"It some time belonged to the priory of Otterton, which was in
the time of K. Hen. 3., by the prior granted unto sir Nicholas
Bonvile, kt., which he made his dwelling, and had here a large
park for deer, not long since disparked by the Lord Petre whose
inheritance it now is."
And Westcote, albeit with no special genealogical accuracy, thus
soliloquises,--
"This place is memorable for being the habitation of Lord
Bonvile, an unfortunate man: (for unwise I dare not nor may not
term him:) yet this may I say by the way, good fortune and
wisdom, folly and ill-fortune or mischance, go masked, and that
very often under one hood; yea, unmasked do so near resemble one
the other, that they are hardly known or rightly distinguished
(by those that look them directly in the face) each from other,
and therefore one bears very often the other's faults, and on the
contrary one steals away the other's praise and commendation;
which is truly avered by Athenaeus, when he saith,
'Longissime a sapientia sors dissidet
Sed multa perfecit tamen simillima.'
Seldom the traitor, though much haste he make,
Lame-footed vengeance fails to overtake.
The extreme mischief succeeded; first his only son was taken from
him by untimely death, and his nephew (the third William, Lord
Harrington by his mother's right,) slain at the battle of
Wakefield; and immediately after (that his old age might want no
kind of misery,) while he waited still and long expected better
days, himself was taken (at the battle of St. Alban's,) prisoner,
and having now run out his full and long course of nature, could
not yet come to the grave in peace, but lost his head; leaving
behind him for heir, Cicely, his grandson's daughter; a damsel of
tender years, who brought a large and rich inheritance to Thomas
Grey, Marquis of Dorset, half-brother, by the mother, to king
Edward V."
Wiscombe, although disparked by the Petres, and all the old forest
trees swept away; their successors in its possession have in
comparatively late years planted the hill-sides of the estate with
large breadths of the _conifera_; these have flourished with great
luxuriance, and it would be difficult at present to find a more richly
wooded landscape than it exhibits. The different habits of the trees,
fringed and interspersed with those of the ordinary species, form a
delightful contrast, especially when clothed in all the varying tints
that give such charm to the