[1] Camden says they had four other seats, viz., Wolstan, Stanbury,
Clifton and Lanow.
[2] John Graynfylde was Vicar of Morwenstow, 1536; the church was
granted to Sir Richard Grenville, one of the Church Commissioners for
Cornwall, by Henry VIII.
[3] Harl. MSS. 1079; in which their shield has fifty-three quarterings
and three crests.
[4] George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, says, in a note to one of his
poems, that the arms of his family--'gules, three clarions or'--carved
in stone, had stood for nine centuries over one of the gates of the
town of Granville. They also appropriately appear (as the arms of John
Grenville, first Earl of Bath) over the principal gateway of Plymouth
Citadel.
[5] In the fortieth year of Henry III. (1256), I find the name of
Richard de Grenvile amongst the 'nomina illorum qui teñ: quindecim
libratas terræ, vel plus, et tenent per servitium militare, et milites
non sunt;' and in 1297 Richard Grenevyle, of Stow, was amongst those
who had £20 a year, or more, in land. In later times the Grenvilles
held Swannacote, Bynnamy, Ilcombe, Albercombe, and other places, as
well as Stow, in the Hundred of Stratton.
[6] Cf. the _Times_, 16th February, 1883.
[7] Drake figures the tomb (which represents him carrying the cross in
his _left_ hand) in his 'Eboracum;' and it is also given in Waller's
'Sepulchral Brasses.' Cf. _Quarterly Review_, cii. 297; and Wright's
'Essays,' i. 134; Holinshed in 'Edward I.,' p. 315; and Le Neve's
'Fasti Eccl. Ang.,' vol. iii. p. 105.
[8] Pole says that 'S^r Rich^d. Grenvill, K^t., served under th'erle of
Hartford before Hamble Tewe, with 200 soldiers, and at Bolleyne, anno
38 of Kinge Henry 8.'
[9] Cf. 'A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia,'
1571 (?), fol. Messrs. Boase and Courtney observe that a very limited
number of this, the rarest and most precious book relating to America,
has been executed in fac-simile by the photo-lithographic process, and
that an edition of 150 copies of this work has also been printed by the
Hercules Club.
[10] I hardly know which portrait Kingsley is describing. One of the
finest that I have seen is a photograph of that now in the possession
of the Thynne family. It represents Sir Richard at about thirty years
of age, and with the most keen and determined expression imaginable.
Another is engraved in Prince's 'Worthies of Devon;' and Crispin Pass
engraved a likeness of him for his 'Heroologia,' probably from the same
original as Prince's; it bears the motto--
'Neptuni proles, qui magni Martis alumnus
Grenvilius patrias sanguine tinxit aquas.'
[11] An old Cornish song runs thus:
'Oh, where be those gay Spaniards
Which make so great a boast O?
Oh, they shall eat the grey goose-feather,
And we shall eat the roast O!'
[12] 'Stow,' says Carew, 'is so singly called, _per eminentiam_, as a
place of great and good mark and scope, and the ancient dwelling of
the Grenvile's famous family.' An indifferent picture of the second
Stow is preserved at Haynes, Middlesex; and another is said to be in
the possession of Mrs. Martyn, of Harleston, Torquay. Fragments of it
may be seen in the cottages and gardens of Coombe, under the hill on
which Stow once stood, and it is said that the staircase is at Prideaux
Place, Padstow; but it is believed that the greater portion of the
materials were removed to South Molton, where the town-hall was erected
with them; and, according to Polewhele, traces of them were also to be
seen at Star Hill and other places in that neighbourhood.
In the MS. diary of Dr. Yonge, F.R.S., a distinguished physician of the
latter part of the seventeenth century, the following entry occurs in
the year 1685:
'I waited on my Lord of Bathe (then Governor of Plymouth) to his
delicious house, Stowe. It lyeth on y^e ledge of y^e north sea of
Devon, a most curious fabrick beyond all description.'
As regards the ruined mansion, well might Edward Moore exclaim:
'Ah! where is now its boasted beauty fled?
Proud turrets that once glittered in the sky,
And broken columns, in confusion spread,
A rude misshapen heap of ruins lie.
'Where, too, is now the garden's beauty fled,
Which every clime was ransacked to supply?
O'er the drear spot see desolation spread,
And the dismantled walls in ruins lie.
'Along the terrace-walks are straggling seen
The prickly bramble and the noisome weed,
Beneath whose covert crawls the toad obscene,
And snakes and adders unmolested breed.
[13] _Old_ Stow House was pulled down in 1680, when it was rebuilt,
and again destroyed in 1720, the materials being sold by auction.
The carved cedar work in the chapel was executed by Michael Chuke,
an artist little inferior to Gibbons. The wood came out of a Spanish
prize, and the carving was re-erected at the Duke of Buckingham's
residence, Stow.
[14] A modern American traveller has thus recorded his impressions of
Flores as he passed the island: 'As we bore down upon it the sun came
out and made it a beautiful picture--a mass of green farms and meadows
that swelled up to a height of 1,500 feet, and mingled its upper
outlines with the clouds. It was ribbed with sharp, steep ridges, and
cloven with narrow cañons, and here and there, on the heights, rocky
upheavals shaped themselves into mimic battlements and castles; and
out of rifted clouds came broad shafts of sunlight that painted summit
and slope and glen with bands of fire, and left belts of sombre shade
between.'
[15] Thomas Philippes, in a letter of 31st Oct., 1591, to Thomas
Barnes, says: 'They condemn the Lord Thomas for a coward, and some say
he is for the King of Spain.' He supposes his friend Barnes 'has heard
of the quarrel and offer of combat between the Lord Admiral and Sir
Walter Raleigh.'
[16] Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, friend and contemporary of Richard
Carew.
[17] Probably the brother of Sir Henry Killigrew, Kt., Queen
Elizabeth's ambassador to France, the Low Countries, etc.
[18] In 1595 Gervase Markham wrote a poem entitled 'The most Honorable
Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight. Bramo assai, poco spero,
nulla chieggio:' a very rare book, only two copies of it being known,
but it has been reprinted by Arber. It is a rather fantastic and
lengthy production, containing little that is quotable; but perhaps
this verse may pass--
'Neuer fell hayle thicker then bullets flew,
Neuer showr'd drops faster then show'ring blowes,
Liu'd all the _Woorthies_, all yet neuer knew
So great resolue in so great certaine woes;
Had _Fame_ told _Cæsar_ what of this was true,
His Senate-murdred spirite would haue rose
And with faire honors enuie wondred then
Cursing mortalitie in mighty men.'
[19] It commands a view of Lundy Island, which belonged to the
Grenvilles.
[20] He is said to have been the first who attempted to smelt tin with
pit-coal.
[21] This is his designation inscribed on his tomb at Ghent.
[22] In November, 1645, according to Lysons, Launceston was fortified
by Sir Richard Grenville, who, being at variance with Lord Goring
(another of the King's generals), caused proclamation to be made in all
the churches in Cornwall, that if any of Lord Goring's forces should
come into the county the bells should ring, and the people rise and
drive them out.
[23] He is said to have conceived the notable project of defending
Cornwall against the enemy by cutting a trench from Barnstaple to the
south coast, and filling it with sea-water.
[24] M.P. for Cornwall, 18 and 21 James I., and 16 Charles I.; and for
Launceston, 1, 3, and 15 Charles I.
[25] In 1643, according to a very curious old tract (E102/107 Brit.
Mus.), the Cornish forces lay at Liskeard, Saltash, Launceston,
Bridgerule and Stratton. Lord Mohun was at Liskeard, Slanning at
Saltash, Trevanion at Launceston; Sir Bevill Grenville was at Stratton,
with 1,200 men. Sir Bevill was described as colonel of one foot
regiment, Basset of another, Trevanion, the elder, of a third--he had
Arundell for a lieutenant-colonel, and Trelawny for his sergeant-major,
two of his captains were Burlacy and Boskoyne (? Borlase and
Boscawen)--Trevanion, the younger, of a fourth, with Edgecombe as his
lieutenant-colonel, and Carew as his sergeant-major; and Godolphin
colonel of a fifth. The Cornish gave out that they were 10,000 to
12,000 strong--but 'of fighting men in pay,' says the writer of this
interesting tract, 'we know for certaine not full 6,000.'
[26] She was the daughter of Sir George Smith, of Maydford, Heavitree,
near Exeter, was born in 1598, and married Sir Bevill in 1620. Her
portrait is said to be preserved at Haynes, Middlesex, 'Ætatis suæ
36--1634.' And there was another (in a red dress) belonging to the late
Rev. Lord John Thynne, dated two years later; in this the likeness to
her son is very striking. Her sister, Lady Elizabeth Monk, was the
mother of George Monk, Duke of Albemarle.
[27] In Boconnoc Park, near the gate of Rookwood Grove, was an ancient
oak, under which, according to tradition, an attempt was made to
assassinate the King whilst receiving the sacrament. A hole, (made by
woodpeckers) used to be shown in support of the tradition. Polwhele
fancies the story must have arisen from the King's having really been
shot at whilst in the Hall walk, Fowey, when a fisherman, who was
gazing at his Majesty, was killed. On this occasion it is said that on
8th Aug., 1644, King Charles 'lay in the field all night in his coach'
on Boconnoc Down, having been 'affrighted by the Militia' out of Lord
Mohun's house at Boconnoc.
[28] An interesting illustration of a fact, sometimes apt to be
overlooked, that reliance on the 'God of Battles' was not confined to
the Puritan side in this memorable struggle.
[29] It will be remembered how the eagerness of the Grenville,
Godolphin, Basset, and Trevanion troops of Cornishmen at the siege
of Bristol precipitated the attack on 26th July, 1643, and greatly
contributed to the capture of that city for the King. Here, and at
Lansdowne, fell the flower of the Cornish chivalry.
[30] Sir John Hinton, M.D., in his 'Memorial to Charles II.,' writes:
'In his extremity I was the last man that had him by the hand before he
dyed.' His body was brought to Stow, and deposited in the family vault
in Kilkhampton Church, July 26th, 1643; and the remains of his 'deare
love and best friend,' the Lady Grace, were laid by his side four years
afterwards.
[31] A writer in 'Notes and Queries' says that Sir Bevill did not
die on the spot, but that he expired next day at Cold Aston (Ashton)
Parsonage, some four or five miles to the north of the battle-field.
Green, in his 'History of the English People,' thus refers to the event:
'Nowhere was the Royal cause to take so brave or noble a form as among
the Cornishmen. Cornwall stood apart from the general life of England:
cut off from it not only by differences of blood and speech, but by
the feudal tendencies of its people, who clung with a Celtic loyalty
to their local chieftains, and suffered their fidelity to the Crown to
determine their own. They had as yet done little more than keep the war
out of their own county; but the march of a small Parliamentary force
under Lord Stamford upon Launceston, forced them into action. A little
brave band of Cornishmen gathered around the chivalrous _Sir Bevil
Greenvil_, "so destitute of provisions that the best officers had but a
biscuit a day," and with only a handful of powder for the whole force;
but, starving and out-numbered as they were, they scaled the steep rise
of Stratton Hill, sword in hand, and drove Stamford back to Exeter,
with a loss of two thousand men, his ordnance and baggage train. Sir
Ralph Hopton, the best of the Royalist generals, took the command of
their army as it advanced into Somerset, and drew the stress of the war
into the west. Essex despatched a picked force under Sir William Waller
to check their advance; but Somerset was already lost ere he reached
Bath, and the Cornishmen stormed his strong position on Lansdowne Hill
in the teeth of his guns.'
[32] Sir Bevill Grenville was forty-eight years of age at the time
of his death, as appears by the following record of his birth in the
parish register at Kilkhampton:
'Bevell, the sonne of the worshipful Bernarde Greynville, Esquire, was
borne and baptized at Brinn in Cornwall, Ao. Dni. 1595.'
In the margin, 'Marche 1595, borne the 23d day; baptized the 25th day
of Marche.'
[33] Sir Bevill's name and memory were of course long revered in the
family. Mrs. Delany was particularly anxious that it should be always
borne by some member of it, and it may be convenient to note here that
his grandson, Sir Bevill Grenville, was Governor of Barbadoes, in 1704
(cf. Rawlinson, A 271, Bodleian Library), a major-general in the army,
and M.P. for Fowey, 1685-89.
[34] Echard gives some interesting details respecting the conduct of
this delicate business; and Masson refers to it in his 'Life of Milton'
(vol. v.)
[35] The following extract from Pepys is so amusing that I cannot
forbear inserting it: 'This afternoon Mr. Ed. Pickering told me in what
a sad, poor condition for clothes and money the King was, and all his
attendants, when he came to him first from my Lord, their clothes not
being worth forty shillings the best of them. And how overjoyed the
King was when Sir J. Greenville brought him some money: so joyful, that
he called the Princess Royal and Duke of York to look upon it as it lay
in the portmanteau before it was taken out.'
[36] This appears the more probable from the following passage,
which occurs in Lyte's 'History of Eton College' (p. 269): 'The keen
competition for Fellowships, which we have noticed at the period of
the Restoration, continued almost throughout the reign of Charles
II. Sir John Grenville was not satisfied with having procured the
Provostship for his kinsman, Nicholas Monk, and applied to the King for
a Fellowship for his own brother. The vacancy caused by the death of
Grey had just been filled up, but it was arranged that Denis Grenville
should have the next. But, though the letter in his favour was
confirmed sixteen months later, the Fellowship which Meredith resigned
on his promotion to the Provostship, was granted by the forgetful King
to Dr. Heaver, of Windsor. The Grenvilles were naturally indignant at
such treatment, and the King had to write to the Provost and Fellows,
explaining that the late appointment had been made in consequence
of Laud's decree of 1634, which annexed a Fellowship at Eton to the
Vicarage of Windsor, and once more bidding them reserve the next place
for Grenville, whose family had rendered such eminent services to the
Royalist cause.
[37] 'Comperts and Considerations.'
[38] He had also published previously some other sermons; a letter
written to the Clergy of his Archdeaconry; and 'Counsel and Directions,
Divine and Moral, in plain and familiar Letters of Advice to a Young
Gentleman' (his nephew, Thomas Higgons), 'soon after his admission
into a College in Oxon;' and his Memoirs, some of them of a painfully
personal character, were edited by the Surtees Society in 1865.
[39] It is indeed said that James promised him, on his restoration, the
Archbishopric of York (a post which, as we have seen, was once before
filled by a member of the Grenville family).
[40] Cf. Wood's 'Athenæ Oxonienses,' vol. iv., col. 498; and the 'Fasti
Oxonienses,' part ii., cols. 229-326.
[41] A Mr. Beaumont, a Durham clergyman, is believed to have written a
'Narrative of the Life of Dean Grenville.'
[42] Many of the Grenville portraits are in the possession of this
family.
_INCLEDON_,