9 shash windows at 10/6 and 2 at 11/6 5 17 6
no. 27 y^e winscott w^{th}out y^e chimney
and door casings 11 13 0
6 squares of Planching 1 16 0
A Tunn and 1/2 of Sheet & Pipe at 13/ 19 10 0
7 p^{rs.} of winscott window shutters at 8/ 2 16 0
172 rustic quoins at 1 8 12 0
4 Corinthian Capitalls & Pillasters 2 2 0
Y^e caseing and ornaments of 3 windows 1 11 6
3 Architraves w^{th} Pedem^{ts.} for doors &
27 y^{ds.} of winscott in the Lobby 2 2 0
A carved Cornish and Triumph of K.
Charles II. 7 7 0
2 right panel doors 1 1 0
These articles, with many others, were taken to Bude, shipped to
Barnstaple, and thence carted to South Molton. The outlay for the whole
only amounted to £178! The “carved Cornish and Triumph of Charles II.”
is still to be seen over the fireplace in the old dining-room in the
Town Hall at South Molton.
No doubt the isolated position of Stowe, and the long distance from
London was one cause of its being destroyed. Lord Carteret was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire in 1716, and the previous
year he had been doing all he could in support of the new Hanoverian
establishment. While the Jacobite rebellion was at its height in
the north, Carteret was writing from Stowe to Robethon, the French
Secretary of George I.--
“I am now two hundred long miles from you, situated on a cliff
overlooking the sea, and every tide have fresh prospects in viewing
ships coming home. _In this corner of the earth_ have I received
your letter, and without that I should have heard nothing since I
came. Sept. 25, 1715.”--Brit. Mus. Sloane MSS. 4107, fol. 171, etc.
Another cause may have been the bursting of the “South Sea Bubble,” in
which Countess Granville and the Carterets had invested a good deal of
money. Lord Carteret wrote to a friend in October, 1720--
“I don’t know exactly how the fall of the South Sea has affected
my family, but they have lost considerably of what they had once
gained.”
The stables alone remain, and these have been converted into a
farmhouse, the tennis-court into a sheepcote, and the great quadrangle
into a rick-yard, and civilisation, spreading wave after wave so fast
elsewhere, has surged back from that lovely corner of the land, let us
hope only for a while.
Referring to this ruined mansion, Edward Moore exclaimed--
“Ah! where is now its boasted beauty fled?
Proud turrets that once glistened in the sky,
And broken columns, in confusion spread,
A rude mis-shapen heap of ruins lie!
Where, too, is now the garden’s beauty fled,
Which every clime was ransacked to supply?
On the dread spot see desolation spread,
And the dismantled walls in ruin lie.
Along the terrace walks are straggling seen
The thickly bramble and the noisome weed,
Beneath whose covert crawls the toad obscene,
And snakes and adders unmolested breed.”
FOOTNOTE:
[164] The cedar wainscot which lined the chapel is said to have been
bought out of a Spanish prize, and the carving is mentioned by Defoe,
in his “Western Tour,” as the work of Michael Chuke, and not inferior
to Gibbon’s. (C. S. Gilbert, “Survey of Cornwall,” vol. ii. p. 554.)
APPENDIX F (p. 123)
CRUEL COPPINGER
BY R. PEARSE CHOPE
The real Coppinger, around whose name Mr. Hawker has woven such a
fascinating legend, has been identified by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould,
in a footnote to his account of “The Vicar of Morwenstow” (edit. 1899,
p. 113), with an Irishman of that name, having a wife at Trewhiddle,
near St. Austell, by whom he had a daughter, who married a son of Lord
Clinton. However, there can be little doubt that the Coppinger Mr.
Hawker had in his mind lived nearer at hand, in the adjoining parish
of Hartland, where several of these tales, together with others of a
similar nature, are still told about him. His name was Daniel Herbert
Coppinger or Copinger, and he was wrecked, probably at Welcombe Mouth,
the end of the romantic glen which separates Welcombe from Hartland, on
December 23rd, 1792. He was hospitably received and entertained, not by
Mr. Hamlyn, but by Mr. William Arthur, another yeoman farmer, at Golden
Park in Hartland. While there he scratched the following inscription
on a window-pane, which was preserved for many years, but has now
disappeared:--
“D. H. Coppinger, shipwrecked December 23rd, 1792; kindly received
by Mr. Wm. Arthur.”
In the following year he married Ann Hamlyn, the elder of the two
daughters of Mr. Ackland Hamlyn, of Galsham, and his wife Ann, who was
one of the last of the ancient and gentle family of Velly of Velly,
a family which had held a prominent position in the parish for at
least five hundred years. The marriage is thus entered in the parish
register:--
“Daniel Herbert Coppinger of the King’s Royal Navy and Ann Hamlyn
mar^d (by licence) 3 Aug.”
Far from being “a young damsel,” the bride was of the mature age of
forty-two. Two years later her sister, Mary, was married to William
Randal, but there is no record or local tradition of any issue from
either marriage. What rank Coppinger held in the Navy is not known, but
his name does not appear in the lists of commissioned officers.
For about two years he carried on his nefarious business of smuggling,
and stories are still told of the various methods he adopted of
outwitting the gauger. His chief cave was in the cliff at Sandhole,
but another is pointed out in Henstridge Wood, a couple of miles
inland. On one occasion, perhaps after Coppinger’s time, the caves
were watched so closely that the kegs of brandy which had been landed
were deposited at the bottom of the _zess_, as the pile of sheaves in
a barn is called, of an accommodating farmer. The gauger, who had his
suspicions, wished to search the zess, but the farmer was so willing to
help him in turning over the sheaves that his suspicions were allayed,
and he went away without finding any of the incriminating articles. On
another occasion the result was not so satisfactory for the farmer. On
the arrival of the gauger, he produced some empty kegs in order to give
his wife an opportunity of hiding a supply of valuable silks which had
been left in their care. The safest place she could think of in her
hurry was the oven, but she forgot that it had been heated for baking
a batch of bread. The result was that, although the gauger failed to
find them, they were burnt to ashes.
Mrs. Coppinger’s mother went to live with her other daughter and
son-in-law at Cross House in Harton. She was the owner of Galsham, and
retained possession of her husband’s money, and the tale runs that,
in order to obtain money from her, Coppinger, having been refused
admission, had been known to stand, with a pistol in each hand, on the
_lepping-stock_, or horse-block, in front of the house and threaten to
shoot any person who appeared at the door or any of the windows unless
the required sum was produced. It is even said that once, as he was
passing the house, he saw his brother-in-law, Randal, at the window,
and fired at him without provocation, but luckily missed his aim.
Mrs. Ann Hamlyn was buried on September 7th, 1800, after which date the
farm became the property of Mrs. Coppinger. Coppinger spent what he
could, but apparently became bankrupt, for in October, 1802, he was a
prisoner in the King’s Bench, in company with a Richard Copinger, who
is stated to have been a merchant in the island of Martinique. What
became of him afterwards does not seem to be known, but it is said
that he lived for many years at Barnstaple, in receipt of an allowance
from his wife. She herself went there to live out her days, and died
there on August 31st, 1833, at the age of eighty-two. She was buried
in the chancel of Hartland Church, in the grave of her friend, Alice
Western, and by the side of her mother. Coppinger’s name can still be
seen, inscribed in bold characters “D. H. Copinger” on a window-pane at
Galsham. Galsham is now the property of Major Kirkwood of Yeo Vale.
Writing to his brother-in-law, Mr. J. Sommers James, in September,
1866, Mr. Hawker asks him, “Do you remember Bold Coppinger the
Marsland Pirate? He died eighty-seven (?) years ago. I am collecting
materials for his Life for _All the Year Round_;” and again in November
of the same year, “Hadn’t you an Aunt called Coppinger?”
It is interesting to note that Coppinger has “entered fiction” through
the pages of Mr. Baring-Gould’s “In the Roar of the Sea.”
APPENDIX G (p. 139)
THOMASINE BONAVENTURE
BY R. PEARSE CHOPE
The tale of the shepherdess who became Lady Mayoress was told by Carew
in his “Survey of Cornwall,” and her biography has since been sketched
by many different authors, such as Lysons in “Magna Britannia,” W. H.
Tregellas in “Cornish Worthies,” and in the “Dictionary of National
Biography,” and G. C. Boase in “Collectanea Cornubiensia.” An account
appears also in the “Parochial History of Cornwall;” and a book by E.
Nicolls, entitled “Thomazine Bonaventure; or, the Maid of Week St.
Mary,” was published at Callington in 1865, only two years before Mr.
Hawker’s article appeared in _All the Year Round_. The Churchwardens’
Accounts of St. Mary Woolnoth, from which extracts were given in
the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1854 (vol. xlii. p. 41), and in the
“Transcript of the Registers of the United Parishes of St. Mary
Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolnoth Haw,” by J. M. S. Brooke and A. W. C.
Hallen (1886, p. xvi.), contain the following entries:--
“1539.--Item receyved of the Master and Wardens of the Merchint
Tayllours for the beame light of this church according to the
devyse of Dame Thomasyn Percyvall widow late wyf of Sir John
Percyvall Knight deceased
xxvj^{s.} viij^{d.}
Item receyved more of the Master and Wardens of Merchint Tayllors
for ij tapers thoon of vij _lb._ and the other of v LB. to brenne
about the Sepulture in this Church at Ester ij^{s.} iiij^{d.} and
for the churchwardens labor of this church to gyve attendance at
the obit of Sir John Percyvall and otherwyse according to the
devyse of Dame Thomasyn Percyvall his wyf
iiij^{s.} vj^{s.} iiij^{d.}
Item receyved of the said Master and Wardens of Merchint Taillors
for the Repacions of the ornaments of this church according to the
will of the said Sir John Percyvall
vj^{s.}
Item receyved of the Maister and Wardens of Merchint taillors for a
hole yere for our Conduct for kepying the Antempur afore Saint John
with his children according to the will of the said Dame Thomasyn
Percyvall
xx^{s.}”
A monument erected to Sir John Percival in the old church is mentioned
by Stow, but it is no longer in existence. Sir John’s will hangs in the
present church.
The following account of the chantry founded by Dame Percival at Week
St. Mary was extracted by Oliver from the Chantry Rolls of Devon and
Cornwall, preserved among the records of the Court of Augmentations:--
“SAYNT MARYE WEKE.--See Cert. 9, No. 6. The chauntrye called Dame
Percyvalls, at the altar of Seynt John Baptist, in the north yeld
within the same church. Founded by Dame Tomasyne Percyvall, wyf of
syr John Percival, knt., and alderman of London. To fynd a pryste
to praye for her sowle in the paryshe churche of Saynt Marye Weke;
also [to] teach children freelye in a scole founded by [her] not
farr distant from the sayd parishe churche; and he to receyve for
his yerelye stipend xij^{li.} vj^{s.} To fynde a mancyple also
to instructe children under the sayd scolemaster, and he to have
yerelye xxvj^{s.} viij^{d.} To a laundresse for the scolemaster and
mancyple yerelye xiij^{s.} iiij^{d.} And the remayne of the lands
(all charges of reparacons of the tenements and houses, chalys and
ornaments, being first allowed) should be expended in an obytt
yerelye for her in the paryshe church.--Cert. 10, No. 8, xiij^{s.}
iiij^{d.} to y^e pore peple yerelye.
“The yerelye value of the lands and possessions,
xv^{li.} xiiij^{s.} viij^{d.}
“Cert. 9, No. 6. M^{d.}That one John Denham, of Tyston [Devon], one
of y^e feoffees of founders of the said scole, kepyth land named
Ashe in Broadworth and other quylytts thereto adjoinyng, parcel of
possessions gyven for sayd scole; and with y^e profytts thereof
payeth iiij^{li.} yerely to y^e manciple ther, and xiij^{s.}
iiij^{d.} to y^e launder of y^e said scole-house.” (Oliver,
“Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis,” p. 483.)
Carew’s quaint account is worth quoting in full:--
“_S. Marie Wike_ standeth in a fruitfull soyle, skirted with a
moore, course for pasture, and combrous for travellers. This
village was the birth-place of _Thomasine Bonaventure_, I know not,
whether by descent, or event, so called: for whiles in her girlish
age she kept sheepe on the fore-remembred moore, it chanced, that a
London marchant passing by, saw her, heeded her, liked her, begged
her of her poore parents, and carried her to his home. In processe
of time, her mistres was summoned by death to appeare in the other
world, and her good thewes, no lesse than her seemely personage, so
much contented her master, that he advanced her from a servant to
a wife, and left her a wealthy widow. Her second marriage befell
with one _Henry Gall_: her third and last, Sir _John Percival_,
Lord Maior of London, whom she also overlived. And to shew, that
vertue as well bare a part in the desert, as fortune in the meanes
of her preferment, she employed the whole residue of her life and
last widdowhood, to works no lesse bountifull, than charitable:
namely, repayring of high waies, building of bridges, endowing
of maydens, relieving of prisoners, feeding and apparelling the
poor, &c. Amongst the rest, at this _S. Mary Wike_, she founded a
Chauntery and free-schoole, together with faire lodgings, for the
Schoolemasters, schollers, and officers, and added twenty pound
of yeerely revennue, for supporting the incident charges: wherein
as the bent of her desire was holy, so God blessed the same with
al wished successe: for divers the best Gent. sonnes of _Devon_
and _Cornwall_ were there vertuously trained up, in both kinds of
divine and humane learning, under one _Cholwel_, an honest and
religious teacher, which caused the neighbours so much the rather,
and the more to rewe, that a petty smacke onely of Popery, opened a
gap to the oppression of the whole, by the statute made in _Edw._
the 6. raigne, touching the suppression of Chaunteries.” (Carew,
“Survey of Cornwall,” edit. 1769, p. 119.)
Mr. W. H. Tregellas states that at the death of Sir John Percyvall,
about 1504, his widow retired to her native place; but Carew’s words
do not appear to justify this inference, and it is stated in the
Stocken MSS. in the Guildhall Library that she was buried at St. Mary
Woolnoth. Mr. Tregellas does not appear to have been able to trace the
will; but Lysons, whose account was published in 1814, says definitely
that the will was dated 1512, and this statement has been accepted by
subsequent writers. By this will she bequeathed to her brother, John
Bonaventer, £20; she made her cousin, John Dinham, who had married her
sister’s daughter, residuary legatee, and committed to his discretion
the chantry and grammar school founded in her lifetime; she gave a
little gilt goblet, having a blue flower in the bottom, to the Vicar
of Liskeard, to the intent that he should pray for her soul; and
towards the building of the tower of St. Stephen’s by Launceston she
left 20 marks. Robert Hunt, in his “Popular Romances of the West of
England,” says that Berry Comb, in Jacobstow, was once the residence of
Thomasine, and was given at her death to the poor of Week St. Mary. The
“Parochial History of Cornwall” gives 1530 as the approximate date of
her death.
APPENDIX H (pp. 161-62)
EPITAPHS OF RUDDLE AND BLIGH
The following is extracted from a little book entitled “Some Account
of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston,” by S. R. Pattison,
1852:--
“Adjoining is a marble monument, in memory of Sarah, the wife of
the Rev. John Ruddle, interred near this place, in 1667. Below
the family arms is the following epitaph, entitled “The Husband’s
Valediction:”--
“Blest soul, since thou art fled into the slumbers of the dead,
Why should mine eyes
Let fall unfruitful tears, the offspring of despair and fears,
To interrupt thine obsequies.
No no, I won’t lament to see thy day of trouble spent;
But since thou art gone,
Farewell! sleep, take thy rest, upon a better Husband’s breast,
Until the resurrection.”
A stately monument of fine variegated marble, in the south aisle,
is charged with the arms of Bligh, and the following Latin
inscription:--
“Juxta hoc marmor jacet Carolus Bligh, Gen.
Aldermanus et hujus municipii sæpius Prætor
Qui cum sibe satis, suis parum diu vixerat
Pietate plenus obiit A.D. 1716, Die 8bris 2do
Hunc jam Æternitatem inhians Iudith uxor 27 Maii
An. Dni.
1717mo secuta est.”
The Botathen Ghost story, as told by “the Rev. Mr. Ruddell” himself,
occupies five pages of C. S. Gilbert’s “History Survey of Cornwall,
1817” (vol. i. pp. 115-119). Gilbert does not mention how he came by
it. Hawker’s version is obviously a paraphrase of this, with some
embellishments of his own.
APPENDIX J (p. 185)
MICHAEL SCOTT AND EILDON HILL
Michael Scott, the Wizard of the North, was a mediæval scientist around
whose memory many traditions have gathered. Compare “The Lay of the
Last Minstrel,” canto 2, stanza 13. The Monk speaks.
“In these far climes it was my lot
To meet the wondrous Michael Scott;
A wizard of such dreaded fame,
That when, in Salamanca’s cave,
Him listed his magic wand to wave,
The bells would ring in Notre Dame!
Some of his skill he taught to me,
And, warrior, I could say to thee
The words that cleft Eildon Hills in three,
And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone:
But to speak them were a deadly sin;
And for having but thought them my heart within,
A treble penance must be done.”
In the note on this passage Sir Walter says--
“In the South of Scotland any work of great labour or antiquity
is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William
Wallace, or of the devil.”
Gilfillan tells an amusing anecdote that--
“when Sir Walter was in Italy he happened to remark to Mr. Cheney
that it was mortifying to think how Dante thought none worth
sending to hell except Italians, on which Mr. C. remarked that he
of all men had no right to make this complaint, as his ancestor
Michael is introduced in the ‘Inferno.’ This seemed to delight
Scott.”
The passage in the “Inferno” occurs in Canto 20--
“Quell’ altro che ne’ fianchi è così poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il giuocho.”
translated by Cary thus:--
“That other, round the loins
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scott,
Practised in every slight of magic wile.”
Boccaccio also mentions him (Dec. Giorn. VIII., Nov. 9): “It is
not long since there was in this city (Florence) a great master
in necromancy, who was called Michele Scotto, because he was from
Scotland.” Legend has obscured the real fame of Michael Scott. He
lived between 1175 and 1234, studied at Oxford, Paris, Palermo, Toledo
(where he translated Aristotle from Arabic), and became court physician
and astrologer to the Emperor Frederick II. He took Holy Orders, but
declined the Pope’s offer of an Irish archbishopric on the ground of
not knowing the Irish language. He probably died in Italy, but fable
connects his burial with Holme Coltrame in Cumberland, or with Melrose
Abbey. It is said that Sir Walter Scott confused him with another
Michael Scott, of Balwearie, and that he “more probably belonged to
the border country whence all the families of Scot originally came,
and where the traditions of his magic power are common” (“Dict. of
Nat. Biog.”). The best book on the subject is the “Life and Legend of
Michael Scot (1175-1232),” by Rev. J. Wood Brown, M.A., 1897.
[_IN PREPARATION_]
The Life and Letters
of
Robert Stephen Hawker
Vicar of Morwenstow
A full and authentic biography of the late Rev. R. S. Hawker, by his
son-in-law, is in course of preparation, and will be issued next
Spring. It was originally intended to prefix this as an introduction
to the present volume, but so much new material has come to light that
it could not well be compressed within the limits of a short memoir.
This new material includes a most interesting account, written by
Hawker himself, of Tennyson’s visit to Morwenstow in 1848, and their
conversation. Many unpublished letters of Hawker’s have also been
collected. The book will contain numerous illustrations, consisting
partly of photographic reproductions, and partly of lithographic
drawings by Mr. J. Ley Pethybridge. No pains or expense will be spared
to produce a picturesque record of the man and his environment, both so
picturesque and romantic in themselves.
Should this notice meet the eye of any one who knew Hawker, or could
in any way supply further material for the biography, in the shape of
letters, manuscripts, relics, anecdotes, or reminiscences, such will
be gladly received, and may be addressed to the editor of the present
volume, care of the publisher.
_July, 1903._
JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK
[_IN PREPARATION_]
Cornish Ballads
and
Other Poems
by
ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER
Vicar of Morwenstow
Illustrated by
J. LEY PETHYBRIDGE
Price 5_s._ net.
This book will be issued in the Autumn of the present year (1903).
It is a revised edition of Hawker’s Complete Poems, published in
1899 at 7_s._ 6_d._ The chief differences consist of the reduction
in price, the inclusion of a number of fresh illustrations and a few
additional poems, and a general improvement in the “get-up” of the
book. In binding it will be uniform with “Footprints of Former Men in
Far Cornwall.” The new illustrations will include some or all of the
following:--
ILLUSTRATION. _To illustrate_ POEM.
Clovelly “Clovelly.”
The Black Rock, Widemouth “Featherstone’s Doom.”
St. Nectan’s Kieve “The Sisters of Glen Nectan.”
Morwenstow Church (Exterior) “Morwennae Statio.”
The Well of St. Morwenna “The Well of St. Morwenna.”
The Well of St. John “The Well of St. John.”
The Source of the Tamar “The Tamar Spring.”
Launcells Church “The Ringers of Launcells Tower.”
The Figure-head of the “The Figure-head of the _Caledonia_
_Caledonia_ at her Captain’s Grave.”
Boscastle cliffs in a storm “The Silent Tower at Bottreaux.”
Hartland Church “The Cell by the Sea.”
St. Madron’s Well “The Doom-Well of St. Madron.”
Hennacliff “A Croon on Hennacliff.”
Tintagel “The Quest of the Sangraal.”
Effigy of Sir Ralph de “Sir Ralph de Blanc-Minster of
Blanc-Minster in Stratton Church Bien-Aimé.”
Sharpnose Point “The Smuggler’s Song.”
Portrait of Sir Bevill Granville “The Gate Song of Stowe.”
The Font in Morwenstow Church “The Font.”
JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note
Illustrations have been moved next to the text to which they relate.
The back cover referred to in the List of Illustrations was not
included in the scanned book.
The following apparent errors have been corrected:
p. 86 (note) "’ee.’" changed to "’ee.”"
p. 158 (note) "1867" changed to "1867."
p. 186 "canon-ball" changed to "cannon-ball"
p. 199 footnote anchor added
p. 203 (note) "head." changed to "head.”"
The following possible errors have been left as printed:
p. 221 ‘Make, haste,
p. 237 of it.
Inconsistent hyphenation has not been changed, nor has use of both
Morwennæ and Morwennae. An inscription is given as both MVCLX4 (p. 246)
and MDLX4 (p. 251).