'Tell me, ye skilful men, if ye have read,
In all the faire memorials of the dead,
Of names so formidably great,
So full of wonder and unenvied love;
In which all virtues and all graces strove,
So terrible and yet so sweete?'
_From a 'Pindaric Ode' of 1686._
'The four wheels of Charles's wain--
Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain.'
_Old Cornish Distich._
In his 'Worthies of Devon,' Prince, no doubt willingly enough, offers
a compromise with Cornwall as to the ownership of the Grenvilles, and
quotes Dugdale and Fuller to the effect that both Cornwall and Devon
are so fruitful of illustrious men, that each can spare to the other a
hero or two, even if wrongfully deprived of her own; even Carew has a
somewhat similar passage, in which he says, 'The merits of this ancient
family are so many and so great, that ingrossed they would make one
County proud, which, divided, would make two happy.'
But, as it appears to me, Cornwall _could_ not, even if she would,
spare the Grenvilles--especially the two most celebrated of them, Sir
Richard and Sir Bevill--from her roll of Worthies. True it is that
the Grenvilles usually took the sea at Bideford (By-the-ford), for
it was their nearest port, though they always kept a keen eye upon
the possibility of utilizing Boscastle, Tintagel and other North
Cornwall ports; true also that Sir Theobald Grenville (probably with
the assistance of a priest named Sir Richard Gornard, or Gurney, and
others), who flourished in the reign of Edward III., mainly built the
famous great Bideford bridge of twenty-four arches; doubtless, too,
they had lands and knights' fees, and a house or houses at Bideford
in which they occasionally resided: but the _seat_ of the Grenvilles
was, from at least the time of William Rufus, at Stow (which even
Prince calls 'their chiefest habitation'[1]), in the parish of
Kilkhampton, well within the Cornish border, and separated, on the
northern side, from the fair sister county of Devon by the whole of
the broad parish of Morwenstow.[2] For five centuries or more their
monuments were placed in Kilkhampton Church, on which they bestowed
from time to time many benefactions, and of which parish many members
of the family were Rectors. Carew says that one of the Grenvilles was
parson of Kilkhampton, and that he lived so long as to see himself
uncle and great-uncle to more than 300 persons: this was probably
John Grenville, temp. Edward IV. Of another Rector of this parish the
Rev. C. W. Boase, in his 'Registers of Exeter College,' has recorded
that, shortly after the year 1316, Richard Grenfield founded a chest
of money for making loans to the poor scholars of that Society.
According to Lake's 'Parochial History of Cornwall,' the following
Grenvilles were Rectors of Kilkhampton, namely: Richard, son of Sir
Bart^w. Grenville, 1312; John Grenville, 1524, who also held Week St.
Mary; Dennis Grenville, 10th July, 1661; Chamond Grenville, 1711. The
Church Registers, as might be expected, abound in references to the
family. Their descent, too, is given in the 'Heralds' Visitations'
for _Cornwall_[3] (p. 217); and Tuckett rightly omits them from his
edition of the 'Devonshire Pedigrees' (p. 38, etc.). They commanded
the _Cornish_ forces during the Civil War; and, from their earliest
settlement in the county, they intermarried with such old Cornish
families as Tregomynion, Trewent, Vivian, Roscarrick, Killigrew,
Arundell of Lanherne, Basset, St. Aubyn, Bevill, Fortescue, Prideaux,
and Tremayne. That keen observer, the late Canon Kingsley, has,
moreover, not failed to detect, in the portrait of the great Sir
Richard, the thoroughly _Cornish_ type of face; and, finally, they
are rightly included in the 'Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.' It is, in
view of all these facts, probably unnecessary to dwell any further on
the supremacy of Cornwall's claims to the Grenvilles. But it must be
reluctantly confessed that they are, after all, not of strictly Cornish
origin; for, though they lived for centuries in the county, they came
in, like the Bevills (with whom they intermarried more than once),
with the Conqueror; and, as an early form of their name suggests[4]
had their first home in Normandy, and were descended from Duke Rollo,
and from Hamon Dentatus, Earl of Carboyle (? Corbeil), and Lord of
Thorigny and Granville in that country. Their name has been variously
spelt Grenville, Greenville, Grenvile, Greenvil, Granville, Grainvilla,
Granaville, Greenvil and otherwise--it even occurs in one place as
Grinfillde;[5] but it seems likely to be best known in history in the
form prefixed to this chapter, and which has been adopted by the Poet
Laureate in that stirring 'Ballad of the Fleet,' with which we have
all of us lately been delighted, and to which we shall presently have
occasion to refer more fully.
Younger branches of the family settled in Bucks and in Somerset, and
preserved the favourite old Christian name of Richard, which was also
perpetuated in the elder, or Cornish, branch: in fact it has been said
that Cornwall was not without a Richard Grenville for 200 consecutive
years. Among the earliest of them was one of the twelve knights amongst
whom the Conqueror partitioned Wales: he built the monastery in South
Wales, now known as Neath Abbey, the ruins of which are a familiar and
picturesque object to the traveller by rail to Swansea. In 1653, a Mr.
John Nichols, of Hartland, had in his possession 'a prophecy,' written
in the year 1400, said to have been found in Neath Abbey, and which was
kept in a curious box of jet. It referred to the founder; and ran as
follows:
'Amongst the trayne of valliant knights that with King William came,
Grenvile is great, a Norman borne, renowned by his fame,
His helmet rais'd and first unlac'd upon the Cambrian shore,
Where he, in honour to his God, this Abbey did decore
With costly buildings, ornaments, and gave us spatious lands,
As the first fruits which victory did give unto his hands.'
But the materials for the lives of the earlier Grenvilles are too
scanty for our present purpose; and--with one exception--we must
therefore be content to dismiss them with the passing notice which
has already been accorded to the builder of Bideford Bridge; and
with a reference to one of the family, William, who died in 1315,
a distinguished statesman, and forty-first Archbishop of York. He
was at Edward I.'s first Parliament at Carlisle; and, according to
some authorities, crowned Edward II.; he also held several important
councils at York relative to the dissolution of the Order of the
Temple.[6]
'William de Grenefild' (says Carew), 'from the Deanery of Chichester
stepped to the Chancellorship of England, and Archbishoprick of York,
under King Edward the First. He was the son of Sir Theobald Grenvill,
of Stow, and Jane Trewent, and was elected Archbishop of York in 1304,
but not confirmed till 1306, at Lions in France, by Pope Clement the
Fifth, who then held his Court in that city, subsisting chiefly by
the money which he got of the Bishops for their confirmations. Of
this Archbishop he squeezed out within one year 9,500 marks, besides
his expenses whilst he lay there, which made him so poor that when
he returned into England he was driven to gather money of the clergy
within his province at two sundry times in one year; the first in
the name of a benevolence, and the second by way of an aid. He much
favoured the Templars, at that time oppresst by the Pope, and Philip,
King of France, though more pitying them, says Fuller, as persons so
stiffly opposed by the said Potentates, that there was more fear of
his being suppressed by their foes, than hope of their being supported
by his friendship. He was present in the Council of Vienna, where that
Order was abolished, and his place assigned next to the Archbishop
of Triers; which was very high, as only beneath the lowest Elector,
and above Wurtzburg, or Herbipolis, and other German prelates,
who were also temporal Princes. He died at Cawood (near Leeds, in
Yorkshire), 1315, and was buried in the chapel of St. Nicholas[7]
(in York Cathedral), leaving the reputation of an able statesman, and
no ill scholar, behind him.' Tonkin also, in his notes to the 'De
Dunstanville' edition of Carew, states, 'that the Archbishop was the
son of Sir Theobald Grenville, of Stow, and Jane Trewent.'
But Dixon, in his 'Fasti Eboracenses,' says, 'that the birthplace and
parentage of the Archbishop of York are uncertain--notwithstanding
that both Carew and Fuller state that he was a Cornishman. He was
undoubtedly, however, connected with several old and distinguished
families, notably the Giffards. Now Richard de Grenville, the founder
of the Grenville family, married a daughter of Walter Giffard Earl
of Bucks, temp. William I.' Dixon speaks highly of the Archbishop's
piety and zeal, and says that he was a most excellent and painstaking
diocesan. As to the ruby ring removed from the Archbishop's skeleton in
1735, and deposited in the Treasury, Grotius says:
'Annule, qui thecam poteras habuisse sepulchrum
Hæc, natalis erit nunc tibi, theca, locus.'
In Carew's 'Survey of Cornwall' (pp. 111, 112), under Trematon Castle,
is the following reference to Sir Richard Grenville, Sheriff of Devon
and Marshal of Calais[8] (grandsire of the more celebrated Grenville
of that name), a man who 'enterlaced his home magistracy with martiall
employments abroad,' and was a great favourite with bluff King Hal:
'At the last Cornish commotion Sir Richard Greynuile the elder, with
his Ladie and followers, put themselves into this Castle, and there
for awhile indured the Rebels siege, incamped in three places against
it, who wanting great Ordinance, could have wrought the besieged small
scathe, had his friends, or enemies, kept faith and promise: but some
of those within, slipping by night over the wals, _with their bodies
after their hearts_, and those without, mingling humble intreatings
with rude menaces, he was hereby wonne, to issue forth at a posterne
gate for parley. The while, a part of those rakehels, not knowing what
honestie, and farre lesse, how much the word of a souldier imported,
stepped betweene him and home, laid hold on his aged unweyldie body
and threatened to leaue it liuelesse, if the inclosed did not leaue
their resistance. So prosecuting their first treacherie against the
prince, with suteable actions towards his subjects, they seized on the
Castle, and exercised the uttermost of their barbarous crueltie (death
excepted) on the surprised prisoners. The seely (_i.e._ harmless)
gentlewomen, without regard of sexe or shame, were stripped from their
apparrell to their verie smockes, and some of their fingers broken, to
plucke away their rings, & Sir Richard himself made an exchange from
Trematon Castle, to that of Launceston, with the Gayle to boote.'
Sir Richard, who married Matilda Bevill, died in 1550; and I have been
fortunate enough to find two of his poetical effusions--apparently
in his own handwriting, now very indistinct in places--amongst the
'Additional MSS.' in the British Museum. They appear to me to be well
worth inserting, notwithstanding their queer versification and grammar,
and their odd orthography:
'IN PRAISE OF SEAFARINGE MEN IN HOPES OF GOOD FORTUNE.
'Whoe seekes the waie to win Renowne
Or flies with wyinges of ye Desarte
Whoe seekes to wear the Lawrell crowen
Or hath the mind that would espire
Tell him his native soyll eschew
Tell him go rainge and seke Anewe
'Eche hawtie harte is well contente
With euerie chance that shalbe tyde
No hap can hinder his entente
He steadfast standes though fortune slide
The sun quoth he doth shine as well
A brod as earst where I did dwell
'In change of streames each fish can live
Eche soule content with everie Ayre
Eche hawtie hart remaineth still
And not be Dround in depe Dispaire
Wherfor I judg all landes a likes
To hawtie hartes whom fortune seekes
'Two pass the seaes som thinkes a toille
Som thinkes it strange abrod to rome
Som thinkes it agrefe to leave their soylle
Their parentes cynfolke and their whome
Thinke soe who list I like it nott
I must abrod to trie my lott
'Who list at whome at carte to drudge
And carke and care for worldlie trishe
With buckled sheues let him go trudge
Instead of laureall a whip to slishe
A mynd that basse his hind will show
Of carome sweet to feed a crowe
'If fasonn of that mynd had bine
The gresions when they came to troye
Had never so the Trogians foyhte
Nor neuer put them to such Anoye
Wherfore who lust to live at whome
To purchase fame I will go Rome
'FINIS--SUR RICHARD GRINFILLDE'S FAREWELL'
But Sir Richard feels bound to confess that there is another and
quite a different aspect of the question; and accordingly frames the
following set-off to his former lines:
'ANOTHER OF SEA FARDINGERS DISCRIBING EVILL FORTUNES.'
'What pen can well reporte the plighte
Of those that travell on the seaes
To pas the werie winters nighte
With stormie cloudes wisshinge for daie
With waves that toss them to and fro
Their pore estate is hard to show
When boistering windes begins to blowe
And cruel costes from haven wee
The foggie mysts soe dimes the shore
The rocks and sandes we maie not see
Nor have no Rome on Seaes to trie
But praie to God and yeld to Die
When shouldes and sandie bankes Apears
What pillot can divert his course
When foming tides draweth us so nere
A las what fortenn can be worsse
The Ankers hould roust be our staie
Or Elise we fall into Decaye
We wander still from Loffe to Lie
And findes no steadfast wind to blow
We still remaine in jeopardie
Each perelos poynt is hard to showe
In time we hope to find Redresse
That long have lived in Heavines
O pinchinge werie lothsome Lyffe
That Travell still in far Exsylle
The dangers great on Sease be ryfe
Whose recompense doth yeld but toylle
O fortune graunte me mie Desire
A hapie end I doe Require
When freates and states have had their fill
The gentill calm the cost will clere
Then hawtie hartes shall have their will
That longe hast wept with morning chere
And leave the Seaes with thair Anoy
At whome at Ease to live in Joy.
'FINIS.'
The poetical Sir Richard's son Roger, a Captain in the Navy, lost his
life at the sinking of the _Mary Rose_ (commanded by Sir George Carew,
a Cornishman), at Spithead in 1545. 'Thus the ocean became a bedde of
honour,' as Carew says, 'to more than one of the Grenvilles.'
But it is time that we should turn to a greater Sir Richard--the son of
Roger Grenville and Thomasin Cole of Slade.
My task will be on this occasion comparatively light;
'His praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine.'
The famous deeds of the great man to whom I have now to call attention
have been celebrated by such writers as his kinsman Sir Walter Raleigh;
by Carew; by that master of portraiture Lord Clarendon; by Charles
Kingsley; and by Tennyson; and I shall of course offer no apology for
not using any words of my own, where I can use theirs: for, as Fuller
said of the Ashburnhams, 'My poor and plain pen, though willing, is
unable to add any lustre to this family of stupendous antiquity.'
Sir Richard, then, was born in 1540; and, when only sixteen years of
age, served in Hungary, under the Emperor Maximilian, against the
Turks, and was present with Don John of Austria, at the battle of
Lepanto. He afterwards assisted in the reduction of Ireland; and,
whilst there, filled the office of Sheriff of Cork. When Sheriff of
Cornwall in 1577, he arrested Francis Tregian for harbouring Cuthbert
Mayne, a recusant priest (see _sub_ 'The Arundells'). In 1571 he
represented his native county in Parliament, and was knighted. On 19th
May, 1585, he sailed from Plymouth with the first colonists, on a
voyage to the new-found land of Virginia, of which voyage Thomas Hariot
gave a 'Briefe and True Report,' printed in 1588: on his homeward
passage he fell in with a Spanish ship of 300 tons, richly laden, from
St. Domingo, which he boarded on a raft, his own boats being lost or
disabled; and in 1586 he made a second visit to Virginia, pillaging
the towns of the Spaniards, and taking many prisoners. With Raleigh
he seems to have made one or two similar expeditions, gathering much
experience, if not much pecuniary advantage.[9]
When the Spanish invasion was projected, Sir Richard was, almost as
a matter of course, elected on the Council for the defence of the
country, and he received the Queen's special commands not to quit
Cornwall during the peril. On this occasion, he is said to have
provided '303 men at his own cost, armed with 129 shot, 69 corsletts,
and 179 bows.' Of the result there is no need to speak here; but it
has always been a matter of pride for West-country men to think how
large a share in the destruction of the Invincible Armada was performed
by the gallant sailors who quietly dropped out of Plymouth Sound, and
harassed their huge opponents for days, till, what with shot, and
storm, and tempest, scarce one of the Spaniards was left to tell the
tale of their utter, and irretrievable defeat.