sum up this brief notice by a few words borrowed from
" Shaw's English Literature " : " His personal character seems
to have been one of those which approach perfection as
nearly as can be expected from our fallible and imperfect
nature." It is a noble epitaph on one of the greatest of the
philosophers of Somerset.
Authorities. — Shaw's English Literature, and a short
Life prefixed to The Reasonableness of Christianity.
37
TH0Myv3 Ke:p^, d.d.,
SOMETIME BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.
(A.D. 1637-1710. )
" Good angels still were there, when the base-hearted son
Of Charles the royal martyr his course of sin did run ;
Then in those cloisters, holy Ken strengthened with deeper prayer
His own and his dear scholars' souls to what pure souls should dare.
Bold to rebuke enthroned sin, with calm undazzled faith.
Whether amid the pomp of courts, or on the bed of death ;
Firm amid kingly terrors, in his free country's cause,
Faithful to God's anointed, against a world's applause."
Ode on the 450M anniversary of Wijtchester College by
RouNDELL Palmer (Lord Selborne), 1843.
That so meek, so humble, so saintly a prelate as Bishop
Ken should have been, through a great part of his life, in
opposition to " the powers that be," and that he, whose sole
object was to do his duty in that state of life unto which it
had pleased God to call him, should have been so constantly
mixed up with strife and poUtics, seems an anomaly so great
that the history of his life is the only explanation. We are
reluctantly compelled to forego giving it in detail ; detached
sketches and anecdotes are all that space allows us.
THOMAS KEN, D.D. 563.
Though not actually a native of our county, yet we
may claim him with pride as one of our worthies, not
only for his connection with it as bishop, but because
his family were settled in Somerset from the time of
Henry II. to the seventeenth century ; the manor of Ken,
near Yatton, from which they take their name, having then
passed to the Pouletts by the marriage of Elizabeth,
daughter and co-heiress of Christopher Ken, with the fifth« ,
Lord Poulett. About this time William Ken, the direct
ancestor of the bishop, left Somerset and settled in London.
His grandson, Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inn, practised as
a barber-surgeon, probably during the Commonwealth, when,^^
as being a decided Royalist, he was doubtless not allowed
to practise as an attorney in the Court of Common Pleas. ,
Izaak Walton, who married his eldest daughter by his first
wife, speaks of his father-in-law as " a gentleman and a
scholar, very innocent and prudent." He must have been-.
a man of rare virtues, as for a scholar to be prudent and a .
lawyer innocent is not what one would naturally expect.
Thomas was this good man's youngest son by his second:
wife, though nearly fifty years younger than his brother-in
law Walton, the excellent linen-draper, angler, and author.
The future bishop was educated at Winchester College, and
there he formed a friendship with Francis Turner which,
lasted his lifetime. The two friends both became bishops,
both attended the Duke of Monmouth in his last hours,
both were imprisoned by James II., both became non-jurors
and were deprived by ^Villiam III.
In 1657 he was elected fellow of New College, and in
1 66 1 was enabled to take his degree with a good conscience.
564 MYTHS, SCENES,. AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
On taking holy orders he was appointed chaplain to Lord
Maynard, and later, domestic- chaplain to ^lorley. Bishop of
^Vinchester. While holding this office he voluntarily under-
nook the charge of St. John's Church in the Soke at Win-
• Chester; there he brought over to the Church many Ana-
baptists whom he himself baptized. While fellow of
Winchester College and holding a prebendal stall in the
cathedral, out of his tender care' for the spiritual life of the
boys of the college he prepared his manual of prayers,
which supplied so great a need, that a copy dated 1 735 is
marked as the twenty-fourth edition. Thus were the public
schools of that day trained in the duty of private prayer,
.and though so sadly neglected in the eighteenth century—
really "the dark ages" of the English Church— it was revived
at Winchester even before the days of Arnold at Rugby.
Bishop Ken's manual still retains its place at Winchester
and other schools.
In 1675 Ken's love for his own branch of the Church
Catholic was strengthened, if it were possible, by a tour m
Italy with his nephew, Izaak Walton the younger. In 1679
"he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of York's daughter,
the Princess Mary, and in Holland he witnessed the un-
happiness of the princess at the combined coldness and
unfaithfulness of the Prince of Orange. He incurred the
anger of the prince by successfully using his influence with
Count Zulestein to induce him to marry an English lady
whose affection he had betrayed. In 16S1 he was ap-
pointed chaplain to Charles II., and in 1683 was nominated
to accompany Lord Dartmouth on the expedition which
sailed to dismantle Tangier, as chaplain. With him sailed
THOMAS KEN, D.D. 565
Samuel Pepys, who conceived an unbounded respect and
admiration for Ken, and from this time a deeper and less
frivolous tone may be traced in his immortal diary. We
must refer the reader to it for some interesting letters which
at this time and on this subject passed between Pepys and
his brother diarist, John Evelyn. From this time also, Pepys,
who, as Secretary to the Admiralty, must have had great
influence, speaks earnestly of the importance of supplying
fit persons as chaplains to the fleet.
In 1684 Ken was brought under the notice of Charles
II., who sent a courtier, whilst staying at Winchester, to
request the use of his prebendal house for Nell Gwynne.
" Not for his kingdom," was Ken's uncompromising answer.
He could scarcely have supposed that such an incident
would have been a stepping-stone to a bishopric; but when the
see of Bath and Wells was vacant, Charles asked " Where
was the little man who refused his house to poor Nell ? "
It is impossible to follow Ken through his noble work in
Somerset. He found the people sunk in ignorance and vice.
He had a happy Avay of combining spiritual with corporeal
alms, and if any begged of him, he would ask whether he
could say the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. He wrote
an exposition of the Church Catechism for the many
schools he established. On his appointment as bishop
he published "Directions for Prayer," which he ad-
dressed to " The inhabitants within the diocese of Bath and
Wells, Thomas Ken, their unworthy bishop, wisheth the
knowledge and the love of God." He says, " I expect and
beseech you all of either sex to learn how to pray. This is
the first general request I shall make of you."
566 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
When at Wells, twelve poor men and women dined with
him on Sundays in his hall.
He attended Charles II. in his last hours, and for three
whole days and nights never left him. He prevailed with
him to send away his mistresses, and ask the queen's pardon
for his behaviour to her ; yet Charles declined to receive
the last sacrament from his hands, and is supposed, during
an hour when the room was cleared, to have received it
from a Romish priest.
Seme account of his behaviour during Monmouth's
rebellion will be found in a later paper. He stopped
Feversham's militar)- executions. He returned to London and
attended Monmouth at his execution, pressing upon him, as
he had upon his father, repentance for his sin against his
wife ; but not with the same success. He and Bishop
Turner were nevertheless asked by Monmouth himself to
attend him to the scaffold. Back again he turned to his
suffering diocese, and though in politics a strong Tor)', in
religion a High Churchman, yet he fed, comforted, and
ministered to the unhappy rebels in their loathsome prisons.
When called before the Council in William's reign for a like
act in relieving those in opposition to the Government, he
said, " A thousand or more engaged in the rebellion of the
Duke of Monmouth, and many of them were such which I
had reason to believe to be ill-men and void of all religion,
and yet for all that I thought it my duty to relieve them. It
is well known in the diocese that I visited them night and
day, and I thank God I supplied them with necessaries
myself, as far as I could, and encouraged others to do the
same, and yet King James never found the least fault with
THOMAS KEN, D.D. 567
me." Lord Macaulay says, " His conduct on this occasion
was of a piece with his whole Hfe ; and his moral character,
when impartially reviewed, sustains a comparison with any
in ecclesiastical historj', and seems to approach as near as
human infirmity permits to the ideal perfection of Christian
virtue."
After Monmouth's rebellion was so barbarously quenched
in blood, James believed himself secure on the throne, but
blindly and insanely he hurried on to destruction. He
insulted the Church by insisting that the Declaration of
Indulgence, though positively illegal, should be read in the
churches. Many of the bishops and clergy approved of
the withdrawal of the penal laws against Romish and
Protest Dissent, but they could not consent to an illegal act
which was manifestly done to favour the Romish party. We
know the story of the seven bishops' refusal to obey the
king, of their imprisonment in the tower, the banks of the
Thames being lined with people on their knees entreating
their blessing ; their trial and acquittal, when the beams of
Westminster Hall well-nigh cracked with the mighty shout
of triumphant joy; of their release, and triumphant return.
Ken, and Sancroft the archbishop, returning together in a
carriage, crossed London Bridge, and, passing through the
Borough to Lambeth, it took them several hours to get to
their destination from the crowds of people who hung on
the carriage and craved their blessing. On their return they
attended a service at Whitehall. It was St. Peter's Day, and
the Epistle is the release of St. Peter by the hand of an angel.
But events followed each other with startling rapidity.
James fled, and so vacated his throne, which his daughter
568 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and son-in-law were asked to fill. But though the bishops
would oppose the king in unlawful acts, they could not,
they felt, forswear themselves and lightly transfer their
allegiance. Ken was deprived, and his place supplied by
the latitudinarian Kidder. During his holding the see,
Ken refused to consider it vacant, and protested against
his appointment. Dr. Kidder and his wife were killed in
the palace at Wells during that mighty storm in 1703, in
which the Eddystone lighthouse was swept away. A stack
of chimneys came crashing through the roof, and fell upon
the bishop and his wife ; nor was any other person in Wells
injured. Extraordinary to say, on the same night Bishop
Ken was in Salisbury at the house of his nephew, Izaak
Walton; the storm raged there so terribly that "we all rose,"
says the good bishop, "and called the family to prayers,
and, by the goodness of God, we were safe amid the storm.
The house being searched the day following, the workmen
found that the beam which supported the roof over my
head was shaken out to that degree that it had but half an
inch hold, so that it was a wonder it could hold together ;
for which signal and particular preservation God's holy
name be for ever praised. It is a deliverance not to be for-
gotten " — and, we may add, a coincidence, to say the least,
that is remarkable.
Twice Queen Anne offered to reinstate Bishop Ken, but
he dechned : old age and weakened health made him
shrink from undertaking duties he could not satisfactorily
perform. But when his friend Bishop Hooper was appointed
he gladly resigned the see in his favour, and he was now
again able to visit his old home.
THOMAS KEN, D.D. 569
During the last years of his life, Queen Anne paid him a
pension of ;!^2oo. His home was principally at Longleat;
but though living in the ^Marquis of Bath's mansion, he led
the same ascetic life as ever. He died there on March 19,
1 7 10 (O.S.) He was found arrayed by his own hands in
the shroud which had travelled with him for many years,
following the instructions of St. Basil ; but he had clothed
himself with another garment which the same father calls
" the comely shroud of godliness."
He left behind him this confession of faith : "As for my
religion, I die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith,
professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East
and West ; more particularly I die in the Communion of
the Church of England as it stands distinguished from all
Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the
doctrine of the Cross."
Bishop Ken is best known by his Morning and Evening
hymns, which forty years ago were almost the only ones
used in our churches. His writings are not remarkable as
models of oratory and eloquence, but they were always
directed to the honour of God and the benefit of those
committed to his charge.
He was buried at Frome, the nearest spot within his own
diocese to Longleat ; there a simple stone, with an iron
mitre and crosier, marked his grave. In 1S44 a small
memorial shrine was erected over it, and the church re-
stored by subscription. A fine stained-glass window was
also placed in it to his memory by the Marchioness of
Bath.
There seems a singular appropriateness in the body of
57° MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the good bishop resting in the shadow of a church dedi-
cated in the name of a saint — -John the Baptist — who him-
self stood before kings and resisted their unrighteous acts.
Should our Church ever exercise the right she undoubtedly
possesses of canonizing some of her most saintly sons,
there is scarcely a name that could be placed before that of
the holy confessor Thomas Ken, sometime Bishop of Bath
and Wells.
Authorities. — Pepys' Diary; Evelyn's Diary; Macaulay's
History of England ; Life and Prayers of Bishop
Ken, by Markland; Hook's Ecclesiastical Biography ;
Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens.
Trep^t Hou3e.
CHARLES II. AND COLONEL WYNDHAM,
(1651.)
On September 3rd, 1651, was fought Cromwell's crow?iit7g
7nerc}\ the battle of Worcester, and Charles II. was a fugitive,
Avith the certainty of sharing his father's fate if he were
taken. Boscobel and other places have their tale of loyal
devotion to tell, but none gives a finer example of high-
minded and high-bred loyalty than that of Colonel AVynd-
ham and his family. Charles had to cross Somerset, as
Trent House is one of the extreme points of the county,
just where it touches Dorsetshire. On his way he passed
through Castle Cary, but his disguise was penetrated by
Mr. Edward Kirton, steward to the Duke of Somerset, who
gave him an asylum and assisted him on his way. It was
on September 16th that he arrived there as Will Jackson,
groom to Mrs. Jane Lane, who rode behind him on a
pillion, and the next day he proceeded to Trent House.
Colonel Wyndham would that all his household should
share the honour and satisfaction of protecting their
572 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
sovereign. He therefore obtained permission from the
king to make his identity known to them all, and then
introduced the fugitive monarch to his mother, his wife,
and his four servants. The venerable lady his mother,
had not begrudged the loss of three sons and a grandson in
the royal cause, and now thanked God in her declining
years that she was reserved to be herself instrumental in
the preservation of the king's life.
Colonel Wyndham told Charles that Sir Thomas, his
father, in the year 1636, a few days before his death, called
to him his five sons. "My children," said he, "we have
hitherto seen serene and quiet times under our three last
sovereigns, but I must now prepare you for clouds and
storms. Factions arise on every side, and threaten the
tranquillity of your native country; but whatever happens, do
you faithfully honour and obey your prince, and adhere to
the crown. I charge you never to forsake the crown,
though it should hang upon a bush." "These last words,"
said Wyndham, " made such an impression upon all our
breasts, that the many afflictions of these sad times could
never efface their indelible characters."
The king remained some time at Trent House, and
meanwhile all his friends in Britain, and in every part of
Europe, remained in the most anxious suspense about him ;
no one could conjecture what had become of him, or even
whether he were dead or alive. There is a tradition ^ at
Trent itself, that the church bells rang a joy-peal for his
death, on the report of a trooper who had returned from
' Kindly communicated to me by the Rector of Trent, Rev. C
Richmond Tate.
TRENT HOUSE, 573
Worcester, and that Lord Rochester and Colonel Wyndham
attended the Presbyterian service while the king was in
hiding, to take off suspicion. The report of his death
being generally believed, his enemies became less strict in
their search.
Colonel Wyndham made many efforts to procure a vessel
for him to go to France, but without success. At last
Charles determined for himself to try the Dorsetshire coast,
and riding before Mrs. Wyndham in the disguise of a
servant, accompanied by the colonel, he bid farewell to his
hospitable friends ; the aged mother fervently blessing him
before he left. They had not ridden far before they fell in
with a troop of Cromwell's horse, and some of the Republi-
can generals whom Charles knew well enough. There was
nothing to be done but to ride boldly on, and, though
terribly alarmed, this they did, and Charles passed through
the whole troop without being suspected. But this time
he failed to reach the coast, and had to return to the
Wyndhams' house, and remain there for some further time.
Once the sagacity of a smith detected him : he remarked
that his horse's shoes had been made in the north, and not
in the west as he pretended ; but he did not betray him.
Having failed to find a ship on the coast of Dorsetshire,
he at last found one at Shoreham, in Sussex, and after
forty-one days' concealment arrived safely at Fegamp, in
Normandy.
Trent House is now turned into a farmhouse, but
they still show a portion of the old building, containing
Mrs., afterwards Lady, Wyndham's parlour, and the king's
hiding-place, a hole about nine feet deep under the floor of
574 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
the closet, where, tradition says, Charles slept. The boards
are moveable, and a man can easily let himself down between
the joists.
At the Restoration Colonel Wyndham was made a baronet,
with a pension of ;^6oo a year. His monument is to be
seen in the north transept of the church, called — strangely
enough — the Gerard, Wyndham, Seymour Chapel, from the
successive owners of the manor house. The inscription is :
" Here lyeth the body of Sir Francis Wyndham, Baronet,
who dyed the 15th day of July, 1676, cetatis sucb" — from
his coffin-plate his age is known to have been sixty-six. The
inscription to Lady Ann Wyndham, his wife (who was the
daughter of Thomas Gerard and Ann, the daughter of Robert
Coker, and by whom Colonel Wyndham came into posses-
sion of the Trent property), is : " Dme (Dame) A. W., Obt.
July 19th, Ann. Dom. 1698."
The church was long in the hands of the Presbyterians
and Puritans ; and the rector, Elias VV^rench, was ejected,
but reinstated during the Restoration. In spite of the
Puritan occupation, there are some very quaint old seat
ends. Some in particular, with an Ave Maria on them,
would have fallen a sacrifice to their bigotry could they
have deciphered them ; but the letters are quaintly carved
and the words most strangely divided. They read, however,
thus : " Ave Maria Gratia Plena dominus Tecum A Me.
I.H.S. M." The whole is in ancient capital letters with the
exception of the G (which far more resembles a 6), the d in
dominus, and the last M, which presumably stands for Maria.
Authorities. — Lives of Charles IL ; and personal com-
munication from the rector, the Rev. C. R. Tate.
The Duke of Mojmmouth ijm
3ojVIEI^3ET.
(A.D. 1680; 1685.)
Again and again has Somerset served as a rallying-point
in times of national trial. In the seventh century it was
the point whence Arthur issued forth to drive back the
Saxons. Again in Alfred's time it served the same purpose
against the Danes. In the time of the Great Rebellion, it
was in Somerset that the king — all but — redeemed his
fortunes; and now we are to note how Puritans in religion
and Liberals in politics strove against what they considered
tyranny alike in Church and State.
It was in the year 1679 that Charles II., perplexed by
the small amount of conscience that his selfish indulgence
had left him, was striving to put off the meeting of Parlia-
ment, in order to avoid settling the succession. The king
was divided by a sense of duty to his wife — the one chival-
rous feeling left him, — by love to his brother, and his — as
yet unowned — regard for the Roman Catholic Church on
the one hand ; and on the other by his love for his favourite
son, the Duke of Monmouth. So, tossed hither and thither
in his mind, and as much troubled as his careless nature
57^ MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
would let him be, he put off the evil day of making any
decision in the matter, hoping — as people of his habit of
mind always do hope — that things would somehow right
themselves. The queen might die, or one of the two dukes.
But the minds of the people were so exercised in the
matter, that they took to petitioning that the succession
should be settled ; but Charles, like Queen Elizabeth, ex-
tremely disliked the subject, and as much objected to
petitions as James did later on. One Heywood Dare, a
goldsmith of Taunton, presented a petition from that
borough to the king. Charles asked him how he dared do
it. "Sir," said he, "my name is Dare." In spite of his
courage, and in spite still more of his wit — for a joke would
go a good way with Charles — Dare was fined ;^Soo, and
forced to find security for his good behaviour for three more.
The town of Taunton, rather meanly I think, took occasion
soon after to disavow his petition in the Gazette. Dr.
Peter Mews — at that time Bishop of Bath and Wells, later
on translated to Winchester — was at the assize, March 3rd,
1680, which fined Dare and turned him out of the corpora-
tion. He was so delighted wnth the judges' verdict, that he
called them " Deliciae Occidentis."
The Duke of Monmouth was the son of one Lucy
Walters, a Welsh girl of great beauty but weak understand-
ing, whom Charles met at the Hague ; her son was known as
James Crofts. So after the Restoration he appeared at
court, and was treated with distinctions hitherto only
awarded to princes of the blood. While still quite young
he was married to Anne, Duchess of Buccleugh in her own
right. He took her title and received possession of her
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 577
ample domains; he was created Duke of Monmouth in
England, of Buccleugh in Scotland, Master of the Horsey.,
a Knight of the Garter, Commander of the first troop of
Life Guards, Chief Justice of Eyre souih of the Trent, and
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Pre eminently
a favourite with the people from his winning manners and^
great beauty, professing great horror of Popery, though a
libertine, he won the hearts of the Puritans. When
Charles II. and Louis XIV. united their forces against
Holland, Monmouth commanded the English contingent^,
and returned with a high character for valour and conduct. ,
In 1679, when Grahame of Claverhouse had failed against
the Covenanters they were dispersed by Monmouth at
Both well Bridge; and when reproached for his mercy to the.
rebels, he answered that he "could not kill men in cold,
blood — that was work only for butchers." The Duke of.
York, who succeeded him in command, had no such
scruples. But Monmouth's infltience with the king waned,,
before the Duke of York's, and he was banished ; but; ,
trusting to his father's affection, he returned of his own.
accord in 1680. The king professed great indignation, and
refused to see him at court. Under the advice of the Earl
of Shaftesbury, he whilfed away the time by making a quasi
royal tour in the west.
THE WESTERN PROGRESS,
When quite a youth, King Charles had encouraged his
son in keeping on his hat in the Presence Chamber, while
Howards and Seymours stood uncovered around him.
38
578 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
When foreign princes died, he had mourned for them in
the long purple cloak, which no other subject except the
Duke of York and Prince Rupert was permitted to wear.
Was it unnatural that, being moreover the favourite of the
people, and knowing the unpopularity of the Duke of York,
he should think the crown within his grasp? To such a
height did his pretensions rise, that he bore on his escutcheon
the lions of England and the lilies of France, without the
: addition of the bar sinister. There can be little doubt that,
in spite of Charles's proclamation that Queen Catherme
was the the only woman he had ever married, the western
tour was intended by Monmouth, and allowed by Charles,
: to try the temper of the people.
From Longleat House, the seat of Viscount Weymouth,
in Wiltshire, Monmouth passed over the border mto our
. county His first stoppage was at Whitelackington House,
•then the seat of the Speke family, within two miles of
■■llminster. The people came to greet him from miles round;
■•the lanes and hedges were lined with men, women, and
^children, who with incessant shouts cried, "God save
Kinc. Charles and the Protestant Duke." In some places,
specially at Ilchester and South Petherton, the streets and
highways were strewn with herbs and flowers; others pre-
sented him with bottles of wine. A party of Quakers at
Ilchester, standing with their hats on, the Duke took notice
of them, and with his winning grace he took off his hat to
them Within ten miles of Whitelackington he was met by
two thousand persons on horseback, whose numbers still
increased as they drew near Mr. Speke's. On arriving there
the company was computed to arrive at twenty thousand.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 579
To admit so large a multitude some perches of the park
paling were taken down. His Grace, his party and attendants,
took refreshment under the far-famed chestnut tree, still
standing. This tree is visible for miles round ; the curious
fact of the topmost branches being dead — probably at some
time having been struck by lightning — while the rest of the
tree is vigorous and richly clothed with green, make it a
very conspicuous object. At three feet from the ground it
measures upwards of twenty-six feet in circumference. It
is known as the Monmouth Tree. The local legend says
that Monmouth bivouacked there the night before the
battle of Sedgemoor, but there the local legend says "the
thing that is not."
On the 26th the Duke went to Brympton House, the seat
of the Sydenham family, about two miles from Yeovil. The
next day he proceeded to Harrington, the seat of Mr. Wm.
Strode, near Ilminster. Barrington Court is a fine old
manor-house, built by one of the Phelipses, and bearing a
general resemblance to Montacute. It is now a farmhouse.
From thence he proceeded to Chard, and on to Ford
Abbey, the seat of Mr. Prideaux. At this point is the
junction of the three counties of Somerset, Devon, and
Dorset, and no two guide-books agree as to which county
the abbey actually belongs. It was of the Cistercian order,
built in the reign of Stephen. Like almost all Church
property, Ford Abbey has changed hands repeatedly. At
the dissolution it was grafted to Richard Pollard, who was
afterwards knighted ; it then passed in succession through
the families of Poulett, Roswell, Prideaux, Gwyn, Miles, and
Evans. It escaped destruction during the Rebellion, as the
580 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
property of Edmund Prideaux, the Attorney-General of the
Commonwealth. It was the son of Prideaux who enter-
tained the Duke of Monmouth on his tour ; but, as we shall
see, he had reason to regret the honour. The next day the
Duke rode to Ilminster ; with whom he stayed is not
certain— probably with Mr. Speke, at Whitelackington. On
the following day he attended Ilminster church, then a
much finer building than now, for in 1825 the nave was
pulled down, and rebuilt with wide arches, galleries, and
other abominations. It is one of the two finest cruciform
churches in Somerset. Unfortunately, the work was so well
and substantially done that there is little hope of its being
restored to its former beauty.
While at Mr. Speke's, Sir John Sydenham, of Brj^mpton
House, treated the duke to a junket at the White Lodge
in Hinton Park, distant about three miles. Sir John had
married Lord Poulett's aunt— a sister of the first Lord
Poulett, who had served against the Parliament. Earl
Poulett was then a minor. While in the park, one Elizabeth
Parcot made a rush at the duke, and touched his hand;
she suffered from the king's evil, had received no benefit
from physicians, nor even from a seventh son, to reach
whom she had travelled ten miles. After touching the duke,
all the wounds were healed in two days ! A handbill in
folio was circulated setting forth this marvellous cure, and a
document signed by Henry Clarke, minister of Crewkerne,
two captains, a clergyman, and four others, lay for some
time at the Amsterdam Coffee-house, Bartholomew's Lane,
London. The few that had doubts with regard to Mon-
mouth's legitimacy doubted no more ; yet it is a most curious
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 58 1
episode, as the power was always supposed to lie with an
anointed sovereign since the days of the Confessor.
Charles II., in twenty-two years, touched 92,107 persons.
Wiseman, the Serjeant- Surgeon, says Cromwell tried, but it
failed in his hand. Strangely enough, not only the seventh
son of a seventh son, but the hand of a felon who had been
hanged, was supposed to possess the same power.
From Hinton the duke proceeded into Devonshire, but
afterwards returned to Whitelackington House on a visit to
Mr. Speke, thence through Dorsetshire to Longleat.
In the inters'al between Monmouth's first and second
visit to Somerset he went to the Hague, where he made
himself very popular at the court of his cousins the Prince
and Princess of Orange, though they must have known that
his pretensions interfered with their own. While there,
news came of his father's death and his uncle's succession.
William of Orange advised the duke to join the emperor
in Hungary, as a volunteer in his war against the Turks.
Many gallant gentlemen, both Protestant and Catholic, were
there, fighting in the common cause of Christendom. The
prince promised Monmouth that if he would do so, he
should not want means to appear as an English gentleman.
The advice was good; but Monmouth, though a gallant
soldier, was now dominated by an overwhelming passion for
Henrietta, Baroness Wentworth in her own right. His own
wife was apparently in every way excellent, but he had never
loved her, though he was the father of two sons by her.
He retired with Henrietta Wentworth to Brussels, and
endeavoured to forget his former hopes. He was roused,
however, by the ambition of others, and was induced,
582 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
against his better judgment, to make an attempt upon the
crown.
The exigencies of space warn us not even to attempt to
condense Macaulay's account of the short and disastrous
campaign that followed. Of the landing of Monmouth, his
ill-advised measures, his vacillation, the battle — the last ever
fought on English ground — the heroism and undaunted
courage of the miners and peasantry of Somerset, though
armed, many of them, with nothing but their tools ; the bitter
end, the military murders of Kirke, the still more brutal
travesty of justice under Jeffreys — is not this, and more
than this, written in " Macaulay "? and to his history we must
refer our readers. We will but contrast the behaviour of
two successive Bishops of Bath and Wells.
In the Town Hall of Wells is to be seen a portrait of
Bishop Peter Mews, sometime bishop of our diocese, but
ultimately, and at this period, Bishop of Winchester, and in
that capacity owning the manor of Taunton. Under it is
inscribed : " Vera effigies Petri Mews, Winton Ep : qui
pugnavit et oravit pro pace Regni et Ecclesiae." He fought
at the battle of Sedgemoor, the last English bishop who ap-
peared in arms : nor was he content only to use his own
arm in assisting to crush the poor of the flock so lately
under his charge ; some difficulty there was in bringing up
the great guns belonging to the king's army, so he lent his
own coach-horses and traces for the purpose, thus mowing
down by hundreds the poor peasantry of Somerset, whose
chief pastor he had so lately been. His connection with
the county would have ceased entirely with his translation
had it not been for Ethelburga's — Ina's wife — bequest of
the manor of Taunton to the church of Winchester.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 5 S3
Lord Feversham, though he had won the battle in bed —
for it was Churchill, afterwards the great Duke of Marl-
borough, who was the real victor — was anxious to show his
zeal for the royal cause in a safer though less heroic manner ;
he began the series of savage murders — we can scarcely call
them military executions — carried on afterwards by the
abler and more relentless hands of Kirke and Jeffreys.
About twenty men were executed after the battle on the
moor between Western Zoyland and Bridgewater. Fever-
sham's brutality was checked by the saintly Bishop Ken,
who must have made a forced journey from London to be
present with his unhappy flock in their distress. He rushed
into the midst of a military execution, calling out " My lord,
this is murder in law ; these poor wretches, now the battle
is over, must be tried before they can be put to death."
His interposition only suspended for the time the brutality
of the victors. Back to London was Ken summoned, to
be with the unhappy author of the rebellion during his last
moments. But not long could he be away from his diocese,
which was passing through so terrible an ordeal. His
behaviour to the poor prisoners is related in his life. It is
instructive to notice that the fighting bishop had no notion
of passive resistance, and made his submission to William
of Orange, while Ken resigned his see rather than take
vows against his conscience.
One or two anecdotes not to be found in Macaulay are
added. Colonel Percy Kirke, the same who appears in the
" Life of Ken " as governor of Tangier, was still in com-
mand of his old soldiers, who were sometimes designated as
the ist Tangier Regiment, sometimes as Queen Catherine's
584 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Regiment, but more often as Kirke's Lambs; primarily from
the device on their flag being a lamb, but secondly with a
bitter irony in allusion to their brutal ferocity. Such was
the captain and such the soldiers who were now let loose on
the people of Somerset.
From Bridgewater Kirke proceeded to Taunton. As a
specimen of the levity with which these brutal murders were
carried on, the following anecdote from Roberts's " Life,
Progress, and Rebellion of James, Duke of Monmouth,"
may suffice : — Twenty prisoners were commanded by Kirke
to be executed. For one of these in particular great in-
terest was made by his friends. As a means of moving his
feelings. Miss Elizabeth Singer, a beautiful girl of twelve
years of age, was clad in white, and taken to Kirke to plead
for his life. Kirke assented, and turning to Bush, a lieu-
tenant noted for his stupidity, said, " Go and bid the exe-
cutioner cut him down from the gallows," taking for granted
that Bush had heard the name of the man for whom Miss
Singer had pleaded. He went to the executioner with the
message ; naturally enough, that official asked " Which ? "
The man whose life had been granted was on his knees
graying, and knew nothing of the attempt in his favour ; but
another intended victim saw an opportunity for saving his
life, and persuaded the executioner that he was the man to
be released. The rope was cut, and the man, jumping from
the cart, rapidly disappeared, while the other poor fellow was
hanged.'
' Miss Singer is better known as Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, a lady emi-
nent for her talents and her saintly life. Though a Dissenter, she was
a friend of Bishop Ken and of the Marquis of Bath's family, at
Longleat.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 585
Next came the horrors of "the Bloody Assize." Even
had we space there would be no object in going through the
ghastly details of this horrible mockery of justice. The
estimated number of those thus judicially murdered varies
from three hundred and twenty to seven hundred, and
Jefifreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his
predecessors since the Conquest. The circuit was begun at
Winchester, when the first victim was the Lady Alice lisle
(as she was called). She was condemned to be burned
alive on the same day that she was convicted, only for
harbouring two rebels who fled to her for protection. By
dint of some interest her sentence was commuted to be-
heading. We will pass over Jeffreys' progress through
Hampshire and Dorsetshire, save only to mention the fate
of two brothers, William and Benjamin Hewling, who
suffered, the one at Dorchester, the other at Taunton.
Their maternal grandfather was Mr. Kyffin, an eminent
merchant of London; they were handsome and accom-
plished young men, but members of the Baptist sect.
William Hewling was only nineteen ; he was buried at
Lyme, two hundred persons attending his funeral. Benjamin,
the other brother, was tried at Taunton. The execution was
stayed in order that a personal appeal might be made to the
king. Hannah Hewling, the sister, went to London, and
was introduced to James by Churchill. "I wish well to
your suit, with all my heart," he said ; " but this marble " —
and he laid his hand on the mantelpiece— "is not harder
than the king." Her petition was refused ; he suffered, like
his brother, with the greatest constancy, and with a sort of
religious enthusiasm. The ceremony of quartering was
586 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
spared, Hannah paying the sum of ;^ 1,000 that her
brother's body might be spared that indignity. He was
buried in the beautiful church of St. Mary Magdalen in that
town. Four years later, when James was about to be forced
to vacate the throne, among other steps he took to avert the
inevitable doom, he directed the Lord Mayor and aldermen
of London should be informed that out of his "tender
regard " he was resolved to restore to them their ancient
franchises and privileges, of which they had been deprived
by the decision of the quo warranto. He sent at the same
time to Mr. William Kyflfin, and told him that " he had put
down his name as an alderman in the new charter." " Sir,"
answered Kyffin, " I am a verj' old man ; I have withdrawn
myself from all kinds of business for some years past, and
am incapable of doing any service in such an affair to your
Majesty or the City. Besides, sir," continued the old man,
fixing his eye steadfastly on the king, while the tears ran
down his cheeks, " the death of my grandsons gave a wound
to my heart which is still bleeding, and never will close but
in the grave."
But perhaps of all the victims of the Bloody Assize not
one was so innocent as Mr. Charles Speke. The Spekes are
an ancient family descended from Walter I'Espec, the
founder of Rievaulx and Kirkham Abbeys, in Yorkshire. A
branch of the family migrated to Devonshire, and in Exeter
Cathedral is still to be seen the tomb of a Sir George Speke.
The family gave its name to the pretty little village of
Bramford Speke. They moved into Somerset in the
fifteenth century, in consequence of an intermarriage with
the heiress of Beauchamp of Whitelackington, near Ilminster.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET, 587
Mr. George Speke, the father, was known as a staunch
opponent to the Government of James 11. When the
Monmouth rebellion began, he and his wife did perhaps the
wisest thing they could do, they disappeared ; but it
certainly seems that they were wanting in natural affection to
leave their young son to bear the consequences of his elder
brother's misdeeds. Hugh Speke, the elder son, was a mere
intriguer, true to neither side, and wanting in common
honesty or integrity. He had in some way mixed himself
up in Monmouth's rebellion, but his younger brother
Charles had taken no part whatever in it. He had had the
misfortune to be in Ilminster during Monmouth's triumphant
progress through the county, and had had the still greater
misfortune to shake hands with him. He was seized on his
way to London.
A major of dragoons, who was escorting his lieutenant-
general back to town, told him there were two brothers, and
that the one left for execution was not the man intended,
and that perhaps favour might be shown him. This was
represented to Jeffreys ; whose reply was, " No, his family
owes a life, and he shall die for his namesake." The Mayor
of Taunton, too, interceded, but he was silenced by Jeffreys.
He was offered his life if he would swear that, at a dinner
given by Mr. Edmund Prideaux at Ford Abbey, Monmouth's
health had been drunk. He denied the fact, and kept his
innocency, and — suffered. He was hanged in the market-
place of the little town of Ilminster — being the nearest to
his father's property — on a large tree situated there, since
cut down or otherwise destroyed. He prayed for nearl)- an
hour, and sang a hymn. The most heart-piercing lamenta-
588 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
tions were uttered by the inhabitants. This young martyr's
likeness is still to be seen at Jordans.
It seems that Jeffreys much affected Ford Abbey, and
would gladly have had the reversion of it ; he therefore
endeavoured to suborn another witness, a Mr. Key, a
clothier of Ilminster, who was at the dinner party at Ford
Abbey ; he was also offered his life and safety if he would
swear to the health of Monmouth being drunk at Mr.
Prideaux's table, or if he would testify to the sending of
men and horses by him to Monmouth's assistance. He
denied all knowledge of it, and was at once arrested. Mrs.
Prideaux was refused an interview with her husband, till she
bought his release with ;^i 5,000 !
The progress of Jeffreys through the county could be
traced by the carnage he left behind him. Every tower
and steeple were set round with the heads of traitors.
" He made all the West an Aceldama ; some places were
quite depopulated and nothing to be seen in them but
forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghastly carcases.
The trees were laden almost as thick with quarters as with
leaves. Nothing could be liker hell than all these parts,
nothing so like the devil as he. Cauldrons hissing, carcases
boiling, pitch and tar sparkling and glowing, blood and
limbs boiling and tearing and mangling." '
It deserves to be recorded that no executioner could be
found in the whole of Somerset to carry out Jeffreys'
infamous decrees. One had to be imported from Exeter.
At Taunton, during the massacre under Kirke, a poor man
' Roberts's " Life, Progress, and Rebellion of the Duke of INIon-
mouth."
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 589
whose loyalty was suspected was compelled to ransom his
life by seething the remains of his friends in pitch. The
peasant who had consented to perform this hideous office
afterwards returned to the plough ; but a mark like that of
Cain was upon him — he was known throughout the village
as Tom Boilman, and the rustics long continued to relate
that, though he had saved himself from the vengeance of
the Lambs, he had not escaped the vengeance of a higher
power. In a great storm he fled for shelter to an oak, and
was struck dead by lightning.
Before closing this paper, however, we will give one
anecdote, omitted by Macaulay, showing that on occasions
James could be merciful. There is an element of humour,
too, in the story which makes an agreeable change from the
horrors we have been recording. We give the story in the
words of Edmund Calamy, a zealous Nonconformist.
" When Story, taken and imprisoned for assisting Mon-
mouth, was ordered before the King and Privy Council, of
a sudden the keeper declared his orders were to bring him
immediately, which he did in a coach, without giving him
any time to prepare himself in any manner, only cautioning
him to give a plain and direct answer to the questions King
James might put to him. When brought before the Privy
Council, Story made so sad and sorrowful a figure that all
present were surprised and frightened at his haggard and
squalid appearance. When King James first cast his eyes
upon him, he cried out, ' Is that a man, or what is it ? '
His Majesty was told that it was the rebel Story.
'"Oh, Story,' replied the king; 'I remember him— that
is a rare fellow indeed ! ' Then, turning towards him.
59° IMYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
♦Pray, Story,' says he, 'you were in Monmouth's army in
the West, were you not?' He, according to the advice
given to him, made answer presently, ' Yes, an't please your
Majesty.'
"'Pray,' said the King to him, 'you were a commissary
there, were you not ? ' -^^,
"Again Story replied, 'Yes, an't please your Majesty.'
'"And you,' said King James, 'made a speech before
great crowds of people, did you not? Pray,' said- King
James, ' if you have not forgot what you said, let us have
some taste of your fine speech ; let us have some specimen
of some of the flowers of your rhetoric'
"Whereupon," says Calamy, "Story told us that he
readily made answer, ' I told them, an't please your Majesty,
that it was you that fired the city of London.'
"'A rare rogue, upon my word,' said the king; 'and
pray what else did you tell them ? '
'"I told them,' said he, 'an't please your Majesty, that
you poisoned your brother.'
" ' Impudence in the utmost height of it,' said Kmg
James. ' Pray let us have something further, if your
memory serves you.'
" ' I further told them,' said Mr. Story, ' that your Majesty
appeared to be fully determined to make the nation both
papists and slaves.'
" By this time the king seemed to have heard enough of
the prisoner's speech, and therefore crying out 'A rogue
with a witness ! ' and cutting it short, the king rejoined,
' To all this I doubt not but a thousand other villainous
thincrs were added : but what would you say, Story, if, after
all this, I were to grant you your life ? '
THE DUKE OF MOXMOUTH IN SOMERSET. 59I
" To which he, without any demur, made answer that
' he would pray for his Majesty as long as he lived.'
" 'Why, then,' said the king, ' I freely pardon all that is
past, and hope you will not for the future represent your
king as inexorable.' "
We must refer our readers to Mr. Norris's " South
Petherton in the Olden Time " for the story of how Miss
Mary Bridges, a girl of twelve years old, avenged an insult
offered to her mother by one of the Royalist soldiers, by
running him through with his own sword. She was tried by
court-martial before Colonel Kirke,and honourably acquitted,
the sword being given her with the proviso that it should
descend to the future Mary Bridges of the family. This
relic is in the possession of Mrs. Dobree, of the Priory,
Wellington, daughter of the late Dr. Bridges. It was
exhibited at Taunton Castle during the visit of the Royal
Archceological Institute in August, 1879.
We cannot conclude these anecdotes with regard to one
of the saddest episodes in our history without noticing the
intrepid behaviour of the Somersetshire peasants. Their
act was rebellion, the object of their enthusiastic devotion
most unworthy ; but nobly they fought and nobly they
suffered for their faith, imperfect as it may have been, and
their brave self-devotion should throw a tender light over
the ghastly records of this sad story.
Authorities. — Roberts's Life, Progress, and Rebellion of
James, Duke of Monmouth ; Macaulay's History ;
Miss Strickland's Queens; Locke's Western Rebel-
lion, and Mr. Norris's South Petherton in the Olden
Time.
PRIJ^CE GfEORQE OF DejMJVIAI^K AND
John Duddx^e^ton of Bristol.
(from miss Strickland's "life of queen anne.")
(A.D. 1702.)
-:o:-
It was in the year of Queen Anne's accession that she
made a western progress, principally for the sake of her
husband's health, who suffered much from asthma ; and it
was during this journey that the following quaint incident
is said to have taken place :
" The Bristol incident of Prince George of Denmark is
not of the martial order ; and probably when he came to
look about the "bright city" the worthy prince, who was the
very antithesis to romance, never dreamed of getting mto
an adventure. But one morning, whilst examining the lions
of Bristol, he went on the Exchange attended solely by a
military officer ; he remained there till the merchants had
withdrawn, none of them having either the courage or the
inclination to ask him to partake of any hospitality. All
departed except a humble bodice-maker, one John Duddle-
ston, whose abode was in Corn Street. The good man
PRINCE GEORGE AND JOHN DUDDLESTON. 593
walked up to Prince George and asked him, "Are you, sir,
the husband of our Queen Anne, as folks say you are ? "
The prince replied that such was the fact. John Duddle-
ston resumed that he "had seen with great concern that
none of the prime merchants on 'Change had invited him
home ; but it was not from want of love or loyalty, but
merely because each was afraid of the presumption of
addressing so great a man." John Duddlestone added "that
the shame to Bristol would be great nevertheless if the hus-
band of their queen was obliged, for want of hospitality, to
dine at an inn; he therefore begged him, humble as he
was, to accompany him home to dinner, and to bring his
soldier- officer along with him — if they could eat what he had
to offer them, which was a good piece of roast beef, a plum-
pudding, and some ale of his wife's own brewing."
Prince George was charmed with this most original invita-
tion, and accepted it with gratitude, although he had already
bespoken his dinner at the White Lion. His Royal High-
ness, with his companion, accompanied John Duddlestone to
his home ; and when that worthy citizen arrived there, he
called to his spouse at the foot of the stairs, " Wife, wife !
put on a clean apron and come down, for the queen's hus-
band and a soldier gentleman are come to dine with us."
Dame Duddlestone descended forthwith, clad in a clean
blue apron, and according to the national English custom
of that era, was saluted by Prince George when she entered
the parlour.
In the course of their dinner, his Royal Highness asked
his entertainer if " he ever went to London ? " John
Duddlestone replied " that since the ladies had chosen to
39
594 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
wear stays instead of bodices, he sometimes went thither to
buy whalebone." The prince, when he took leave, requested
his host " that the next time he travelled there he would
bring his wife, and be sure to take her to court." He at
the same time gave him a card which he said would facili-
tate his admission to Windsor Castle.
AVhen John Duddlestone needed a new supply of whale-
bone, he actually took his worthy dame behind him on his
pack-horse and journeyed Londonward. With the assistance
of the royal card, he found an easy admittance at the royal
castle of Windsor, on his way from the west, and was intro-
duced by Prince George to the queen. Her Majesty
thanked them for their hospitality to her consort, and in
return invited them to dine with her. She told them they
must have court dresses for the occasion, which should be
provided by the officers of her wardrobe, but she wished
them to choose the material. John Duddlestone and his
wife chose purple velvet, such as the prince had on at the
time. The suits were accordingly made and worn at the
royal dinner-party. Queen Anne herself presenting them to
her guests "as the most loyal persons in the city of Bristol."
After dinner her Majesty desired John Duddlestone to
kneel down, and, according to the very words and accent
of his good helpmate, in her oft-repeated description of the
scene, first laid a sword on his head, and then said, " Ston
up. Sir Jan."
Queen Anne offered Sir John a place under Government,
or a gratuity in money; but, with the sturdy honesty of a by-
gone day, the hospitable citizen would accept of neither ;
"for," he said, "they wanted nothing, and had fifty pounds
PRINCE GEORGE AND JOHN DUDDLESTON. 595
of savings out at use, and he doubted from the number of
people he saw about her Majesty's house that her Hving
must be very expensive." Queen Anne, however, presented
the newly-made Lady Duddlestone with her own gold watch
from her side. With this mark of royal favour the good
dame was particularly delighted, and never failed of wearing
it over her blue apron-string whenever she went to Bristol
market.
Authorities. — Miss Strickland; Corry's History of Bristol.
Beau Ka3h.
WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE
CITY OF BATH.
-:o:-
The legend of Bath has been told in the first of these
papers ; since then it has been known by different names,
but each having some connection with its health-restoring
waters. Ptolemy, the great geographer who lived in the
second century, mentions Bath as " Udata Therma," or the
warm waters ; by the Romans it was called "Aquae Solis," or
the waters of the sun ; and under Agricola's beneficent
government it became the Pompeii of the West. Another
name, an awkward, composite affair, by which it was known,
was Akemanceaster ; which, absurdly enough, and by writers
who certainly might have known better, has been interpreted
as the Aching or Sick Man's Place. Really, the first syllable
is a corruption of Aquce, while man is the British equivalent
of place, and cesier is the well-known termination which
marks it as the site of a Roman camp.
Warner believes Bath to have been first colonized in the
time of Claudius, about a.d. 44. He supposes that to
Scribonius, the emperor's physician, we owe the discovery of
the medicinal properties of the springs ; and that from this
BEAU NASH. 597
time it became the seat of Roman and Romanized Briton
luxury and refinement, Apollo and Minerva being the
tutelary deities.
By some it is identified with Mons Badonicus, the site of
Arthur's great victory over the Saxons ; but Dr. Guest pro-
nounces it to be far more probable that Badbury in Dorset-
shire was the spot ; while Somerset, which first of all Britain
received the gospel of Christ, never again passed under
heathen rule, for, as has been before shown, when conquered
by the Saxons they had embraced the true faith.
Bath and Gloucester are the only western towns which
have been graced with a coronation ; but Bath was deliber-
ately chosen by the mighty King Edgar, while the coronation
of the young King Henry III. was a rite hastily per-
formed, and as it were in secret, when the rest of the country
was in the hands of a French prince. In memory of Edgar's
coronation, then, Leland says it was customary to choose
annually a king, and it Avas in allusion to this custom that
Beau Nash was called the King of Bath.
During the period when Wessex was gradually rising from
its position as one of the numerous petty kingdoms into
which Britain was divided, till it attained the foremost place
■ — first overshadowing and then absorbing the whole of
Britain, ever enlarging its boundaries till, from holding the
seventh part of the kingdom, it now embraces the seventh
part of the whole world — it was during the time that Wessex
was rising like an island from the political deluge, that Bath
became the second city of the empire, Winchester of
course holding the first place, and that to a later time than
is generally supposed.
59^ MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
During the Danish invasions it suffered much, and in 1013
Sweyn retired there when repulsed from London. It was
held in the time of the Confessor by Queen Edith, on whose
death it reverted to the Crown. John de Villula, a physician
of Bath, bought the town of Henry I. and was made bishop
of it, thus ignoring Wells, the ancient episcopal seat. The
■king honoured him with a visit. During the troublous days
of Stephen it shared the vicissitudes of the rest of the
county ; and then ensued an extraordinary shuffling of
dignities and titles between Glastonbury, Bath, and Wells,
which finally resolved itself into Glastonbury retaining its
abbot, and the episcopal see being known by the double
title which has continued to the present day. Why Bath is
placed first in the ecclesiastical firm one does not quite see.
In 1297 it first returned members to Parliament.
In .the reign of Henry YII. a perfect rage for church
building, or what we call now church restoration, must have
seized upon the whole county, for the rich Perpendicular
work for which the towers of Somerset are famous is almost
entirely of that date. It has been said that the king pro-
moted the rebuilding of the churches as a mark of gratitude
for the faithful adhesion of the people to the Lancastrian
cause. Oliver King, bishop of the diocese (1495-1503),
•was determined that the Priory Church, which also ranked as
.a cathedral, should share in this fervour of restoration, so he
pulled down the one in being, and set to work ; but alas ! it
■was not given to him to finish. The west front, however,
appears certainly to be his work, or that of some flattering
architect. The magnificent window of seven lights is
flanked by turrets on which angels ascend and descend by
BEAU NASH. 599
ladders. This, it is said, was to commemorate a vision of
Bishop King's in 1499, the year of his translation to Bath
and Wells. He had a revelation of the Holy Trinity with
angels on a ladder, and an olive tree supporting a crown.
This he interpreted as a rebus on his name. At the side
are these words referring to Jotham's parable. Judges ix. 8 :
" The trees going to choose a king
Said, ' Be thou to us, Oliver, king.' "
Bishop King died, but the work was continued by his
successor, Cardinal Adrian de Castelo, and Prior Birde. In
spite of its being both a parish church and a cathedral, the
work was stopped at the Dissolution. It is satisfactory to
find that bishop and prior alike refused to acquiesce in the
desecration. They were both deprived, and one Holway
was appointed — probably one of those wretched creatures
willing to sell their souls for a miserable pittance, and to
take vows with the dehberate understanding and intention
of breaking them. He at once resigned the abbey to the king.
Henry generously offered their church to the citizens for
five hundred marks ; but, either from indifference or indigna-
tion, they declined the bargain. The works were stopped,
the building stripped, glass, iron, lead — this last amounted
to four hundred and eighty tons— were sold to certain
merchants, and, as some say, lost by shipwreck, and the bare
carcase purchased by Humphry Colles, 1542, and after
passing through several hands, presented to the city of
Bath. Still nothing was done. Adrian de Castello was
succeeded by Cardinal Wolsey, and he by John Clarke ; then
came William Knight, and still nothing was done. This
6oO MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
caused some wit to write in charcoal on the neglected walls —
" O Church, I wail thy woful plight,
Whom king nor cardinal, dark or knight,
Have yet restored to ancient right."
It was not to be supposed that Bishop Barlow would
trouble himself about the matter ; and the gentle Romish
prelate, Gilbert Bourne, was suffering too much from the
loss of the property, alienated by his predecessor, to have
funds for such a work. In the reign of Queen EUzabeth
sufficient funds were raised to finish the choir, which was
consecrated, and then aisles and transepts were completed,
till Bishop Montague was stirred by Sir John Harrington to
take up the work. It is, however, simply a fine cruciform
church, and has nothing of the abbey or the cathedral
appertaining to it.
In 1 59 1 Queen Elizabeth visited her godson, Sir John
Harrington, and from the time of Charles II. Bath became
a favourite resort of royalty. Yet, in spite of its unrivalled
position, its magnificent quarries, and the attraction of its
waters, it seems to have remained a mean city, with little to
induce its visitors to stay.
During the great civil war it had its share of strife, and on
the brow of Lansdown Hill stands a monument to Sir Bevil
Grenville, who fell July 5, 1643, fighting for Church and
king. Still Bath dragged on with none but its natural
attractions till the genius of two men combined to restore
its position to what it was in the time of the Romans, and
for several years to make it, as a resort of fashion, a rival
to London itself. A hundred or two years ago there were
many county towns which had their seasons and their
BEAU NASH. 6oi
periodical gaieties — before travelling was as easy and as safe
as it is now — and people were content for a short time to go
and meet their friends, attend the theatre, introduce their
daughters, and partake of some mild form of dissipation,
under the guise, perhaps — as at Bath and Tunbridge Wells
— of drinking the waters.
But so stationary was the progress of society, that from
159 2- 1692 Bath had only increased by seventeen houses.
But the time and the man had now come. AVood, a
builder, but a man with a real natural genius, began
his building speculations in 1728 by erecting Queen
Square in what had been a common field. Then, under
him and his son, the magnificent amphitheatre of hills
which forms so splendid a background to the valley of the
Avon, where all, that till then was Bath, had stood, became
crowned with terraces, crescents, streets and houses, built of
its own white and dazzling oolite. The view from Beechen
Cliff, four hundred feet above the Avon, is simply one
of the finest in Europe. In a drive across Coombe Down
the traveller passes the quarries, where enormous masses ot
pure white stone may be seen suspended from huge cranes
as they are drawn upwards from the place whence they have
been dug, square and fitted for use. Beautiful as the city
now was, the soulless image wanted life ; again the time came
and the man. One of the great physicians of the day. Dr.
Radcliffe, for some supposed affront set himself to ruin the
city by depreciating the virtues of the waters, by a pamphlet
which he published ; he would, he said, cast a toad into
the springs. Nash had just arrived in Bath : he assured
the people he would charm away the poison by the power
602 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
of music. He only asked for a band to make the doctor's
toad perfectly harmless.
Richard Nash, the son of a gentleman of Glamorganshire,
had led a wild and restless life, but when a student in the
Temple he had attracted the notice of William III. by his
skilful management of a pageant given by the Benchers to
celebrate that monarch's accession. It was in the reign of
Anne that his opportune visit to Bath took place ; he was
offered the post of the master of the ceremonies, then
vacant, with uncontrolled powers. When he arrived in Bath
in 1703 the city was almost entirely devoid of elegant or
attractive amusements. The only promenade was a grove
of sycamores, the only ball-room the bowling green, and no
respectable female could pass unprotected through the
streets after dark.
Under his equal government all this was altered ; no rank
could shield a criminal from punishment, nor suffer the laws
of etiquette established by Nash to be infringed. When the
Duchess of Queensbery appeared at a dress ball in an apron,
he desired her to take it off, and handed it to the attendants.
When the Princess x\melia requested one dance more after
eleven o'clock, he assured her that the laws of Bath were
like those of Lycurgus, unalterable. His enormous expenses
were provided for by his play, in which he was uniformly
successful ; yet, in spite of his devotion to gambling he
wisely and kindly interfered to prevent young and inex-
perienced men from ruining themselves. On one occasion
he won from a young nobleman first all his ready money,
then the title-deeds of his estates, the rings from his fingers,
the watch in his pocket. He then, having sufficiently
BEAU NASH, 603
punished him for his infatuation, returned it all to him,
reading him a lecture on the impropriety of endeavouring to
make money by gambling when he could not plead poverty
in justification of such conduct, and exacted a promise from
him never to play again.
The later years of his life were sad ; public gaming was
suppressed by the legislature, and he fell into poverty. The
city of Bath allowed him ten guineas a month, but his latter
days were embittered by recollections of the frivolous life he
had led. He died February 3, 1761, at the age of 87, the
corporation giving him a public funeral ; he was buried in
Bath Abbey.
For a description of the life of amusement and dissipation
indulged in at this time, the reader is referred to MissBurney's
"Evelina," and Miss Austen's novels. Ladies bathed in
public with their heads dressed in the height of fashion.
They arrived in sedan-chairs, dressed in their bathing
costumes. On stepping into the bath, an attendant brought
them a floating table on which to place their handkerchief, fan,
or other small requisite, while their acquaintances conversed
with them, and gentlemen paid them compliments on the
effect of the bath in heightening their complexion, Szc. The
baths are still frequented by patients and invalids ; but
though possessing an agreeable society of its own, Bath has
long ceased to be the fashionable resort that it was in the
last century.
Authorities. — A. S. Chronicle ; Imperial Gazetteer ;
Warner's Bath ; Mackenzie's Biography, &c ; Anec-
dotes in the Mirror.
WOKEY OR OCKEY H0I.E, j^lEAR
Wex.l?.
-:o:-
The Mendip range is noted for its caverns, caverns ot all
shapes and sizes ; more particularly are they found in the
great and picturesque gap of the Cheddar cliffs ; one in chief
there is, a stalactite cavern, pre-eminently beautiful, with its
semi-transparent lime deposits formed into fantastic shapes,
to which imagination has given various names. Lighted
most judiciously with gas artistically placed, it looks like a
fairy palace, with its tiny grottoes and unexpected beauties
surprising one on every side.
Bone caverns there are too, where the remains of animals
long since extinct in this country may be found, mingled
with the skulls and bones of men ; though, as Professor
Lyell says, " the circumstance of human bones being found
in connection with those of animals was no proof that they
were coeval, but only that they were of high antiquity."
But of all these caves, one alone, Wokey or Ockey Hole,
near Wells, has, as far as I know, any legend connected
with it. It is necessary, however, first to give some account
of the cavern itself and the various freaks of nature which
make it so remarkable.
WOKEY OR OCKEY HOLE, NEAR WELLS. 605
The approach to it is extremely picturesque, and the sur-
rounding scenery wildly magnificent. A semi -oval arch cut
transversely, and about two hundred feet from point to point,
the central point being nearly two hundred feet high, and an
assemblage of vast perpendicular rocks almost covered with
trees and shrubs springing from between the fissures, is
reached by a walk from Wells over Milton Hill, from which
can be seen a fine view. On winding round the foot of the
hill, this lovely dell, scooped out of the limestone rocks,
comes in sight. Along the dell runs the stream of the Axe,
and fifty feet above the source of the river, which issues from
an unseen aperture, is the entrance to the cavern. William
of Worcester, who wrote his travels in these parts in the
year 1473, gives the following description :
" The entrance to Wokey Hole is a certain straight
passage ; by it is an image of a man called the porter,
of whom must be asked permission to enter the hall
at Wokey. The people carry, what we call in English,
sheaves of reed sedge to light the hall, which is as large
as Westminster Hall, and there hang pinnacles in the
vault wonderfully arched in the rock; the distance from
the gate to the hall is by estimation half a furlong, and
arched with pendent stones of plain work, and there is a
certain broad water between the treasance (entrance ?) and
the hall at the distance of five steps, or twenty feet, and if a
man goes beyond that, he falls into the water to the depth of
five or six feet. The kitchen apartment before the entrance
into the hall is vaulted to an unaccountable number of feet
in breadth, and covered with stone. There is an ost for
drying malt, and the figure of a woman, apparelled with a
6o6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
spinning distaff under her girdle. Thence folks pass another
aisle a hundred steps in length, and a man may go here dry
shod over the stones. And then the apartment of the
parlour follows, which is round, built of huge rocks above
twenty steps in breadth. In the north part of this parlour
is_what is called in English— Holy Hole or Well, arched
over, and full of fine water, the depth of which has never
been ascertained. From the said Wokey Hole flows a great
eddy, which runs into the mere towards Glastonbury, two
miles off."
So far William of Worcester's " Itinerary," but he hardly
makes enough of the Witch of Wokey, who is the presiding
genius of the place, and to whom are supposed to belong
the parlour, kitchen, brewhouse, &c. For the Witch's curse
upon the maids of Wokey, I must refer my reader to Percy's
"Reliques," in which will be found the ballad written in 1748
by " the ingenious Dr. Harrington of Bath."
Burhngton, in his "British Traveller," says: "From
almost every part of the roof there is a continual dropping
of apparently clear water, though it contains a large quantity
of stony particles, as is evident from the stony cones which
were here about thirty years ago; but these have all been
taken away and presented to the late Mr. Pope of Twicken-
ham to decorate his artificial grotto, greatly to the disadvan-
tage of this romantic cavern." To its disadvantage indeed !
Who was answerable for this piece of vandalism does not
appear. Surely an appropriate punishment in the classic
Hades would be that the dropping water should fall upon
his head and the stony cones be there renewed.
That invaluable antiquarian repertory, "The Mirror," gives
WOKEY OR OCKEY HOLE, NEAR WELLS. 607
a curious piece of folk-lore as connected with the name of
Wokey Hole, and at the same time clears the Puritans from
one piece of profanity with which they have been credited.
It says, "The term Hocus Pocus has been supposed by some
to be a term of contempt used by the Puritans to express
their disgust at the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation,
and to be a profane play upon the words ' Hoc est corpus.'
But a far more likely etymology appears in the following
extract from the notes to the Dragon King in Pennie's
Historical Drama : " Ochus Bochus was a magician and
demon among the Saxons, dwelling in forests and caves, and
we have his name and abode handed down to the present
day in Somersetshire." Thus it appears that modern con-
jurors in making use of the words Hocus Pocus are guilty
of no irreverence, but are in reality, though probably uncon-
sciously, invoking the name of their powerful predecessor.
Authorities. — William of Worcester's Itinerary; Percy's
Reliques; Burlington's English Traveller; Volume
XXI. of the Mirror.
(Died 1757.)
:o:-
We have been induced to give some account of this
gentleman in consequence of a whimsical and entertaining
anecdote in his life, which at once exemplifies both his spirit
and ingenious turn of mind. He was appointed captain of
the Valeur frigate in the year 17 13, and afterwards received
several commissions to vessels of the same class, so as to
have remained, according to report, almost constantly em-
ployed, though in what particular ships is unknown. In the
year 1727, however, he was captain of the Ludlow Castle,
one of the vessels employed on the American and New-
foundland station, and is mentioned as having presented
an address to his Majesty George II., on his accession to
the throne, from the inhabitants of Placentia and other
' The story of Captain St. Loe is taken verbatim from an old Naval
Biography in two volumes. There is no author's name, but the book
was printed by John Scott, 442 Strand, and the date is 1805. The
story was too delicious to be omitted. While seeking to identify our
hero, a Cornish friend remembered once meeting a Mr. St. Lo, a man
of gigantic size. It is curious enough the physical characteristic of
great size appearing in the same family during a course of six hundred
years. {See page 337.)
CAPTAIN ST. LOE. 609
British settlements on the southern coast of Newfoundland.
Having repaired to Boston during the winter of the year
1728, for the purpose of avoiding those difficulties and
dangers which frequently attend vessels compelled to keep
the sea in such inhospitable latitudes, pending that inclement
season the ridiculous anecdote already alluded to took place.
Having put into that port on a Sunday, and his wife, who
had resided for some time at that place, in the eagerness to
show her affection, hastening to the shore to meet his boat,
Captain St. Loe, forgetful of the sanctity of the place and
day, most irreligiously presumed to salute her. He was
immediately apprehended by the constables, and, after being
confined all night, was carried on Monday before the mayor.
He was fined, but refusing to pay it, was, for his contumacy
and contempt of authority, sentenced to sit on the gallows, a
customary punishment in that part of the world for such
delinquents, for the space of one hour during the time of
change. This sentence was put in execution without the
least mitigation. While the captain sat in durance, the
grave magistrates admonished him to respect in future the
wholesome laws of the province ; and reverend divines
exhorted him ever after to reverence and keep holy the
Sabbath day. At length the hour expired, and Mr. St. Loe
was set at liberty. As soon as he was freed, he, with great
seeming earnestness, thanked the magistrates for their cor-
rection, and the clergy for their spiritual advice and conso-
lation, declaring that he was ashamed of his past life, &c.,
&c.
This sudden conversion rejoiced the saints ; after clasping
their hands and casting up their eyes to heaven, they em-
40
6lO MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
braced the new convert, and returned thanks for being made
the humble means of snatching a soul from perdition.
Proud of their success, they fell to exhorting him afresh, and
the most zealous invited him to dinner that they might have
full time to complete their work. The captain sucked in
the milk of exhortation as a new-born babe does the milk of
the breast. He was as ready to listen as they were to
exhort ; never was a convert more assiduous while his station
in Boston Harbour lasted : he attended every Sabbath day
their most sanctified meeting-house ; never missed a weekly
lecture ; at every private conventicle he was most fervent
and loud in prayer; he flattered and made presents to the
wives and daughters of the godly— in short, all the time he
could spare from the duties of his station was spent in enter-
taining them on board his ship or in visiting and praying at
their houses. The saints were delighted with him beyond
measure ; they compared the punishment they had inflicted
on him to the voice from heaven, and their naval convert to
St. Paul, who from their enemy had become their doctor.
Amidst their mutual happiness, the mournful eve of
parting arrived. The captain received his recall : on this he
went round amongst the godly, he wept and prayed, assuring
them he would return and end his days among his friends,
Till the day of his departure his time was spent in regrets,
professions, entertainments and prayers. On that day, about
a dozen of the principal magistrates, including the select
men, accompanied the captain to Nantasket road, where the
ship lay, everything being ready for sailing. An elegant
dinner was provided for them on board, after which many
bottles and bowls were drained. As the blood of the saints'
CAPTAIN ST. LOE. 6ll
waxed warm, the crust of their hypocrisy melted away ; their
moral see-saws and Scripture texts gave way to double-
entendres and doubtful songs. The captain encouraged
their gaiety, and the whole ship resounded with the roar of
their merriment. Previous to the arrival of the company.
Captain St. Loe had instructed the first lieutenant to get the
anchor up without any noise or bustle, and suffer the ship
to drop quietly down with the tide.
Proper care was taken to prevent the crew of the boat
which had conveyed the saints on board, from noticing the
alteration of position, by entertaining them very liberally
between decks, while that inattention which generally accom-
panies conviviality prevented also the guests in the great
cabin from observing it. In the midst, however, of their
mirth, though not until the Ludlow Castle had fallen down
with the tide to a sufficient distance for Captain St. Loe's
purpose, it was discovered by one of the company that the
ship was actually under weigh. Captain St. Loe was not
without a plausible excuse at hand for not having, till that
time, acquainted them with the circumstance. After a part-
ing glass had been recommended, and taken with the utmost
warmth of friendship by all parties present, the captain
addressed the mayor with great ceremony, telling him, that
as he had never had the honour of introducing him to one
of the most worthy men and able officers in his Majesty's
service who then served under his command, he would, if
his worship thought proper, do him that pleasure, as the last
he should be able to confer for a considerable time. The
offer was accepted, and the introduction of the boatswain to
the mayor took place on the quarter-deck with great cere-
6l2 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
mony. After a recapitulation on the part of Mr. St. Loe of
the eminent services that had been conferred upon him, and
the obhgation he owed to his worship for having reclaimed
his mind from wickedness, by the punishment of the gallows,
he concluded by saying it was his intention to repay them
with gratitude, if not fully, at least as well as his circum-
stances would permit ; and desired his friend the boatswain
to administer on him thirty-nine lashes, laid on with his best
art and force. Mr. St. Loe then bowed respectfully and took
his leave. His worship's new acquaintance immediately and
most strictly complied with the orders of his commander.
In like manner each of the guests were served, till the punish-
ment had been inflicted on the whole assembly; Mr. St. Loe,
in succession, taking a very polite leave, and earnestly en-
treating the select men to remember him in their prayers.
They were then let down into the boat that was waiting for
them ; the crewed saluted them with three cheers, and the
Ludlow Castle sailed for England.
Captain St. Loe, immediately on his arrival, perfectly aware
of the violence he had committed, related the transaction to
some powerful friends connected with the Admiralty, and
requested their advice. The consequence was, he was put
out of commission, and his pendant struck ; from which
moment the Admiralty Board, ceasing to hold any civil con-
trol over him, the whole of the affair was no longer cogni-
zable, otherwise than in a court of common law. This Mr.
St. Loe easily contrived to avoid, by retiring for a short time
into a distant part of the kingdom ; until the saints and
agents, incapable of discovering his haunts, and finding
themselves held up to ridicule by all the rest of the world
CAPTAIN ST. LOE. 613
who were informed of the circumstance, gave up all further
pursuit, and sat down contented, resolved to bear the
ignominy, and the smarts they had undergone, with all the
stoicism of ancient philosophers.
In respect to Mr. St. Loe, in the year 1731 he was
appointed to the Experiment, a ship of twenty guns, ordered
to be equipped for the West Indies, to protect the commerce
of that part of the world from the insults and depredations
daily committed on it by the Spanish guarda-costas. We
find no mention of him made after this time till the
year 1745, when he commanded the Princess Royal, a
second rate. On the 15th of July, 1747, he was put on the
superannuated list, with the rank and half-pay of a rear-
admiral, a comfortable and honourable remuneration for his
past services which he enjoyed till his death, on the 2Sth of
December, i 757.
The above is taken verbatim from the Naval Biography
already mentioned, with the exception of two or
three words here and there bordering on the pro-
fane. No authorities are given, nor is either the
birthplace or residence of Captain St. Loe alluded to ;
but the family having been for some hundreds of years
connected with Somerset, I have considered it worth
a place among the legends and tales of our county.
The ^tate of the Church ij^ the
ElQHTEE^ITH CeNTUF^Y.
-■.o:-
MRS HANNAH AND MRS. PATTY MORE AND
CHEDDAR, 1745-1832.
Perhaps never in the whole history of the EngUsh Church
Viave the zeal of the clergy and the piety of its members
been at so low an ebb as in the 1 8th century. The rent in
the Church made by the secession of the non-jurors was not
yet closed. The withdrawal of the wisest, the most learned
and the most pious of her sons, left, speaking generally, only
the coldest and the most indifferent behind. William HL
and the first two Georges were foreign Protestants, and cared
nothing for the Church of the nation ; and though Queen
Anne was conscientiously attached to it, her personal in-
fluence was not great.
The result was most disastrous. " The Church," says
Green, " had sunk into political insignificance. Its bishops
were mere Whig partizans with no higher aim than that
of promotion ; the levees of the Ministers were crowded
with lawn sleeves.' A Welsh bishop avowed that he had
' At a much later period it was said that if a Prime Minister was
anxious to carry any measure through the House of Lords, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury was requested to absent himself on the ground
of illness, and every bishop voted for the measure in the hope of
succeeding to the Primacy.
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 615
seen his diocese but once, and habitually resided at the
Lakes at Westmoreland. The system of pluralities turned
the wealthier and more learned of the priesthood into ab-
sentees, while the bulk of them were indolent, poor, and with-
out consideration. A shrewd if prejudiced observer brands
the English clergy of the day as the most lifeless in Europe, the
most remiss of their labours in private, and the least severe
in their lives. The decay of the great Dissenting bodies
went hand in hand with that of the Church. There was a
revolt against religion in both the extremes of English
society. " In the higher circles," says Montesquieu, on his
visit to England, " every one laughs if one talks of religion."
Of the prominent statesmen of the time, the greater part were
unbelievers in any form of Christianity. Purity and fidelity
to the marriage vow were sneered out of fashion.
" At the other end of the social scale lay the masses.
They were ignorant and brutal to a degree which it is hard
to conceive, for the vast increase of population had been
met by no effort for their religious or educational improve-
ment. Not a new parish had been created. Hardly a
single new church had been built. Schools there were none,
save the Grammar Schools of Edward and Elizabeth. The
rural peasantry were left without moral or religious training
of any sort." " We saw but one Bible in the parish of
Cheddar,'' said Hannah More, " and that was used to prop
a flower-pot."
There is more in the same strain, adding deeper and
darker shades to this grievous picture of the Church in the
eighteenth century as given in Green's " History of the
English People." The last sentence specially connects it
6l6 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
with Somerset and Hannah More. It is necessary to say
something of the early hfe of the latter.
Hannah More, the youngest but one of five sisters, was
born in 1745, the year of the second Stuart rising, which in
its repression crushed out the old spirit of loyalty and rever-
ence, giving the people nothing to cling to in exchange but a
race of foreign kings, who commanded neither love nor even
respect, and a Church whose cold conventionality but offered
them stones instead of bread.
Her father, Mr. Jacob More, kept a small foundation
school at Stapleton, near Bristol in Gloucestershire ; but
though his means were extremely limited and his books few,
he contrived to imbue all his daughters with literary tastes.
The eldest was sent to a French school at Bristol as a weekly
boarder, and on her return home at the end of each week
taught her sisters what she had learned ; and at length, Miss
More being nearly twenty-one, the parents took a good
house for their daughters in Bristol, and they opened a
boarding-school for young ladies, Hannah More and her
younger sister entering it first as pupils.
The sisters lived together in the most perfect harmony
for fifty years, thirty-two of which were employed in teaching.
But Hannah soon developed literary tastes, and when she
was seventeen, in the year 1762, made her first attempt at
authorship: she wrote "The Search after Happiness," a
pastoral drama for young ladies. It was intended to provide
a subject for recitation and acting suitable to the age and
capacity of their pupils. The idea was probably taken from
the French plays acted by the young ladies at the celebrated
school of St. Cyr, founded by Madame de Maintenon.
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 617
Thenceforth for some years she followed a purely literary
career, at times visiting London and consorting with all the
best and highest literary society of the day : Dr. Johnson,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick (with whose devoted wife she
formed a life-long friendship), Horace Walpole, Mrs. Delaney,
Miss Burney, Dr. Home, Bishop Porteous, Dr. and Mrs.
Kennicott, Rev. John Newton, and William Wilberforce.
To these last two she seems to have owed her deeper feelings
on religion in general, and her own personal responsibility
in particular.
In or about the year 1785 she had found for herself a
cottage at some little distance from Bristol, which she named
Cowslip Green. It was here that they — for her sisters gave
up their school and came to live with her — were visited by
her friends the Newtons, and later by Mr. Wilberforce. His
visit was succeeded by great results. Miss Patty, the
youngest and most adventurous of the sisters, persuaded
him to visit the Cheddar Cliffs. These are, as my readers
will remember, a gorge or cleft in the Mendip range which
extends from the city of Wells to Brean Down, close on the
Bristol Channel — nay, continues its way through the channel
itself, and rises to sight as the Islands of the Steep and
Flat Holms.
On his return, they asked Mr. Wilberforce how he liked
the cliffs. But he could not dwell on the magnificence of
the scenery or the wildness of the defile, the like of which
is to be seen nowhere else in England : his mind was full of
the degraded state of the people. His answer was that
" they were very fine, but the poverty and distress of the
people were dreadful ! " The rest of the day Mr. Wilber-
6l8 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
force spent in his room, and the sisters feared he was unwell.
We may imagine how he was employed ! But at supper
he appeared, and his first words were, " Miss Hannah More,
something mtist be done for Cheddar."
He then told them of the state of the people — no spiritual
teacher of any kind, no education of any kind, no settled
employment, and so utterly lawless, that on Sundays when
the men were idling on the cliffs, no honest man or woman
could pass that way without danger of assault. They dis-
cussed plans togf-ther till a Lite hour, and at last Mr. Wilber-
force exclaimed : " If you will be at the trouble, I will be at
the expense."
The first idea was to open a school at Cheddar, and to see
if this were practicable, Miss Hannah More and her sister
Patty undertook a tour of discovery. They were told no-
thing could be done without the consent of Mr. C., a rich
farmer, who lived ten miles from the place. After a toilsome
journey across ploughed fie'ds and bad roads, they reached
his house " almost starved." They told him what they
wished to do ; at which he was much shocked, assuring them
" religion was a most dangerous thing, especially to agricul-
ture ; that it had done the greatest mischief ever since it was
introduced by the monks down at Glastonbury."
It is curious and pathetic, this lingering of the beautiful
old Glastonbury legend among the descendants of those who
had benefited spiritually and materially by the monastery in
ancient days, its memory surviving its ruin and desolation,
and, like the exquisite remains themselves, outlasting its life
and work. But alas ! what a tale it tells of criminal neg-
lect and utterly hopeless degradation. The evil days of
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 619
Bishop Barlow told sadly upon such out of-the-way spots, and
Bishop Ken's saintly life and work were obliterated during
the terrible time that succeeded Monmouth's rebellion, and
the revolution which followed so closely and which deprived
the Church of its holiest members, leaving Somerset to the
latitudinarian Kidder, who allowed the necessity of personal
religion to be well-nigh forgotten. When Hannah More
began her work at Cheddar, the vicar lived in Oxford, and
the curate twelve miles off at Wells. The incumbent of the
next parish was intoxicated about six days in the week, and
was often prevented from preaching by black eyes earned
by fighting.
Here at Cheddar they opened a school, taking a house
on lease for seven years ; this, by removing a partition,
they made suitable for a school-house. Mrs. Hannah More
and her beloved sister Sally visited the district, and
promises were given to send the children to school. An
excellent woman was found to act as schoolmistress, a Mrs.
Baker, who arrived on one of the wettest days imaginable
in a little cart, with her little daughter and a spinning-
mistress by her side. The Miss Mores took up their
abode at a little village alehouse for a week. But we wi.l
describe what followed in her own or Miss Patty's words :
" The next day we collected all the parents of this vast
parish, a sight truly affecting. Poor, miserable and ignorant,
not a ray of light appeared in the mind of any sinj^le one.
It was a day of dreadful consideration in every view — the
dark state of the people before us — the appointment we
seemed calltd to. Much faith and much pra}er seemed
necessary. On the twenty- fifth of October we opened our
620 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
school with one hundred and forty children, with exhor-
tations, portions of Scripture, and prayer. We attended
them in procession to church. The clergyman gave us a
ten minutes' discourse, upon good Tory principles, upon the
laws of the land, and the Divine right of kings-but the
Divine right of the King of kings seemed to be a kw
above his comprehension." As the school prospered, they
discovered that the parents needed instruction at least as
much as the children, and they held a service for the parents
every Sunday evening, reading to them the Bible and a
sermon. Soon about sixty attended these meetings.
After a year's work among them, it is said that whereas
at the one service held there on Sunday, eight were con-
sidered a sufficient attendance in the morning, and about
twenty in the afternoon, there was a congregation of two
hundred adults and as many children.
Before long they discovered that even Cheddar was not
the worst among the Mendip villages. Among the most
depraved and wretched were Shipham and Rowberrow, two
mining villages at the top of Mendip, the people savage
and degraded even beyond Cheddar, brutal in their natures
and ferocious in their manners. They began by suspecting
we should make our fortunes by selling their children as
slaves. No constable would venture to arrest a Shipham
man, lest he should be murdered and concealed in one of
their pits, and never heard of more— no uncommon case.
The rector of Shipham had claimed the tithes for fifty
years, but had never catechized a child or preached a
sermin there for forty. Here a school was opened, which
was soon followed by schools at Landford and Banwell,
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 62 1
Yatton and Congresbury. The next place to be taken in
hand was Nailsea. " We here made our appearance for the
first time," says Miss Patty in her journal, " among the glass-
house people, and entered nineteen little hovels in a row,
containing in all, near two hundred people. We had
already encountered savages, hard-hearted farmers, little
cold country gentry, a supercilious and ignorant corporation ;
yet this was unlike all other things, not only different, but
greatly transcending all we had imagined." By visiting
each hovel separately, they obtained the promise of twenty-
seven children. "Even the colliers," she says "are more
like human beings than the people of the glass-houses."
Soon after this the Miss Mores received a deputation
from the parish of Blagdon, consisting of the overseer and
churchwardens, begging the ladies to be so kind as to do
their parish a little good. On inquiry, they found this
parish exceeded in wickedness, if possible, any they had
yet taken in hand. The execution of a woman there, for
taking butter from a man who offered it, as she thought, at
too high a price, had occasioned a riot in the village and
alarmed these officers. " Had the occasion been less
interesting or solemn," writes Misss Patty, " our interview
with these deputies would have been almost ridiculous.
One of them, fully six feet high, implored us to come,
because, he said, there were some parts of the parish where
they were afraid to go."
There was a little hamlet belonging to it, called Charter
House, on the top of Mendip, so wicked and lawless, that
no one ever ventured there, and thieving had been the
employment handed down from father to son for the last
622 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
fifty years. Nothing daunted, the two sisters visited this
desperate place, and opened there " one of the largest, most
affecting and interesting schools we have had : one hundred
and seventy young people attended from eleven to twenty
years of age, amongst them three children of the woman
who had been hanged. Several of the grown-up youths
had been tried at the last assizes. Nothing we had before
experienced surpassed the ignorance of these poor creatures.
Not one out of this hundred and seventy could make any
reply to the question ' Who made you ? ' One of the men
from Charter House had been tried for murder."
Such was the condition of this district of Somerset in the
latter half of the eighteenth century. No effort seems ever
to have been made to supply the loss of the monastic
schools, where rich and poor were alike educated ; and the
result of two hundred years of almost uninterrupted neglect
was a state of savagery, which many a heathen country would
have shamed. How far this state of things was shared by the
rest of the county, how far by the nation at large, one can
scarcely tell. What the account that will have to be
rendered by the faithless shepherds of those days, one dares
not dwell upon ! One of the extraordinary features of the
work carried on in the teeth of opposition and obloquy by
these two excellent and refined women, was the utter absence
of excitement ; they deprecated all the enthusiasm which
helps devoted workers in the present day. Missions and
revivals they thought full of danger ; there was no sister-
hood to fall back upon. Under God they worked calmly
and quietly, apparently unconscious themselves of their
heroism and self-devotion. The difficulties in their way
THE CHURCH IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 623
were not light : their work was scattered over ten different
parishes, with an area of thirty miles ; the roads were not
only rough but highly dangerous, and many a time Miss
Patty records in her journal an upset at night in returning
from some out-of-the-way village among the Mendips.
Another of their great difficulties was the want of
materials. There were absolutely no suitable books or
teachers. "The teaching of the teachers is not the least
part of the work," says Hannah More, writing to one of her
friends. " Add to this, that having about thirty masters and
mistresses, with under-teachers, one has continually to bear
with the faults, the ignorance, the prejudices, humours,
misfortunes, and del>fs of all these poor well-meaning
people. I hope, however, it teaches one forbearance, and
it serves to put me in mind how much God has to bear
with from me. I now and then comfort Patty in our
journey home by night, by saying, that if we do these people
no good, I hope we do some little to ourselves."
In a letter to Mr. Bowdler, she says, " My plan for instruct-
ing the poor is very limited and strict. They learn of week-
days such coarse work as may fit them for servants. I
know no way of- teaching morals but by infusing principles
of Christianity, nor of teaching Christianity without a
thorough knowledge of Scripture. In teaching in our
Sunday schools, the only books we use are two little tracts
called ' Questions for the Mendip Schools.' The Church
Catechism (these are hung up in frames, half a dozen in a
room), spelling-books. Psalters, Common Prayer Book, and
the Bible. The little ones learn Watts's ' Hymns for
Children.' In some of the schools a plain printed sermon
624 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
and a printed prayer are read in the evening to the grown-
up scholars and parents, and a psalm is sung. For many
years I have given away annually nearly two hundred
Bibles, Common Prayer Books, and Testaments. To teach
the poor to read without providing them with safe books
has always appeared to me a dangerous measure. This
induced me to the laborious undertaking of the ' Cheap
Repository ' tracts, which had such great success that above
two millions were sold in one year.
"In some parishes where the poor are numerous, and where
there are no gentry to assist them, I have instituted Friendly
Benefit Societies for poor women, which have proved a
great relief in times of sickness. We have raised in the
parish of Cheddar only, a fund of nearly ^^300 ; in Shipham
very nearly as much. This money I have placed out in the
Stocks. We have two little annual festivals for the children
and poor women, which are always attended by as many of
the gentry as we can assemble. I have made it a standing
rule at these anniversaries that every young woman brought
up in my school, and belonging to the club, who has been
married during the preceding year, and can produce a
testimonial of her good conduct from the parish minister
and schoolmistress, is presented by me with five shillings,
a pair of white stockings of our own knitting, and a hand-
some Bible. This trifling encouragement has had a very
good effect, for we have had to create the regard for virtue ;
and sobriety and modesty are now considered as necessary
to the establishment of a young woman."
Happy people, to be allowed in some measure to see the
result of their labours. Two years after the Cheddar school
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 625
had been begun, Miss Patty More records in her journal :
"Cheddar, as usual, was reserved for the great reward.
Here boys and girls, old and young, men and women, all
seemed blended together to sing their Maker's praises, and
to cry aloud that a Redeemer is at length found in Cheddar.
Here the great work evidently goes on — the people hunger
and thirst, the church is filled, families pray, children are
early brought to the knowledge of God, and, as a proof of
their sincerity, are the means of bringing their parents.
Thus shall this seemingly forgotten people, buried, as it
were, in their own cHffs, at length become an enlightened
race, praising and glorifying the Giver of all things."
Let us give a more unbiassed testimony to the good
effects that had resulted from their work. "Again and again
the county justices find the number of criminals brought
before them diminishing year by year. Even at Blagdon,
in that village on the top of Mendip into which no officer
dared enter, the justice desires that the Miss Mores may be
pubHcly informed of the extraordinary decorum of the men
on the day of their club, their conduct having struck all
parties."
In the Bath and Wells Diocesan Calendar, under the
head of "Shipham" is found, "There is here the Shipham
and Rowberrow Female Club, established in 1792 by Mrs.
H. More, to assist poor women in the parishes of Shipham
and Rowberrow." So their work still remains, thank God ;
and visitors to the Mendips need not now fear harm from
a rough ungodly race, and while exploring the beauties of
the neighbourhood, one has nothing to fear from the
inhabitants. Though till but a few years ago there were
41
626 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
some ancient dwellers in caves left— poor people who thus
saved house-rent and taxes !
It is said that still occasionally is to be found in one ot
the Mendip parishes, a Bible containing the revered names
of Hannah or Martha More, which is valued and treasured
as an heir-loom by the descendants of those who had
received them from their hands.
It is difficult to realize in these days of church work and
secular education, the state of things that has been faintly
sketched. But that one so gifted, and who might have
been the spoiled child of literature and fashion, should have
devoted her whole energies to lifting those who were the
very scum of the earth out of their miserable and degraded
condition, is a fact too little recognized ; and when Hannah
More is spoken of as a celebrated female writer of a past
age, few comparatively know anything of the great work she
carried on.
But now their " work was to be made manifest of what
sort it was." It was to be tried by fire, the fire of persecu-
tion. The leader in this was the curate of Blagdon, the
very village which was only undertaken at the earnest
request of the churchwardens and leading parishioners.
The attack began by a false accusation against the school-
master at Blagdon. The charge was investigated and found
to be false, but the master was removed, having cleared his
character, to a good position in Dublin. The school, how-
ever, was discontinued, for the Miss Mores did not think it
right to carry it on in opposition to the only resident clergy-
man. But not content with this, the curate endeavoured to
stop their good work elsewhere, and to prejudice the bishop
THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 627
against their schools, their teaching, and their tracts. Miss
More, by her spirited appeal to the bishop himself, appears
to have gained her cause. Yet, in spite of bad health from
which both the sisters were suffering, in spite of all their
troubles, the brave sisters toiled on. Miss H. More writes,
" Poor Patty, in bad health herself, fights manfully, and
combats well with these sorrows. She is holding our
annual club feast, and feasting six or seven hundred each
day with outward cheerfulness." Again, " Patty behaves
nobly, and only works the harder for all these attacks. She
has been all this weather on a three days' mission to
Wedmore, where things look very smiling." But the best
and noblest of their friends stood by them. Their friend
the Rev. John Newton wrote, " Blessed are ye when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner
of evil against you falsely for My sake. Whenever I con-
sider whose words are these, I am more disposed to
congratulate than to condole with you." The Duchess
of Gloucester was another strenuous and affectionate
friend. There is a letter of hers to Miss Patty on
her sister's iUness. On Hannah More's recovery, she went
to Fulham to stay with the bishop and Mrs. Porteous, and
received the most marked attention from all ranks and
descriptions of people. The five sisters, all between the
ages of seventy and eighty, still lived together in unbroken
harmony, and still did the two younger carry on their work
in the Mendip villages. One by one the sisters were re-
moved, and these two were left alone; then Miss Patty, the
youngest, was taken, and Hannah was left alone. Four
days before the death of Mrs. Martha More, she had taken
628 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
their beloved friends the Wilberforces to Cheddar and
some of the other villages. Hannah More never lost her
interest in the work to which she had devoted so many
years of her life, but after her sister's death she removed to
Clifton, and there died at the advanced age of eighty-seven.
Surely for them is reserved the blessing promised in the
prophet Daniel, " And they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
Though not actually a native of Somerset, her best work
was entirely in and for it, and the sisters well deserve to be
counted among the worthies of our county.
Authorities. — Life of Hannah More, by Anna Buck-
land ; Green's History of the English People. Per-
sonal information from the Rev. S. H. A. Hervey,
Vicar of Wedmore, and others.
PhILO^OPHEF^^ op 3o/v4EF^3ET.
-:o:-
DR. THOMAS YOUNG, 17 73- 1829.
Yet another Philosopher of Somerset, and — excepting
Roger Bacon and John Locke, if indeed they should be
excepted — one of the most famous. At this epoch, and
specially to those who have of late years followed the
fortunes of Egypt, Thomas Young deserves to be well
remembered. Egypt, that land of mystery and science, the
cradle of ancient art and literature, from which Greece first
drew its inspiration ; Egypt, the first kingdom founded after
the Flood — or, if we allow Assyria equal antiquity, she has
left but the shadow of a name, while Egypt still remains
a living reality. To lay open mysteries so long concealed,
to unfold the hidden history of past ages, counted not by
centuries but by thousands of years — such was the work
that this Somersetshire savant was appointed to do, and
he did it. His training for this great work was peculiar,
and perhaps not what we should at first have expected.
Dr. Thomas Young was born at Milverton, in Somerset,
one of those picturesque towns, with its fine old church, in
which our county abounds. It is situated in a deep combe
630 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
or dell, between Taunton and Exmoor. The church is
dedicated in the name of St. Michael, and is therefore,
of course, on a hill overlooking the town. He was the
eldest of the ten children of Thomas and Sarah Young, and
was born on the 13th of June, 1773- His mother's maiden
name was Davis ; she was the niece of Dr. Brocklesby,
a physician in London. Both parents were members of the
Society of Friends. Probably one effect upon a mind of
such varied powers was, that from no time being spent upon
acquiring accomplishments, or being frittered away upon
useless frivolities, his extraordinary talents were concentrated
the more closely upon what required thought and study;
yet we shall see how he thought these very accomplish-
ments so necessary in after life that he strove, with the same
-determination he exercised in everything he undertook, to
•supply the deficiency.
In his fourteenth year he wrote a biography of himself in
>Latin, which has been translated into English. He says :
" For the first seven years of my life I was an inmate in the
-house of my maternal grandfather, Mr. Robert Davis, a
merchant of great respectability, who lived at Minehead, in
Somerset. At two years of age I had learned to read with
-considerable fluency, and I subsequently used to attend the
school of a village schoolmistress, besides being taught at
home by my Aunt Mary Davis. Under their instruction,
I read the Bible twice through, and also Watts's Hymns,
before I was four years old."
In spite of the severely rigid training of the Quaker sect,
he was not debarred from works of imagination. He read
at this period " Gulliver's Travels," and committed large
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 63 1
quantities of poetry to memory, such as Pope's " Messiah,"
his " Universal Prayer," Parnell's " Hermit," &c., &c. He
learned the whole of Goldsmith's " Deserted Village " in six
weeks, during the hours of absence from school. In a quarto
edition of this poem in possession of the family, his grand-
father had inscribed the following memorandum : " This
poem was repeated to me by Thomas Young, with the
exception of a word or two, before the age of five." His
grandfather also encouraged his classical studies, and he
could repeat Latin verses though not understanding them.
When not quite seven he was placed at a ?niserable boarding-
school at Stapleton. He learned little here, and what he
learned was chiefly from his own industry and observation.
He remained here a year and a half. Meanwhile, he read
"Robinson Crusoe," Gesner's "Death of Abel," "Stories
from Shakespeare," " The Seven Stages of Life," Needham's
" Select Lessons," and — here, perhaps, was the first spark
which lighted up his interest in scientific discovery — "Tom
Telescope's Newtonian Philosophy." The next half-year
he spent at home. His father had a neighbour of the
name of Kingdon, who, though originally a tailor, had raised
himself to a higher social position, acting as land steward to
several gentlemen in the neighbourhood. At his house the
boy found many books upon science, specially a Dictionary
of Arts and Sciences in three vols, folio.
After this he was sent to another school, where the educa-
tion was liberal, and the scholars were allowed the use of
their master's library. The usher of the school was a good
practical engineer; he had made an electrical machine. He
taught the lad drawing — the one accomplishment permitted
632 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
to members of the Society. But what he taught himself was
perhaps the most extraordinary part of his education. He
studied the Eastern languages — Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee,
and Samaritan ; some one lent him a copy of the Lord's
Prayer in one hundred different languages, — but at the same
time he did not neglect science. He studied botany, pro-
cured a lathe and made a telescope, besides teaching himself
French and Italian. For the future development of his cha-
racter and strengthening of his powers of mind, he happily
lived still in a retired manner and free from all temptation
to display his extraordinary acquirements.
It was in 1787 that Mr. Barclay, being anxious to secure
an intelligent companion for his grandson, Hudson Gurney,
offered to take Thomis Young, then a boy of fourteen,
into his family, and allow him to share in the teaching of a
tutor who was to superintend young Gurney's studies.
This offer was accepted, and he accordingly became an
inmate of Youngsbury, Mr. Barclay's residence in Hertford-
shire ; but just as the arrangement was made, the tutor, who
was offered a more permanent situation, resigned : and the
two boys, respectively thirteen and fourteen, were left to
themselves, as far as their studies were concerned, and
Thomas Young acted in the capacity of tutor to the younger
lad. Eventually a tutor was found, a Mr. Hodgkin, who
undertook the supervision of the boys, and directed Hudson
Gurney's studies in other matters ; but in his classics Young
not only continued to act as before, but was able materially
to assist Mr. Hodgkin himself.
His method of study was, first, to read through a classic
with a translation, then a second time with only a grammar
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 633
and lexicon. The three years he remained in Hertfordshire
— from 1787 to 1792 — he considered the most important
in his hfe. Almost the whole time he remained in this
singularly quiet and regular family ; and when he spent
a few months in London, his life only differed by giving
him access to a few booksellers' shops and occasional
lectures. It was probably on one of these visits to his
uncle, Dr. Brocklesby, that some visitor, presuming on
his extremely youthful appearance — he was actually only
fourteen — asked for a specimen of his handwriting. He
gave it, but it was the same sentence repeated in fourteen
different languages.
The books he read during this period were : Homer,
Pindar, Epictetus, Longinus ; the Hecuba and Orestes in
King's Euripides ; Sophocles' Trilogy of the " QEdipus
Tyrannus," the " CEdipus Coloneus," and " Antigone ; "
the " Phoenissoe " of Euripides, and the " Septem contra
Thebus " of ^schylus in Burton's " Pentalogia " ; the
"Heroides" and "Metamorphoses" of Ovid; the "Satires"
of Juvenal and Perseus, the " Georgics " of Virgil, the plays
of Terence ; the whole of " Caesar " and " Sallust ; " " First
Book of Martial " ; some of the " Orations " of Cicero, with
Schiller's " Proecepta styli bene Latini," as introductory to
the study of prose composition. In addition to these, he
read in French : Marmontel's " Belisaire," Fe'nelon's "Tele-
maque," the "Numa Pompilius " of Florian, with Cham-
bord's " French Exercises." In these studies he had the
occasional assistance of a French master. He began
Simpson's Euclid in February, 1788, and finished it in
April, 1789. He then proceeded to Simpson's "Conic
634 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Sections " and Algebra, Bonnycastle's' Algebra and
" Popular x^stronomy," and Nicholson's " Introduction to
Natural Philosophy;" Trimmer's "Introduction to Natural
History," and Lee's "Introduction to Botany"; Barclay's
" Apolog}'," Cough's " History of the Quakers," Clarke
and Wormal's "Heraldry," Coldsmith's "Rome," Rollin's
"Ancient History," Sir Joshua Reynolds' " Discourses," and
four or five very trifling school books.
When we consider that all this work was accomplished,
and thoroughly accomplished, with the most limited amount
of supervision, and scarcely any actual assistance, by a boy
between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, and moreover
that at the age of sixteen his studies were seriously inter-
rupted by an illness of an alarming nature, which seemed
to threaten consumption — it is not too much to call it
simply marvellous. At this time, as strictly through life, he
adhered to the principle of doing nothing by halves. What-
ever book he began he read completely through. Whatever
study he began he never abandoned, and it was to this, in
later years, he attributed his success as a scholar and a man
of science.
This self-education, however, eminent as was its success,
was not without serious disadvantages. He had no oppor-
tunity of freely reciprocating with other minds, nor had he
any means of observing the difficulties which are experienced
by others ; he lacked, therefore, through life that intellectual
fellow-feeling or sympathy which is so essential to form a
successful teacher or lecturer, or a luminous and interesting
writer.
In 1792 Young took lodgings in London to prosecute
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 635
his medical and anatomical studies. Among others, he
attended the lectures of the celebrated John Hunter, in the
Hunterian School of Anatomy. Through Dr. Brocklesby's
introduction, he gained access to the most distinguished
literary circles in London, which included Burke, Wynd-
ham, Mr. Frederick North (afterwards Lord Guilford), Sir
Joshua Reynolds, and others. In the autumn of 1793 he
entered himself as a pupil at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
He still continued his studies in the philosophical and
historical writers of antiquity, and he contributed papers
on Entomology and Natural History to The Gentleman's
Magazine. A paper on "Vision," read before the Royal
Society on the 30th of May, 1793, was considered of such
value as to justify his election as a Fellow of that society.
He was not then twenty !
In 1794, when proceeding from Oxford on a visit to his
friends in the west, he passed through Bath, and was there
introduced to the Duke of Richmond. In a letter to Dr.
Brocklesby, the duke says : " I must tell you how much
pleased we all are with Mr. Young. I really never saw any
young man more pleasing and engaging ; in short, I assure
you the duchess and I are quite charmed with him." So
great was the impression made upon them, that the duke
offered him the post of private secretary. This flattering
offer he, after some consideration, declined. In a letter to
his mother giving his reasons, he says that one point that
weighed much with him was, that in moving in the society
he would have met in that capacity, it would have been
necessary to have left the Society of Friends, and that he
was unwilling to do. We shall nevertheless see that, later
636 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
in the same, or in the following year, he found it advisable
to do so. After visiting his relations in Somerset, he made
a tour in Cornwall, and was much interested in the mining
districts.
After this he proceeded to Edinburgh, to study in the
School of Medicine in that city. Though his studies were
chiefly professional, he found time to read both "Don
Quixote " and " Orlando Furioso" in the originals.
In 1794 he was introduced to Lord Monboddo and Dr.
Burgess. When his name was mentioned to the latter, he
said he had a presentiment it was Dr. Brocklesby's nephew,
whose Greek writing Porson had shown him. He found in
Edinburgh that, to get the full advantage of the literary
society which formed so great a feature in the life of the
northern capital, he must give up the distinctive peculiarities
of the sect. In this, as in everything else, whatever he did,
he did thoroughly and completely. He took lessons in
music and also in dancing, and went to the theatre. But
though suspected and narrowly watched, and, what must
have been harder to bear, even ridiculed, for what was con-
sidered his backsliding— his life continued as correct, his
morals as pure, as before. In June, 1795, he took a tour in
the Highlands, and stayed at Gordon Castle with the Duke
and Duchess of Richmond. He also visited the Duke of
Argyle at his splendid seat at Inverary.
By his uncle's wish, and through his liberality, he now
went to study at Gottingen. His early life has been given
with some degree of minuteness, because, as a matter of
course, that would be omitted in biographical dictionaries,
&c. 3 and, after all, it represents the self-training which
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 637
made the man what he was : but for the remainder of his
life it will be given more shortly as it may be found in any
respectable biography or history of science. His course of
study at Gottingen is best illustrated by his scheme of work,
as given by himself; and probably the conscientiousness
with which he trained himself in the lighter studies of music,
drawing, riding, and dancing, was the means of preventing
a breakdown of mind and body under the enormous burden
of mere acquirement.
At 8. Spitder's course of the History of the Principal
States of Europe, exclusive of Germany.
„ 9. Arnemann on Materia Medica.
„ 10. Richter on Acute Diseases.
„ II. Twice a week, private lessons from the academical
dancing-master.
,, 12. Dine at Richlander's fal>k d'hote.
„ I. Twice a week, lessons on the clavichord from
Forkell ; on two other days, from Fiorello, on
drawing.
„ 2. IJchtenberg on Physics.
„ 3. Ride in the academical manege, under Ayre, four
times a week
„ 4. Stromeyer on Diseases.
,, 5. Blumenbach on Natural History.
,, 6. Twice Blessman, with other pupils, and twice
Forkel.
And we may add, &c., (S:c., for other studies followed not
as clearly mapped out. But his stay at Gottingen was not
as charming to him as that in Scotland. Accustomed to
638 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
the magnificent hospitality of the Scotch nobiUty, he did
not understand the restricted means, and all-engrossing
appetite for study, of the German professors and students,
which left little or no margin for hospitality. During the
vacation he went for a tour, and at Brunswick was presented
at Court to the Duchess (sister of George III.), to the here-
ditary Princess, and the Duchess Dowager (sister of the late
King of Prussia). Annoyed at the little consideration with
which he was treated, he found himself at supper one of
about twenty gentlemen sitting on one side of a long table,
with as many ladies opposite. He endeavoured to begin
a conversation with his nearest neighbour, but found him
sulky or stupid. At last the Duchess Dowager— who looked
like a spectre, had lost all her teeth, and whom he regarded
as totally unfit for company— began a long and amusing
conversation with him; after which he found he had enough
to talk with.
On his return to England he was admitted a Fellow
Commoner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The master.
Dr. Farmer, the well-known author of a treatise on the
learning of Shakespeare, was a friend of his uncle. When
he introduced the new student to his tutors, he jocularly
said, " I have brought you a pupil qualified to read lectures
to his tutors." From his fellow-students he gained the title
of Phenomenon Young. On his return from Cambridge,
the 13th of December, 1797, he went for the last time to see
his uncle. Dr. Brocklesby, who had just returned from
Beaconsfield, where he had been on a visit to the widow of
Mr. Burke. He expired suddenly the same night, a few
minutes after retiring to bed. He bequeathed to his
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 639
nephew, Thomas Young, his house in Norfolk Street, Park
Lane ; a choice collection of pictures, selected by Sir Joshua
Reynolds; and about ;^i 0,000 in money — thus leaving him
independent, and able to pursue whatever line in life he
might select.
He now fixed his residence in London, and began to
practise as a physician. In 1799, when only twenty-six, he
inserted in the " Philosophical Transactions " an article
entitled "Experiments respecting Sound and Light." In
i8or, 1802, and 1803, he delivered, in his character of
Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution, a
series of lectures which to this day form the best existing
compendium of the elementary principles of Physics. But
he was too far in advance of the teaching of those days, and
his learning was too profound for his lectures to be popular ;
and the fact before adverted to, of his self-education inter-
fering with the intellectual sympathy which should always
exist between the teacher and the student, rendered him
absolutely unable to condescend to the minds of those he
taught.
It is impossible to follow him through all his discoveries
and the results of his scientific investigations ; it would be
merely giving lists of the papers supplied by him to the
various scientific societies and publications. After resigning
his professorship, he ceased for some years to cultivate
science openly, lest his being known to do so should raise a
prejudice in the public mind against his skill as a physician.
But in his medical practice he did not make the mark or the
name one would have expected ; in fact, he was before his
time. The heroic and violent remedies then in vogue were
640 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
not approved by Young, and he preferred in many cases to
leave Nature to herself j but though it was remarked that he
lost fewer patients than any of the other physicians at St.
George's Hospital, his practice did not commend itself to
the public, and he never became a fashionable or a famous
physician.
On the 14th of June, 1804, he contracted what proved a
most happy marriage with Miss Eliza Maxwell, a lady
belonging to a branch of the Scottish family of Maxwell of
Caldewood. In 1808 — probably in consequence of some
of his scientific discoveries in anatomy, physiolog}', and
medicine embodied in the Croonian Lecture for 1808 — he
obtained the degree of M.D. at the University of Cam-
bridge.
In 1816, when staying at Worthing, Dr. Young received
a visit from the celebrated foreign savants, Arago and Guy
Lussac. A supposed discover}- by Fresnel which was irre-
concilable with Newton's theory of light, was the subject
of conversation. After some discussion, Dr. Young declared
that the experiment they valued so highly was to be found
in his lectures on Natural Philosophy. This was disputed ;
when Mrs. Young, who had taken no part in the discussion,
left the room and returned immediately with an enormous
quarto under her arm. It was the first volume of the
treatise on " Natural Philosophy ; " she placed it on the
table, and, without speaking, pointed with her finger to the
passage which justified his assertion. He wrote much for
the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," and in the course of little
more than a year prepared articles on " Bridge Carpentry',"
" Chromatics," " Cohesion," and " Eg}-pt." This article on
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 64 1
Eg}'pt, which is in the supplement of the Encyclopaedia, has
been pronounced the greatest effort of scholarship and
ingenuity which modern literature can boast.
And this brings us to the crowning discovery of Dr.
Young's life, the one by which he will be remembered for
all time. It is known that Napoleon, among his other
vanities and weaknesses, would fain emulate Alexander of
old. So when he had elected to invade Eg>'pt, and there
endeavour to destroy English power and prestige, he deter-
mined, hke Alexander the Great, that not mere vulgar
conquest should be his aim, but that, to make his conquest
the more illustrious, he would carry in his train savants and
men learned in all departments of modern science and
ancient archseolog)^, so that, if possible, they might unthread
the mysteries kept secret for so many generations. While a
detachment of the army were building a fort at the village
of Raschid, otherwise Rosetta, they came upon a block of
black basalt, in a mutilated condition, bearing a portion of
three inscriptions, one of which was in the Eg}'ptian hiero-
glyphics. This most valuable relic fell, by the fortune of
war, into the hands of the British at the capitulation of
Alexandria. It was afterwards conveyed to Eondon, and
placed in the British Museum.
Many learned men had directed their investigations to
the hieroglyphic system of the Egyptians — Father Kircher,
the Jesuit, in the seventeenth century ; Bishop Warburton,
the author of " The Divine Legation of Moses ; " and
others — but they had all failed, and one after another
had given up the subject in despair. But Bishop War-
burton had caught a glimpse of the truth, and he
42
642 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
maintained that the hieroglyphics constituted a real
written language. The three inscriptions on the Rosetta
stone were in the hieroglyphic or sacred characters, the
enchorial or language of the country, and Greek. To
this last was appended the important information that the
decree which it contains (in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes)
had been ordered to be engraved in three different characters.
It must be remembered that neither one of the inscriptions
was perfect, the stone having been broken, and that in no
two inscriptions was the imperfection in the same place.
This, of course, immensely increased the difficulty of com-
paring them. Porson and Heyne, the two best scholars —
English and German — of the age, at once employed them-
selves in restoring and translating the Greek inscription.
This they did ; and now M. Silvestre de Sacy set to work to
endeavour, by comparing the enchorial and the hieroglyphic
characters — both equally unknown— with the Greek, to find
the key to unlock the mysterious knowledge so long hidden
from the world. In the Greek he found the names
Alexander and Alexandria, and in the enchorial discovered
two well-marked groups of characters nearly resembling
each other, and which he therefore considered as represent-
ing those names ; he also made out the name of Ptolemy.
From these he endeavoured to construct an alphabet; but
here he failed, and could not advance a single step. M.
Ackerblad, a Swedish diplomatist, and others, attempted the
task, and failed.
Dr. Young now began his labours. It was in 1802 that
the stone had been conveyed to London and placed in the
British Museum, For twelve years had this bewildering
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 643
puzzle tormented the minds of the most famous savants in
Europe. It was in 1814 when Dr. Young approached the
subject. In the summer of this year he appHed himself
vigorously, first to the euchorial, and afterwards to the
hieroglyphic inscription, and began an attentive and
methodical comparison of the different parts with each
other. He was able in the course of a few months to send
to the " Archaeologia " a conjectural translation of each of
the Egyptian inscriptions, distinguishing the contents of the
different lines with as much precision as his materials would
then admit of. He was obliged, however, to leave many
important passages still subject to doubt, but he hoped to
acquire additional information before he attempted to
determine their signification with accuracy. He soon after
published anew, in the " Museum Criticum " of Cambridge,
his conjectural translation, with considerable additions and
corrections. Finally, in December, 18 19, in the article on
Egypt before referred to, in the supplement to the " Ency-
clopsedia Britannica," he digested and arranged in a method-
ical form the result of his researches, and, in particular,
gave a vocabulary comprising upwards of two hundred names
or words which he had succeeded in deciphering in the
hieroglyphic and euchorial texts in the Egyptian MSS. It
was The Edinburgh Review which pronounced this article
"the greatest effort of scholarship and ingenuity which
modern literature can boast." To give this splendid testi.
mony to the work of our great Somersetshire philosopher its
due force, it should be remembered that Dr. Young himself
was a constant writer in The Quarterly, and that some time
previously he had had a passage of arms with The Edinburgh
644 MVTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
Review with regard to some of his discoveries. The eulo-
gium, therefore, does equal credit to the author or editor
and to Dr. Young.
It is not necessar)' to follow the successive steps by which
this great work was accomplished ; but it is necessary to
refer to the discussion which arose as to whether Dr. Young
and M. Champollion were independent investigators, or
whether to Dr. Young belongs the priority of discovery, and
that therefore to him of right belongs the honour of open-
ing the way to the deciphering of these mysterious cha-
racters. From the article above quoted we extract the fol-
lowing, which places the matter in the clear light of truth :-
-We have no means of ascertaining the precise time at
which iM. Champollion commenced his researches on the
subject of hieroglyphics, nor is the point of any importance
except for the purpose of setthng the question of priority
between him and Dr. Young ; a question, be it observed,
which has been stirred by himself alone, and about which
no other human being can entertain a particle of doubt.
After giving a short summary in the shape of distinct pro-
positions of the doctrines maintained in the article ' Egypt,'
M. Champollion adds : " Je dois dire qu'a meme epoque ;
et sans avoir aucune connoissance des opinions de M. le
Docteur Young, je croyais etre parvenu, d'une maniere assez
sure a des resultats k peu-pres semblables.' But there are
several considerations which render it utterly impossible to
credit this statement.
" In the first place we have the direct testimony of Dr.
Young himself in disproof of it— a testimony which M.
Champollion has not ventured to contradict: 'At the
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET, 645
commencement of my Egyptian researches ' — that is, as we
have seen, in 1814 and 1815 — 'I had accidentally,' says
the Doctor, ' received a letter from M. ChampoUion, which
accompanied a copy of his work on " The State of Egypt
under the Pharaohs," sent as a present to the Royal Society;
and as he particularly requested some particular information
respecting parts of the enchorial inscription of Rosetta,
which were imperfectly represented in the engraved copies,
I readily answered his inquiries from a reference to the
original monument in the British Museum, and a short time
afterwards I sent him a copy of my conjectural translation
of the inscriptions, as it was inserted in the " Archaeologia." '
The Doctor adds that, with regard to the enchorial inscrip-
tion, 'M. ChampoUion appeared to him to have done at
that time but little,' and that the few references he made to
it 'seemed to depend entirely on M. Ackerblad's investi-
gations,' which he had tacitly adopted. How then can M.
ChampoUion pretend to say that he commenced his hiero-
glyphical researches at the same period with Dr. Young, and
without having any knowledge of Dr. Young's opinions ?
But, in the second place, it appears from the respective
dates of M. Champollion's publications, that nearly six
years elapsed from the period of the above communication
until that when the first of these was given to the world ;
whereas Dr. Young's conjectural translation had been pub-
lished in 1815, long before so much as a hint had escaped
that M. ChampoUion was engaged in similar investigations.
The priority of publication is therefore quite indisputable.
But as M. ChampoUion has not ventured to contradict the
statement of Dr. Young in regard to the communication
646 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
above referred to, and as he admits having seen the article
' Egypt ' in the Supplement nearly two years before the
publication of his 'Lettre a M. Dacier,' which contains
opinions at almost every stage of his progress ; the question
of originality may be as easily settled as that of priority
of publication."
It is grievous that a clever and learned man, as M.
ChampoUion undoubtedly was, should have so disin-
genuously endeavoured to deprive a brother savant of his
due. M. ChampolHon had " accomplished too much to
stand in need of assuming to himself the merits of another."
It was given to him to complete the work so ably set on
foot by Dr. Young. But it is not difficult to follow when
another has led the way, and the discovery of a new monu-
ment supplied the gaps in the information before gained,
and enabled M. ChampoUion to complete what Dr. Young
had so marvellously begun.
In 1 81 7 Dr. Young founded the Egyptian Society; in
1 8 1 8 he was appointed secretary to the board of longitude.
In 1820 he was appointed to investigate the Arctic voyage
of the Griper and the Hecla under Captain Parry, and to
decide whether they had fulfilled the conditions which em-
powered the Expedition to claim the ;z{^5,ooo offered to
those who succeeded in reaching a certain point within the
Arctic Circle. This it was decided they had accomplished.
He died in 1829 ; his remains were deposited in the vault
of his wife's relations at Farnborough, in Kent.
He was a man in all the relations of life upright, kind-
hearted, and blameless. His domestic virtues were as exem-
plary as his talents were great, and, if Sir Thomas Lawrence's
PHILOSOPHERS OF SOMERSET. 647
portrait is to be believed, he was singularly handsome and
distinguished looking. His birthplace has become a spot to
which the pilgrims of science resort as to a shrine. Dr.
Peacock's life of him owes much to the information given
him by Dr. Young's nephew and namesake.
A monument to his memory was erected in Westminster
Abbey, showing that his country appreciated his labours.
Authorities. — Dr. Peacock's (Dean of Ely) Life of Dr.
Young ; Article in the Nouvelle Biographie Gene-
rale ; Cunninghame's Lives of Celebrated English-
men ; and oral family reminiscences.
Eowyvi^D HyVWKIN3.
PROVOST OF ORIEL AND CANON OF ROCHESTER.
(1789-1882.)
:o:
The life of one so lately passed away, and which spanned
very nearly a century, has yet to be written. He was born
at Bath, and was the eldest of thirteen children. His father
died when he was seventeen ; and his mother, with ten
surviving children, went to live at Chew Magna, near Bristol.
At Oxford he gained a double first — Sir Robert Peel being
the first, and John Keble the third, who gained that honour
since the establishment of the class list. In 18 13 he was
elected Fellow of Oriel. Milman, afterwards Dean of St.
Paul's, brought him news of his election.
Whately, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr. Arnold
were among his friends. The Fellows of Oriel were the first
in Oxford to break through the tyranny of fashion by
abandoning the immoderate use of wine, and the Oriel tea-
pot was a standing joke in the University. In 1815 he
travelled on the Continent with a pupil, leaving Paris the
day that Napoleon entered it. In 1822 Newman was
elected Fellow of Oriel ; in 1823 Hawkins became Vicar of
EDWARD HAWKINS. 649
St. Mary's. In February, 182S, he was elected Provost of
Oriel ; Keble had been talked of, but he withdrew in
Hawkins' favour. In December the same year he married
at Clifton. Our readers are referred to a most interesting
article on Dr. Hawkins in The Quarterly of October, 1883,
for a more detailed account of his life, and for a host of
charming and well-selected anecdotes.
His warm sympathy, his vivid interest in public events,
his strong and exact memory, made him a delightful com-
panion when he lived wholl)- at Rochester, and passed only
from his residential house to the cathedral and back. Nor
was he averse to forming new friendships. As the time
came round for one of the honorary canons to preach his
annual sermon at Rochester, the aged Provost wrote year
by year, and asked as a favour that he would stay at his
house ; and most delightful did he make the visit by his
reminiscences of Oxford and the charm of his table-talk.
His last illness was short ; he died on Saturday, November
18, 1882, having very nearly completed his ninety-fourth
year. Dean Scott pronounced the words of peace over his
ancient friend, and has since penned the inscription which
marks the spot where the Provost of Oriel " a laboribus
tandem requievit."
Authorities. — An article in The Quarterly, October,
1883 ; and personal recollections.
ChA^LE3 FuQE j_(OWDER.
(1820-1880.)
-.-o.--
A SHORT sketch of the Hfe and work of this eminent saint
of modern days, is all ihat is attempted here. His memory
is still green among us. The writer's object is to identify
him as a native of Somerset.
He was born June 22, 1820, at 2, West Wing, Lansdown
Crescent, Bath. His parents were Charles Lowder and
Susan Fuge. Mr. Lowder was partner in the old Bath
Bank, and was in easy circumstances. His care for others
had won him the title of "the poor man's friend." It is
touching, in the light of Charles Lowder's life, to read the
daily prayer which was offered by Mrs. Lowder for her yet
unborn infant: — "Bless it, O God, in mind as well as in
body ; endue it with an understanding capable of knowing
Thee, with a heart strongly bent to fear Thee, and with all
those holy and good dispositions that may make it always
pleasing in Thy sight. Make me a joyful mother of a hope-
ful child, who may live to be an instrument of Thy glory,
and by serving Thee faithfully and doing good in his genera-
tion, may be received into Thine everlasting kingdom."
CHARLES FUGE LOWDER. 65 1
Thus she prayed for her child ; and truly God gave her
the petition which she asked of Him.
After being at different private schools, he was sent in
1835 to King's College School, London, of which Dr. Major
was head master. When consulted about the advisability of
sending him to the Universit)', Dr. Major wrote thus : " The
steadiness of character and fixedness of principles are based,
I am convinced, upon a firmer foundation than mere human
strength, which will enable him to resist successfully the
temptations with which that career may be beset."
In 1836 he was confirmed, just as he entered the senior
department of King's College. On September 30, 185 1, he
became curate at St. Barnabas, Pimlico, and went into
residence at the college, where he remained from 1852-
1857, excepting the period when he was suspended by
Bishop Blomfield for a piece of folly that would have been
pardonable in a school-boy, but which in an ordained
clergyman of the Church it was impossible to pass over.
He gave sixpence to some boys to throw rotten eggs at a
sandwich-man who carried about a placard — "Vote for
Westerton ! " the obnoxious churchwarden.
During this time of compulsory rest from work he went
abroad, and at Yvetot, near Rouen, read " The Life of St.
Vincent de Paul," which was afterwards presented to him
by M. L'Abbe with a charming French note. It was less
than two years afterwards that he was licensed by the bishop
— on the appointment of Mr. Bryan King — to the missionary
work at St. George's-in-the-East. When this truly missionary
work began, the communicants numbered some five or six ;
in 18S0 they were five hundred.
652 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET,
The appointment of the Rev. Hugh Allen as lecturer,
marks an epoch in the history of the mission ; his role was
to preach against the work that was being done, and to stir
up the people against the devoted priests who ministered
among them. The leader of the mob was a Mr. Liquorish
— public-house keeper and churchwarden. A band of
earnest men from all parts, and by no means all agreeing in
the advanced views held by Mr. Lowder, came voluntarily
to assist and protect the clergy. Among them was Tom
Hughes, author of " Tom Brown's School-days."
On St. Peter's Day, 1865, the first stone of the church
in Old Gravel Lane was laid, ^4,00° having been given or
promised. In 1866 the cholera raged amongst the people,
and the devotion of the clergy had its effect upon the people.
In 1868 his work received the severest blow it could have
sustained, by the secession of three of the curates to the
Church of Rome. To this rapid resume of his work we
will add but two pictures or scenes in his career.
Scene I.
It was September, i860. The church and congregation
were given over to the pleasure of a howling and blas-
pheming mob; the police authorities and the Home
Secretary having been in vain appealed to for sufficient
protection by the clergy in charge. The church was closed
by an order from the bishop to the churchwardens on
September 25th. The immediate consequence was a rush
to the mission chapels by the rioters, who gathered more
than a thousand strong in Wellclose Square, attempting to
break into the church and seriously threatening the mission
CHARLES FUGE LOWDER. 653
houses. On this day Mr. Lowder's Hfe was in danger from
their violence, as, baffled by the effectual measures which
had been taken to barricade the gates, they turned their
rage against him, and attacked him when he left the church,
trying to seize and throw him over the bridge. His friends
made a cordon at the entrance to the bridge, and held it
against the mob until he reached the mission house by a
back entrance.
Such is the first scene. It is September again ; but twenty
years, years of patient, self-denying, loving work, have
passed, and on September 9th, 1S80, came the telegram
from abroad — •" Father Lowder is dead ; " and we will now
give
Scene II.
At the Holborn Viaduct Station his body was met by
one of the curates of St. Peter's, and two of the Sisters
bringing a pall and flowers, which they laid over the coffin
in the hearse, and then followed it to Old Gravel Lane.
There, at the point where St. Peter's parish begins, it was
received by a solemn procession from the church ; his own
sister — who had been prevented by illness from going to
Zell with the Sisters of Mercy — and a great white throng of
choristers and clergy, led by the cross, passing up the lane
through the crowds of weeping people to the dock-bridge
which bounds the parish. It was the place where, twenty
years before, his friends had made a line across this very
bridge against the mob who had hunted him down and
threatened to throw him into the docks ; and now, in the
streets where he had been pelted and put in danger of his
654 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
life, the police were there, but only to keep a line amidst
the crowds of weeping men who pressed forward to see and
touch the pall beneath which their friend slept.
The coffin was lifted from the hearse and carried by some
of the working men on the bier to St. Peter's Church, fol-
lowed by the mourners and the immense procession chanting
the funeral sentences and Psalms xxiv., xxvii., xxxix., xc.
Admittance to the church was by ticket, but every seat was
already filled. The altar and chancel were vested in white.
Father Lowder's stall was covered with white linen, on
which his surplice and stole were laid. When the bier
was placed in the chancel, it was soon covered with offer-
ings of flowers handed to the Sisters, while the prayer of
the introit rose, "Grant him eternal rest, O Lord, and let
light perpetual shine upon him." Then followed the cele-
bration, with the Dies Irse as a sequence.
At its close the procession formed once more, and passed
out at the western door, singing "Jerusalem, my happy
home," and slowly up to Wapping Bridge, and the dense
crowd still singing the hymn. At the bridge the procession
divided and lined each side of the road, while the hearse
passed slowly through the ranks on the way to Chislehurst.
The scene at the common, where trains of mourners had
arrived from London, was most striking. The men of
Shadvvell and Wapping, whom none will credit with
extravagant religious weakness, gathered to manifest their
gratitude and affection for the heroic priest who had
laboured so long among them.
Preceding the body came the choir of St. Peter's across
the common to the church with the eight pall-bearers, all
CHARLES FUGE LOWDER. 655
clergy ; four or five hundred of the congregation, members
of various guilds chanting. They were met at the lych-gate
by the choir and clergy of Chislehurst, and the choirs joined
and led the way into church, singing " Brief life is here our
portion." During the hymn, as the coffin was brought into
church, the deep, unspeakable grief of the people who had
lost so good a shepherd broke out into uncontrollable sobs
and tears from both men and women. It was computed
that at least three thousand were present, including two
hundred clerg)\ But of all grand points in that funeral, the
most beautiful and touching was the little children fringing
the crowd and weeping as if their hearts would break.
So with large tears of sorrow and of joy, this hero and
saint of Somerset was borne a victor to his rest.
Authority. — Life of Charles Lowder, by the author of
Life of St. Theresa (Kegan Paul).
ft Ty\LE OF WyVTCHET.
■:o:
THE DEATH OF JANE CAPES, 1838.
More than nine hundred years had passed away since the
deeds of saints and heroes which we have recorded took
place at the Uttle port of Watchet. The tale of St. Decu-
man's martyrdom, with its attendant miracles, may perhaps
be called a monkish legend. The story of the good fight
fought by JEWt is now well-nigh forgotten, but the simple
and absolute faith which shines in the one tale, and the
brave, true-hearted spirit manifested in the other, shine
forth as brightly in this true tale of a little heroine of the
nineteenth century.
It was in the year of grace 1S3S, on a warm, bright
evening in September, that the wife of a farmer named Capes,
accompanied by her maid, took her six children down to the
shore at Watchet to bathe them in the sea. The children
ranged in age from eighteen months to eleven years. On
this flat shore the waters do not come in rushing and bound-
ing as we see them on the coast of the broad Atlantic,
but creep in with a stealthy motion which is scarcely
noticed.
A TALE OF WATCHET. 657
Having bathed all the children but one, the two women
found themselves surrounded by the tide, which that even-
ing was very high. Finding it impossible to retrace their
steps to the shore, they managed to get to a rock at a short
distance ; then Mrs. Capes and her maid, placing the chil-
dren between them, held tightly to each other to endeavour
to protect the little ones ; this they succeeded in doing for
some time. But alas ! the water which had crept on so
silently, now that it met with the opposition of the rock,
leapt like a wild beast to seize its prey, and three of the
children were, one by one, washed away and carried out to
sea, the poor mother being utterly unable to render them
any assistance whatever. For nearly two hours the survivors
remained on the rock before they were rescued.
One of the children thus borne away by the waves showed
a nobleness of spirit and a Christian courage that would
have made her a martyr for her faith in other days. Jane
Capes wns only nine years old, but she knew and boldly
faced the danger in the strength of her faith. On came the
hungry waves. " Mother," said the child, " wc shall never
see poor father again." She had no pity, this noble-minded
child, for herself, cut off in her infant days ; it was her
father she pitied, v.hen he should find his little ones taken
from him. Again the child spoke, "Let us pray," and, as
the cruel waves were hurrying to seize her, the little Chris-
tian lirmly faced them and defied the danger in another
strength than her own. She repeated aloud the Lord's
Prayer and the Apostles' Creed.
How could she fear who was only leaving an earthly for
a heavenly Father? How could she tremble when she was
43
658 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
leaving this world and exchanging what even her childish
griefs had taught her was a world of change and sorrow for
" The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." And
so she left her mother's arms, and was wafted by the waves
into her Saviour's bosom.
I have not thought the story of this little one out of place
among the legends and scenes of Somerset.
Authority. — Local paper of that time.
C/KPTj\in JoHjM Haj^jminq ^peke.
(I827-I864,)
It is so remarkable a circumstance that from Somerset went
forth the two who bore the keys which were to unlock the
mysteries, kept secret well-nigh from the beginning of the
world, of Egypt, that land of mystery, that though Captain
Speke was not actually a native of our county, I have
included him among our worthies. If to Dr. Young was
entrusted the task of deciphering the secret which was to
unfold the ancient stores of literature, science, and history,
to Hanning Speke it was given to trace the course of the
river which has been an enigma since the time of Herodotus.
Though the home of the Spekes had long been in Somer-
set, and their seat was, and is now, at Jordans, near
Ilminster, they migrated into Devonshire from Yorkshire,
where their ancestor, Walter I'Espec, founded the abbeys of
Kirkham and Rievaulx in the early part of the twelfth
century. He eventually took the vows, and became a
Cistercian monk in his own abbey of Rievaulx. In Devon-
shire they are remembered by a monument to Sir George
Speke in Exeter C^ithedral, and by the nanie of the pretty
66o MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
village of Bramford Spelce, once so famous for the Gorham
controversy. From here they migrated into Somerset, and
we have met with them during the Monmouth rebellion.
John Hanning Speke was the second son of William
Speke, Esq., of Jordans, in the parish of Ilton. He was
born at Orleigh, in Devonshire, during the life of his grand-
father, before, therefore, of course, his father succeeded to
the property ; but he was sufficiently young when it became
his home, to claim with pride his being a Somersetshire
man, at the presentation to him of a pair of vases by the
county, on his return from the discovery of the great lakes
as the source of the river Nile.
He entered the Indian army in the year 1884, and was
engaged in four general actions under Sir Colin Campbell.
After the annexation of the Punjaub, he explored the
Himalayas, and combined with the study of their geography,
geology, and botany, some adventurous hunting. He made
a most valuable collection of specimens in the three great
kingdoms of nature, which are now preserved at Jordans,
the seat of his brother.
In 1854 he started with three years' furlough to explore,
at his own expense. Central Africa. He was accomi')anied
at different times by Captain Burton and Captain Grant.
In February, 1858, he sighted the great Tanganyika
Lake, three hundred miles long, and thirty to forty broad.
In July in the same year, that great inland sea, the
Victoria Nyanza, was reached, and Speke declared it to be
the head waters of the Nile. From 1860-63 he pursued
his investigations in company with Captain Grant. It was
jn the latter year that the news of his discovery reached
CAPTAIN JOHN HANNING SPEKE. 66l
England, and was received with enthusiasm. Nor did he
forget his home ; for a branch of the Nile which connects
the two great lakes, the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, he
called the Somerset River. At the south of the great lake
is a gulf called the Speke Gulf, a reminder scarcely needed
to connect his name for ever with a discovery which had
baffled the scientific world for more than three thousand
years.
On his return to England he was commissioned by the
Royal Geographical Society, aided by a liberal grant from
the Government, to return to the scene of his discoveries,
and pursue them : but he who had passed through so many
dangers unhurt, was killed, while out shooting, by the
accidental discharge of his gun, September 15, 1864.
Authorities. — Mackenzie's Biography ; Stanford's Com-
pendium of Geography and Travel.
Chedd/f^ Chee3E.
WEST PENNARD'S WEDDING PRESENT TO THE QUEEN, 1839.
" The worst fault," says old Fuller, " of Cheddar cheese, is
that they are so few and so dear — hardly to be met with
save at some rich man's table " : while Camden, a still more
ancient authority, speaks of their prodigious size, requiring
more than one man's strength to set them on the table.
Perhaps it was this that determined the people of the
Cheddar district to outdo their ancient traditions by making
our young Queen a housewifely present on her marriage,
which should prove their loyalty was as extensive as their
dairy farms. A day was agreed upon, and the produce of
737 cows was combined, every farmer in the neighbourhood
contributing a day's milking. The cheese was made in a
mould specially prepared ; its shape was a regular octagon,
thirty-seven inches in diameter, giving a circumference of
nine feet three inches, and twenty-two inches in height ;
and it weighed upwards of ten hundredweight. The cheese
itself was ornamented on the top by the royal arms, en-
circled with a wreath of oak and liurel lev'tve? moulded in
CHEDDAR CHEESE. 663
the making, the whole being enclosed in a case of beautiful
Spanish mahogany.
After being presented to her Majesty and the Prince, it
was decided that, as it would take months, not to say years,
to ripen, it would be better it should remain in the care
of those who knew how to keep it. It was placed under
special charge, therefore, while ripening, and when able to
bear the journey was exhibited at various farms in Somerset,
and eventually in London, a small sum being asked for the
benefit of the poor of the Cheddar district.
It was probably the most weighty wedding present her
Majesty received.
Authorities.— " The Mirror," No. 972; and Murray's
Handbook.
In MEMORiyvjvt, isii-isss.
(1850.)
■:o:-
If Spenser has written the most exquisite epithalamium or
marriage song on record, Tennyson's funeral dirge must
surely rank first among the literary memorials of the dead.
In it he has, as it were, enbahr.ed the memory of his dearly-
loved friend in sweet and fragrant spices of exquisite thoughts
and tender recollections and earnest aspirations.
Though neither the author nor the subject of this poem,
or series of poems, were natives of Somerset, yet, as the
remains of Arthur Hallam lie in the little church of St.
Andrew, at Clevedon, and that it is round his grave all these
sweet and tender philosophic and religious memories gather,
we may w-ell be justified in claiming that " In Memoriam"
should take its place among the legends and tales and
memories of Somerset and Somerset folk.
The little church dedicated, like so many in the diocese,
to its patron saint, is situated in a solitary, sequestered spot,
on a lone hill that overlooks the Bristol Channel ; yet this
elevated position is but itself a hollow between two green
headlands that rise still higher above it. Close to the grave
of Arthur Hallam now lie those of his mother — the daughter
IN MEMORIAM, 1811-1833. 665
of Sir Abraham Elton, of Clevedon Court — his father, and
his brother.
It was at the University — ^at Trinity College, Cambridge
— that the bond of more than fraternal affection was formed,
so early severed on earth, between Alfred Tennyson and
Arthur Hallam. The result has been a gain almost
incalculable to the whole English-speaking race. Perhaps
with the single exception of the Book of Psalms, it has
served more than any other book in existence to give
expression to the griefs, the perplexities, and the difficulties
that beset us when we would fain trace out the mysteries of
the Almighty's dealings with His creatures. We see in it,
as in a mirror, how^ others have had to pass through the
troubled waters from which we shrink. How our griefs, our
doubts, are but what others, wiser, higher, better than our-
selves, have felt also ; and we may learn from it, if we will,
how we may make " stepping-stones " of our " dead lives to
rise to higher things."
Nay, we see how Tennyson himself learned it from that
very spot, and how its teachings raised his whole tone of
thought. Listen to that exquisitely beautiful, but hopelessly
pathetic, lament in his early poems, where he describes what
he saw from the churchyard, and what he felt —
*' Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea !
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play !
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay !
44
666 MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET.
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill ;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still !
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea !
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Wi 1 never come back to me " —
and contrast it with the lines with which " In Memoriam "
ends —
" For all we thought and loved and did,
And hoped and suffer'd, is but seed
Of what in them is flower and fruit ;
AVhereof the m^n, that with me trod
This planet, was a noble type.
Appearing ere the times were ripe ;
That friend of mine who lives in God —
That God, which ever lives and loves ;
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves."
Truly from that Somersetshire churchyard, and from the
grave within the church, Tennyson must have learned a
Divine philosophy from which all his readers (and they are
myriads) may "take heart again."
THE END.
UNWIN BROTHERS,
THE GRESHAM PRESS,
CHILWORTH AND LONDON.
THE UBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF C -XTFORNU
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