to the Speaker of the House of Commons, in which he says:—
Accordingly on Monday morning I drew out the army to an early
rendezvous at Ring-Ash, within six miles of the enemy; the weather
still continued very wet and so by all signs was like to hold till we
advanced from the rendezvous; but suddenly, when we were upon march,
it, beyond all expectation, began to be fair and dry, and so continued
whereas we had scarce seen one fair blast for many days before. The
enemy (as we understood by the way), had all their horses drawn
together about Torrington, and with their foot prepared to defend the
town, which they had fortified with good barricadoes of earth cast up
at every avenue, and a competent line patched up round about it, their
horse standing by to flank the same, and some within to scour the
streets. Our forlorn hope had order to advance to Stephenson-park,
about a mile from the town, and there to stay for the drawing up of
the army, there being no other place fit for that purpose nearer to
the town on that side we came on. But when we came near we understood
that the enemy had with 200 dragoons possessed the house in the park,
and were fortifying it, being of itself very strong, but upon our
nearer approach their dragoons quitted the house, and our forlorn hope
falling on them took many prisoners and pursuing them near the town
were engaged so far as they could not well draw back to the park which
occasioned to sending up of stronger parties to make them good where
they were, or bring them off; and at last there being some fear that
the enemy would draw about them and hem them in, Colonel Hammond was
sent up with three regiments of foot, being his own, Colonel Harlow’s,
and mine, and some more horse to lie for reserves unto them, by which
time the night was grown on so that it was not thought fit unless the
enemy appeared to be drawing away to attempt anything further upon the
town till morning, in regard none of us knew the ground nor the
advantages or disadvantages of it; but about nine of the clock, there
being some apprehension of the enemy’s drawing away, by reason of
their drawing back some outguards, small parties were sent out towards
the town’s end to make a certain discovery which going very near their
works before the enemy made any firing, but being at last entertained
with a great volley of shot and thereupon supposed to be engaged,
stronger parties were sent up to relieve them, and after them the
three regiments went up for reserves, till at last they fell on in
earnest. After very hot firings, our men coming up to the barricadoes
and line, the dispute continued long at push of pike and with
butt-ends of muskets till at last it pleased God to make the enemy fly
from their works, and give our men the entrance; after which our men
were twice repulsed by their horse and almost all driven out again,
but colonel Hammond, with some other officers and a few soldiers, made
a stop at the barricadoes, and, so making good their re-entrance,
rallied their men, and went on again, major Stephens with their
forlorn hope of horse coming seasonably up to second them: the enemy’s
foot ran several ways, most of them leaving their arms, but most of
their officers, with the assistance of horse, made good their own
retreat out of the town towards the bridge, and taking the advantage
of strait passages, to make often stands against our men, gave time
for many of their foot to get over the bridge; their horse without the
town, after some attempts at other avenues to have broken in again
upon us, being repulsed, at last went all away over another bridge,
and at several other passes of the river, and all fell westward; the
ground where their horse had stood and the bridge they went over lying
so beyond the town, as our horse could not come at them but through
the town, which, by reason of strait passages through several
barricadoes, was very tedious, by means whereof, and by reason of
continued strait lanes the enemy had to retreat by, after they were
over the river, as also by the advantage of the night, and by their
perfect knowledge of the country and our ignorance therein, our horse
could do little execution upon the pursuit, but parties being sent out
several ways to follow them, as those disadvantages would admit, did
the best they could, and brought back many prisoners and horses. We
took many prisoners in the town, who, being put into the church where
the enemy’s magazine lay, of above fourscore barrels of powder, as is
reported, besides other ammunition either purposely by some desperate
prisoner, or casually by some soldier, the powder was fired, whereby
the church was quite blown up, the prisoners and most of our men that
guarded them were killed and overwhelmed in the ruins; the houses of
the town shaken and shattered, and our men all the town over much
endangered by the stones, timber, and lead, which with the blast were
carried up very high, and scattered in great abundance all the town
over and beyond; yet it pleased God that few of our men were slain or
hurt thereby, save those in the church only, our loss of men otherwise
in this service was small, though many wounded, it being a hotter
service than any storm this army hath before been upon, wherein God
gave our men great resolution; and colonel Hammond especially, and
other officers engaged with him, behaved themselves with much
resolution, courage and diligence, recovering the ground after their
men were twice repulsed; of prisoners taken in this service about 200
were blown up, 200 have taken up arms with us, and about 200 more
common soldiers remain prisoners: besides many officers, gentlemen,
and servants, not many slain, but their foot so dispersed as that of
about 3,000, which the most credible persons do affirm they had there,
and we find, by a list taken among the lord Hopton’s papers,
themselves did account them more, we cannot hear of above 400 that
they carried off with them into Cornwall, whither their horse also are
gone, being much broken and dispersed as well as their foot. By the
considerations and circumstances in this business which I have here
touched upon, you will perceive whose hand it was that led us to it,
and gave such success in it, and truly there were many more evident
appearances of the good hand of God therein than I can set forth: let
all the honour be to Him alone for ever.
A letter of John Rushworth, the Secretary to Fairfax, written at
Torrington on the 22nd of February, 1645–6, states that:—
The other day, being the market day, Master Peters preacht unto the
country people and souldiers in Torrington (the Church being blown up)
he was forced to preach out of a belcony, where the audience was
great: he made a great impression upon the hearts of the people.
This was the celebrated Hugh Peters, the Puritan preacher, who attended
the army in its journeyings.
The following curious certificate is given in the preface to a work by
the Rev. John Heydon, dedicated to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the title page of
which reads:—
The Discovery of the wonderfull preservation of his Excellencie Sir
Thomas Fairfax, The Army, the Records of the Town, the Library, and
blessed Bible, under the hands of the Maior, Aldermen, Capt. and
Schoolmaster of Torrington in Devon. In an Epistle to his Excellency
(and also in the end of a Book, entituled, _Man’s Badnesse and God’s
Goodnesse_: or, some Gospel Truths laid down, vindicated and
explained), by his Excellencies speciall Command. Never Printed
heretofore by any. By John Heydon, Minister of the Gospel. London,
Printed by M. Simmons, 1647.
The certificate runs:—
We whose names are here subscribed do testifie, that when the Publick
place of God’s worship was blown up by a hellish plot, and his
Excellency was wonderfully preserved, there fell out by Divine
Providence, that which we look upon as _mira non mirabilia_, viz.,
though both the Books of Common Prayer were blown up or burnt, yet the
blessed Bible was preserved and not obliterated, although it were
blown away; and also the Library, and the books, together with the
Records of the Town were wonderfully preserved: I do testifie, John
Voysey, Maior. We also testifie, Richard Gay, William White Capt.,
John Ward, Henry Semor Schoolmaster, and John Heydon Minister of the
Gospel. And I shall be ready to shew the Originall to whomsoever
desires it, and craves condigne punishment if the Originall be
adulterated.
Further on Mr. Heydon says:—
Now the Lord confirm you in the true grace of God wherein you stand,
and make you more instrumentall to the Kingdom and Nations that are
Christian the world over, and make you a leading peece to all Generals
that now are, or shall be here after, and move your heart to pity the
Town of Torrington, and as much as in you lyes, to erect a publick
Place for God’s worship there, upon the Publique Stock; the people
being poore, yet those that are Christian, both Magistrates and
Commanders, that have little incouragement from those that they have
adventured their lives for, and expended their estates, for their
safety; the Lord put better hearts into them I say, those are
thankefull to God, and have gladly received those that would impart
the Gospel to them, and keep dayes of Thanksgiving, etc., for so great
a deliverance, and though they stand in the open streets, neither cold
nor rain can deter them from it; they being true Eagles will feed on
the carkasse Christ in the Gospel purely preach’t, as Mr. Peters and
divers of the Army can witnesse, and their own testimony for my self
annexed, that spent a day by way of Thanksgiving since my being under
the Command of Coll. Henry Gray, as it follows word for word in their
Certificate annexed, the 20. Decemb. 1646: This day Mr. John Heyden
Chaplain to the Honorable Coll. Gray, did powerfully preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ in Torrington magna, to the great comfort and
incouragement of that great audience which were present.—John Voysey
Maior, Richard Gay, John Harwood, John Ward, William White, and Henry
Semor.
The blowing up of the Church of Great Torrington is recorded on two
stones built into the walls of the south transept. The inscriptions on
these stones run as follows:—
This Chvrch was blowen up with Powder Febry ye 16^{th} ano 1645 and
rebuilt A^d 1651;
and
This Church was re-erected ano Domini 1651.
Under the date of February, 1645, there is this entry in the Register of
Burials:—
There have bin buried the 16th 17th 18th 19th and 20th 21st dayes 63
soldyers;
and other entries appear in July and August of the same year of
interments of soldiers.
In the _Journal of the House of Lords_ (Vol. x., 318) is the following
entry respecting the re-building of the Church:—
_10 June 1648_ _Ordered_, By the Lords and Commons assembled in
Parliament, That a Grant be prepared, and that the Commissioners of
the Great Seal be hereby authorized and required to pass the same
under the Great Seal, to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, of
the Town of _Greate Torrington_, in the County of _Devon_, for a
General Collection of the Charity of well-disposed People, through all
the Counties of _England_ and Dominion of _Wales_ for Reparation of
the Great Church of the said Town, which was utterly demolished by the
Enemies Firing thereof with their Magazine of Powder, to the Value of
Six Thousand Pounds at least; which the Inhabitants, by reason of the
Miseries of the late War, and Ruin of the said Town, are no Way able
to repair.
The only external part of the Church which appears to have escaped is
the vestry, though a few of the piers and arches at the east end seem to
be in their original condition, and perhaps also the arch of the north
transept.
GEORGE M. DOE.
HERRICK AND DEAN PRIOR.
BY F. H. COLSON, M.A.
The little village of Dean Prior, five miles from Brent on the high road
from Plymouth to Ashburton, is indissolubly associated with the name of
one of the greatest of our lyric poets; a poet, indeed, who has a
certain touch and power which is quite unique in English poetry. Robert
Herrick was vicar of this parish for about thirty-two years. The main
facts of his life may be very shortly told. Born in London in 1591, he
was educated at St. John’s College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He spent
the earlier part of his life, after taking his degree, probably partly
in Cambridge and partly in London. It was not till 1629, when he was
thirty-eight years old, that he was ordained and presented to Dean
Prior. Here he remained till 1648, when he was ejected, and a certain
John Syms, a Puritan of some fame and worth, established in his place.
Herrick went to London and there published his two books of verse,
_Hesperides_ and _Noble Numbers_. In 1662 he was sent back to his
living, and there spent the remainder of his days. He died and was
buried in the churchyard of Dean Prior in 1674.
There is not much in this little parish at the present day to remind one
of Herrick. The vicarage is probably an enlargement of the poet’s house.
The newer part stands on a somewhat higher level than the old, and this
last is probably the “cell,” whose humble comforts Herrick extols in one
of his most true and charming pieces. The present vicar, Mr.
Perry-Keene, who is himself something of a poet, and knows and loves
well his great predecessor, showed me what he believes to be Herrick’s
“byn.”
Just opposite the Vicarage stands the Church, which Mr. Perry-Keene
tells me has been altered a great deal. It now contains a monument to
Herrick erected in 1857 by a remote kinsman, Mr. William Perry Herrick.
Opposite this recent memorial, in the south aisle, stands a far more
interesting monument. It is a brass with three figures—husband, wife,
and son—but no name or inscription which might give a clue to the name
is legible. Underneath it, however, run the following verses:—
No trust to metals nor to marbles, when
These have their fate and wear away as men.
Times, Titles, Trophies may be lost and spent,
But virtue rears the eternal monument.
What more than these can Tombs or Tomb-stones pay?
But here’s the sunset of a tedious day.
These two asleep are: I’ll but be undrest,
And so to Bed, Pray wish us all good rest.
This beautiful and interesting epitaph is printed by Mr. Grosart in his
fine edition of Herrick, as being indisputably the work of the poet. Mr.
Grosart also states positively that the figures on the monument are
those of Sir Edward and Lady Giles, of whom the former died at Dean
Court in 1637. Mr. Grosart speaks on these points with such certainty
that I was surprised to find that the external evidence for both
statements is absolutely nil. As a matter of fact, the monument itself
hardly appears to belong to Herrick’s time. Mr. Perry-Keene’s opinion is
(and I confess that my own very slight knowledge of such subjects would
have led me to the same conclusion) that the figures are Elizabethan
rather than Caroline. It seems, therefore, hardly safe to print the
inscription as being _undoubtedly_ Herrick’s work. At the same time I do
believe that the lines are Herrick’s. There is a very distinct
Herrickian ring about them, particularly about the last three, which to
my mind is almost unmistakeable. Observe the phrase “I’ll but be
undrest.” It borders on the grotesque; in almost any other poet’s hand
it would have been grotesque. In his hand it acquires a certain
beautiful quaintness, becomes what Herrick himself calls a “phrase of
the royal blood.” I commend this charming epitaph, therefore, to the
reader as the one existing memorial which connects Dean Prior with
Herrick, though I think he should at the same time be cautioned, that
the ascription of the lines to the poet is based solely on internal
evidence.
About a mile from the Church stands Dean Court, now a farm-house, in
Herrick’s time a manor house, and occupied during his incumbency by the
above-mentioned Sir Edward Giles, and afterwards by the Yardes. To-day
it looks what it is, and unless there has been considerable alteration
and demolition, it seems a poor house for such important families.
A charming village is Dean Prior, as indeed are all the villages on the
outskirts of Dartmoor. No wonder that essayists on, and editors of,
Herrick have traced his freshness and quaintness to the simplicity of a
West Country parish, and that the perfume of flowers which pervades his
pages almost _ad nauseam_ seems to his readers to be inspired by the
soft and luxurious air of Devonshire. In a word, Herrick’s _Hesperides_
has seemed to be the work of a Devonshire man drawing his inspiration
from Devonshire, as Barnes from Dorset or Burns from Ayrshire.
I am bound, however, to say that I believe this to be true only with
considerable limitations. Generally speaking, I hold that while the
_Noble Numbers_ do undoubtedly belong to the Dean Prior period, the same
cannot be said with equal certainty of the _Hesperides_, or at least of
that part of the _Hesperides_ which has given Herrick his immortality.
The book contains, no doubt, several pieces, perhaps some sixty in all,
which are shewn by internal evidence to have been written later than
1628, but of these, few, if any, are of special merit. The real Apples
of the Golden Garden are practically undated.
Now we must remember that not only was Herrick thirty-eight when he went
to Devonshire, an age at which many poets have produced their best work,
but that he hated, or, to use his own oft-repeated expression, “loathed”
Devonshire. This hatred is expressed in numerous passages. The
following, written at the time of his ejection from the living, may
serve as a specimen:—
First let us dwell in widest seas,
Next with severest savages,
Last let us make our best abode
Where human foot as yet ne’er trod.
Search worlds of ice and rather there
Live than in loathèd Devonshire.
“No bird,” says Plato, “sings when it is cold or hungry or suffering any
pain,” and it is a natural inference from passages like this of
Herrick’s that his native genius suffered rather than gained from his
sojourn at Dean Prior. But on this point he has left us his own
testimony in two important passages. The first runs thus:—
Before I went
In banishment
Into the loathèd West,
I could rehearse
A lyric verse,
And speak it with the best.
The second is—
More discontents I never had
Since I was born than here,
Where I have been and still am sad,
In this dull Devonshire.
Yet justly too I must confess
I ne’er invented such
Ennobled numbers for the press
As where I loathed so much.
At first sight these two passages seem contradictory, but the
contradiction vanishes when we remember that Herrick’s book of sacred
poems is called _Noble Numbers_. To these and these only, as it seems to
me, the “ennobled numbers” of the second passage refers, and the plain
meaning of these lines is that Herrick, as vicar of Dean Prior, felt his
old powers of song-making gone, and gave his attention mainly to sacred
poetry.
To the same conclusion point some lines in the “Farewell to Poetry,”
written probably when he took orders:—
I my desires screw from thee, and direct
Them and my thoughts to that sublime respect
And conscience unto priesthood.
But he adds:—
When my diviner muse
Shall want a handmaid as she oft will use,
Be ready then for me to wait upon her,
Though as a servant, yet a maid of honour.
I do not of course suggest that all this is to be taken quite literally,
or that we are to affirm positively that all Herrick’s best lyrics date
from an earlier period; but that it is generally true I see no reason to
doubt, more especially as in the many hundred lyrics which
Sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and flowers,
Of April, May and June, and July flowers,
there is, so far as I can see, little or no trace of Devonshire.
The great poets—whom Herrick looked on as his masters—Catullus and
Horace, understood the magic of a name, and were fond of grouping their
best thoughts round the names of the particular spots which they knew.
Anyone who reads Catullus’s lines on Sirmio, or Horace’s on Tivoli,
anyone, we may add, who knows Burns, or Wordsworth, or Scott, will feel
the significance of the fact that Herrick only once mentions by name any
place in Devonshire. It is not that he dislikes localising, for he
lingers affectionately enough over the names of
Richmond, Kingston, and of Hampton Court.
And on the one occasion, when a Devonshire scene is described by name,
it is in the following lines on “Dean, a rude river in Devon, by which
he sometimes dwelt”:—
Dean Bourn, farewell! I never look to see
Dean, or thy watry incivility.
The reader of Herrick will remember that he goes on to say that the
“currish, churlish” people of Dean are as rocky as their river. Herrick
could hardly be expected to admire Dartmoor itself. The love of moor and
mountain hardly existed in his time; but the glen of Dean Bourne is a
different thing, and surely nothing but invincible prejudice can have
made Herrick describe it in such “currish and churlish” terms.
Herrick is _par excellence_ the poet of flowers and fruits. Cherries,
cowslips, daffodils, and primroses are inseparably connected with his
verse. That the rich luxuriance of Dean Prior must have been a source of
continual pleasure to him we cannot doubt. Yet even in this department
of nature one misses local touches. Where are the high hedgerows, the
ferns, and the fox-gloves? and where are the apple orchards of Devon?
Herrick was very fond of observing village festivities and studying
folk-lore, and it is generally assumed that the poems which deal with
these subjects were written in Devonshire and based on Devonshire
observations. This may be so, though I do not know of any evidence in
favour of it. On the other hand there is one small circumstance which
seems to me significant. In Herrick’s descriptions of barley-breaks,
harvest homes, and Christmas festivities, there is much mention of beer
but none of cider. Cider making had its poetry for Keats:—
Or by a cider-press with patient look
Thou watchest the last oozings hour by hour.
It seems strange that it should never be mentioned by the poet of
cider-land.
One of Herrick’s parishioners stands out pleasantly in the pages of
_Hesperides_—“my Prue,” otherwise Prudence Baldwin, the house-keeper,
who apparently followed him to London at his ejection and returned with
him in 1662. It is generally assumed that the persons attacked in the
epigrams were parishioners. If so, no wonder they were churlish. It does
not appear that many of the fifty or sixty persons addressed in what Mr.
Grosart calls “verse-celebrations,” were West-Country people, and on the
whole there is as little of local life as of local scenery in the
_Hesperides_.
The critics, then, seem to me perverse, who, in spite of Herrick’s
assurances, declare that he only pretended to dislike Dean Prior. They
rely, presumably, on his keen eye for country beauties. Now I venture to
doubt whether Herrick, as we see him in the _Hesperides_, is one of the
real nature-poets. He knows and loves certain aspects of nature, more
particularly fruits and flowers, bright colours and sweet smells. Even
amongst these he is often happiest when he can trace some likeness to
human beauty. The famous “Cherries ripe” grew on Julia’s lips, not in an
orchard. Above all poets he understands the picturesqueness of dress,
and when after a catalogue of Julia’s silks and laces in their “wild
civility” he confesses that he dotes less on nature than on art, he
probably speaks the truth. It is the same with country life; he has none
of the deep respect for the peasant’s healthy and thrifty life, which
lies at the bottom of Virgil and Horace and Wordsworth’s work. He has
plenty of interest in their May-days and other merry-making, but little,
I think, in their life as a whole. And the few praises of country life
to be found in the _Hesperides_ do not seem to me to ring very true.