HONITON
One long street--The debatable ground--Derivation of the
name--Configuration of the East Devon border--Axminster--The
Battle of Brunnaburgh--S. Margaret's Hospital--Old camps--S.
Michael's Church--Colyton--Little Chokebone--Sir George
Yonge--Honiton lace--Pillow-lace--Modern design--Ring in the
Mere--Dunkeswell.
"This town," said Sir William Pole in 1630, "is near three-quarters
of a mile in length, lying East and West, and in the midst there is
one other street towards the South." The description applies to-day,
except only that the town has stretched itself during two hundred
and eighty years to one mile in place of three-quarters. A quarter
of a mile in about three centuries, which shows that Honiton is not
a place that stands still.
It is, in fact, a collection of country cottages that have run to
the roadside to see the coaches from London go by, and to offer the
passengers entertainment.
The coach-road occupies mainly the line of the British highway, the
Ikenild Street, a road that furnished the chief means of access to
the West, as the vast marshes of the Parret made an approach to the
peninsula from the North difficult and dangerous.
And the manner in which every prominent height has been fortified
shows that the whole eastern boundary of the county has been a
debated and fiercely contested land, into which invaders thrust
themselves, but from which they were hurled back.
Honiton is on the Otter (_y dwr_, W. the Water) a name that we find
farther west in the Attery, that flows into the Tamar. Honiton does
not derive from "honey," flowing with milk and honey though the land
may be, but from the Celtic _hen_ (old), softened in a way general
in the West into _hena_ before a hard consonant.
We have the same appellative in Hennacott, Honeychurch, and
Honeydykes, also in Hembury, properly Henbury, and in Hemyock.
Perhaps the old West Welsh name for the place was Dunhen, or
Hennadun, which the Saxons altered into Hennatun or Honeyton.
The singular configuration of the eastern confines of Devon and
Dorset has been ingeniously explained. Till 1832 the two parishes
of Stockland and Dalwood belonged to the county of Dorset, although
surrounded entirely by Devon. In 710 a great battle was fought by
Ina, King of the West Saxons, against Geraint, King of the Dumnonii,
the West Welsh, on the Black Down Hills, when Geraint was defeated
and fled. Then Ina built Taunton, and made it a border fortress
to keep the Britons in check. Simultaneously, there can be little
doubt, the men of Dorset took advantage of the situation, made an
inroad and secured a large slice of territory, possibly up to the
Otter.
Ina was succeeded by inert princes, or such as had their hands
engaged elsewhere, and the Devonians thrust themselves forward,
retook Taunton, and advanced their borders to where they had been
before 710.
It has been supposed that on this occasion they were unable to
dispossess the Dorset men from their well-fortified positions at
Stockland and Dalwood, but swept round them and captured the two
camps of Membury and Musbury. The possession of these fortresses
would thrust back the Dorset frontier for some miles to the east of
the Axe. So matters would remain for a considerable period, such
as allowed the boundaries to become settled; and when the final
subjugation of Devon took place, this tract to the east of the Axe
remained as part of the lands of the Defnas, while the Dorsaetas
retained the islet which they had so long and so successfully
defended. It was not till eleven hundred and twenty years had
elapsed that the Devon folk could recover these points.[4]
[4] DAVIDSON, "The Saxon Conquest of Devonshire," in the
_Transactions of the Devonshire Association_, 1877.
Axminster was the scene of a great battle in the reign of Athelstan,
in which five kings and seven earls fell. The minster, as a monastic
colony, had been in existence before that, but Athelstan now endowed
a college there for six priests to pray for the souls of those who
fell in the battle.
Now, what battle can that have been? In the register of Newnham
Abbey is a statement made in the reign of Edward III., that the
battle took place "at Munt S. Calyxt en Devansyr," and that it
ended at Colecroft under Axminster. S. Calyxt is now Coaxdon.
The only great battle that answers to the description was that of
Brunanburgh, fought in 937.
It was fought between Athelstan and the Ethelings, Edmund, Elwin
and Ethelwin, on one side, and Anlaf the Dane, from Ireland, united
with Constantine, the Scottish king, on the other. It is this latter
point which has made modern historians suppose that the conflict
took place somewhere in the North.
But, on the other hand, there are grave reasons for placing it at
Axminster.
First, we know of no other battle that answers the description.
Then, during the night before it, the Bishop of Sherborne arrived
at the head of a contingent. The two younger Ethelings who fell
were transported to Malmesbury to be buried; clearly because it
was the nearest great monastery. And it seems most improbable that
Athelstan should have endowed Axminster that prayers might there be
offered for those who fell in the battle, if Brunanburgh were in
Northumberland. The difficulty about Constantine may thus be solved.
Constantine had been expelled his kingdom by Athelstan, and had
taken refuge in Ireland. He had, indeed, been restored, but when he
resolved on revolt, he may have gone to Dublin to Anlaf, and have
concerted with him an attack on the South, where the assistance
of the Britons in Devon and Cornwall might be reckoned on, whilst
the North British would rise, and the Welsh descend from their
mountains.
The story of the battle is this, as given by William of Malmesbury.
The Danes from Dublin, together with Constantine and a party of
Scots (Irish), came by sea, and fell upon England. Athelstan and his
brother marched against them. Just before the battle Anlaf, desirous
of knowing the disposition of the English forces, entered the camp
in the garb of a gleeman, harp in hand. He sang and played before
Athelstan and the rest, and they did not recognise him. As they were
pleased with his song, they gave him a largess of gold. He took the
money, but as he left the camp, he put it under the earth, as it did
not behove a king to receive hire. This was observed by a soldier,
who at once went to Athelstan and informed him of it. The king
said angrily, "Why did you not at once arrest him and deliver him
into my hands?" "My lord king," answered the man, "I was formerly
with Anlaf, and I took oath of fidelity to him. Had I broken that,
would you have trusted me? Take my advice, O king, and shift your
quarters."
This was good advice, and Athelstan acted on it, but scarcely had he
shifted his quarters than Werstan, Bishop of Sherborne, arrived, and
he took up the ground vacated by the king.
During the night Anlaf made an attack and broke through the
stockade, and directed his course towards the king's tent. There
he fell on and killed the bishop, and massacred the Sherborne
contingent. The tumult roused the king, and the fight became
general, and raged till day. Great numbers fell on both sides, but
in the end Anlaf was defeated, and fled to his ships. The only trace
of the name Brunanburgh is in Brinnacombe, under the height whereon
traditionally the fight raged; and Membury may be the place where
the king was fortified. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls the place
Brumby: _B_ and _M_ are permutable letters.
Honiton has not many relics of antiquity about it. Repeated fires
have destroyed the old houses; the High Street still retains its
runnel, confined within a conduit, with square dipping-places at
frequent intervals. The street runs straight down hill to the bridge
and across the Giseage, and up again on the road towards Exeter. The
town is completely surrounded by toll-gates; the tolls collected do
not go to pay for the maintenance of the roads, but to defray a debt
incurred by removing buildings, including the ancient shambles, from
the middle of the street early in the century. This accounts for the
street being particularly wide.
The Dolphin, the principal inn, is supposed to still possess some
portion of the ancient building once belonging to the Courtenays,
whose cognisance is the inn sign.
S. Margaret's Hospital is one of the points of interest, and is
picturesquely pretty. It was intended as a leper hospital, but is
now used as almshouses. It was built and endowed by Dr. Thomas
Chard, the last abbot of Ford.
One thing no visitor should fail to see, and that is the superb
view from Honiton Hill. It commands the valley of the Otter,
with the town beneath, and the old earthworks of Hembury Fort,
Buckerell Knap, and Dumpdon towering above. The flat-topped hills
and the peculiar scarps are due to the formation being greensand.
These scarps may be observed in process of shaping at the head
of every combe. The church of S. Paul in the town is modern and
uninteresting. It occupies the site of an old chapel of All Hallows.
The parish church is S. Michael's on the hill, and this contains
points of interest. The fifteenth-century screen is of carved
oak, and stretches across nave and both aisles. The church was
formerly cruciform, but north and south aisles were added to nave
and chancel. Probably it formerly had a central tower. Four carved
beams now support the roof where the tower should be, and bear
sculptured bosses, representing an angel, a bishop, a priest, and a
man in armour. Two finely carved capitals in the chancel carry the
sentence, "Pray for ye souls of John Takel and Jone his wyffe." They
were liberal benefactors to the church and the town.
The view from the churchyard is magnificent. On a suitable day
Cosdon Beacon on Dartmoor is visible. A row of cypresses in the
churchyard was transplanted from the garden of Sir James Shepperd
(d. 1730).
In old times the parsons of Honiton were supposed to have been
addicted to field sports, perhaps unfairly, just as one hunting
abbot gave a bad name to all the abbots of Tavistock. Barclay, in
his _Ship of Fools_, says:--
"For if any can flatter and beare a hawke on his fist,
He shall be made parson of Honington or of Clist."
There is much deserving of visit within reach of Honiton, Colyton
with its fine church, and the tomb of "Little Chokebone," a good
monument, long supposed to be that of Margaret, daughter of William,
Earl of Devon, and Katherine his wife, seventh daughter of Edward
IV., who was supposed to have been choked by a fish-bone in 1512.
But there is evidence that the lady lived long after the date of her
presumed death. What also tells fatally against the identification
is that the arms of Courtenay are impaled with the royal arms,
surrounded by the bordering componée, the well-known token of
_bastardy_. Now this belonged to the Beauforts, and the tomb is
either that of Margaret Beaufort, wife of Thomas, first Earl of
Devon, of that name, or else of one of their daughters.
Of Colcombe House, the great Courtenay, and then the Pole seat,
but a fragment remains. At Colyton is the Great House, a fine old
building, once the residence of the Yonges. The last of the family,
Sir George Yonge, was wont to say that he came in for £80,000 family
property, received as much as his wife's jointure, obtained a
similar sum in the Government offices he enjoyed, but that Honiton
had "swallowed it all" in election expenses. And when he stood for
the last time there, in embarrassed circumstances; because he could
not bribe as heavily as formerly, one of the burgesses spat in his
face. He died in 1812, aged eighty, a pensioner in Hampton Court,
and his body was brought down very privately to Colyton from fear of
arrest for debt. Another old house is Sand, the seat of the Huyshe
family.
[Illustration: HONITON LACE]
Honiton has become famous for its lace, although actually the
manufacture does not take place to any considerable extent in the
town, but in villages, as Beer, Branscombe, Ottery, etc.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century Honiton was a centre of
a flourishing trade in bone-lace, but how it was introduced is
very uncertain. It has been supposed, but not proved, that Flemish
refugees came to Honiton and introduced the art, but one does not
quite see why they should have come so far. There is an inscription
on a tombstone in Honiton churchyard to James Rodge, bone-lace
seller, who died July 27th, 1617, and bequeathed to the poor of the
parish the benefit of a hundred pounds. A similar bequest was made
in the same year by Mrs. Minifie, a lace maker, so that both lace
dealer and maker may have carried on their business for thirty years
before they died.
In the latter part of James I.'s reign Honiton lace is frequently
mentioned by contemporary writers. Westcote, in his _View of Devon_,
1620, says, "At Axminster you may be furnished with fine flax-thread
there spunne. At Hemington and Bradnich with bone-laces now greatly
in request." Acts were passed under Charles I. for the protection of
the bone-lace makers, "prohibiting foreign purles, cut works, and
bone-laces, or any commodities laced or edged therewith;" and these
benefited especially the Devonshire workers, their goods being close
imitations of the much-coveted Flemish pillow-laces.
Pillow-lace was preceded in England, as elsewhere, by darned netting
and cut-work. A fine example of the ancient English net embroidery
may be seen on the monument, in Exeter Cathedral, of Bishop
Stafford, who died in 1398.
The pillow was introduced in the early part of Elizabeth's reign,
and at first coarse thread-laces of geometrical design were worked
on to it. Plaited and embroidered edgings, or _purles_, for the
ruff, worked in silk, gold and silver wire, or thread came next, and
formed the staple article during the first half of the seventeenth
century. The patterns were imitated from Italian cut-work and
reticella, with some marked peculiarities of workmanship and detail,
such as the introduction of stars, wheels, and triangles, which are
only found on English laces. The sculptor of Lady Pole's monument in
Colyton Church (1623), evidently copied the bone-lace on her cape
from a specimen of Devonshire make, and equally characteristic of
the ancient patterns of the county is the probably plaited lace on a
tucker and cuffs that adorn the effigy of Lady Doddridge in Exeter
Cathedral (1614). Illustrations of these interesting examples of
early Devonshire workmanship are given in Mrs. Palliser's "History
of Lace."[5]
[5] "Antique and Modern Lace," in the _Queen_, 1874. The last
chapter is devoted to Honiton Lace.
There is another very fine specimen in Combe Martin Church, the
effigy of Judith Hancock (1637). The figure is life-size, and the
dress is covered with point-lace and looped with points of ribbon.
The reason of the coarseness of early lace was that pins were
rare and fetched a high price, and the humble workers in cottages
employed fish-bones about which to twist their threads, stuck into
the parchment in the shape of the pattern. The bobbins were made of
"sheeps' trotters." It is now very difficult to procure specimens of
this fishbone-lace.
The lace produced by James Rodge and his contemporaries had large
flowing guipure patterns, united by _bride_ picotees, the latter
worked in with the Brussels ground. _Brides_ are the small stripes
or connection of threads overcast with stitches which bind the
sprigs together. The English lace-makers could not make this
exquisite stitch with the thread that England produced, and the
thread was brought from Antwerp. At the end of last century it cost
from £70 to £100 per pound. Old Brussels lace was made on pillows,
while the modern Brussels is worked with needles.
The visitor to Honiton, Beer, or any village around may see
lace-making on pillows. The women have round or oval boards, stuffed
so as to form a cushion, and placed on the knees of the worker: a
piece of parchment is fixed over the pillow, with the pattern drawn
on it; into this the pins are stuck through holes marked for the
purpose. Often as many as four hundred bobbins are employed at a
time on a pillow. Many of the "bobbins" and "turns" to be seen in
Devonshire cottages are very old: the most ancient are inlaid with
silver. On some, dates are carved, such as 1678 or 1729. On some,
Christian names are cut, such as John and Nicholas; probably those
of the sweethearts of the girls who used them. Jingles, or strings
of glass beads, may be seen hanging to them, with a button at the
end, which came from the waistcoat of the John or the Nicholas who
had given the bobbin as a keepsake. What life-stories some of these
old bobbins could tell![6]
[6] The _Devon and Exeter Gazette_, December 31st, 1885.
Children began to make lace as early as four years old; indeed,
unless early trained to the work their hands never acquire deftness.
Board schools and compulsory education are destroying the ability to
work as of old, as well as too often killing the desire for work in
the hearts of the children.
Boys and girls were formerly taught alike, and in some of the
seaside villages fishermen took up their pillows for lace-making
when ashore.
_Guipure à bride_ and scalloped-border laces in the Louis XIV. style
were followed by laces grounded with Brussels _vraie réseau_. In
the working of the latter, Devonshire hands were decidedly superior
to their Continental rivals. This beautiful ground, which sold at
the rate of a shilling the square inch, was either worked in on the
pillow after the pattern had been finished, or used as a substratum
for lace strips to be sewn on. The detached bouquets of the Rococo
period, and the Mechlin style of design towards the end of last
century, eminently suited the Devon lace-workers, as dividing the
labour. Each individual hand could be entrusted with the execution
of a floral design, which was repeated mechanically. The superior
finish of the Honiton sprigs between 1790 and 1815 was mainly due to
this, but it was fatal to all development of the artistic faculty
and to general deftness. During this period Honiton produced the
finest laces in Europe. What greatly conduced to the improvement of
Honiton lace was the arrival of Normandy refugees at the outbreak of
the French Revolution in 1793. The Normans were quicker and sharper
than the Devon workers, and they stirred them up to great advance in
their work. They taught them to make trolly lace, which is worked
round the pillow instead of on it; and through their example the
Devonshire women gave up the slovenly habit of working the ground
into which they had slipped, and returned to the old double-threaded
_réseau_, or ground like the old Flemish, the flowers worked into
the ground with the pillow, instead of being _appliqué_.
Honiton lace made in proper fashion with sprigs was formerly paid
for by covering the work with shillings.
There is a curious notice of Honiton lace in a note by Dr. James
Yonge; who "was again at Honiton, April 23rd, 1702," and witnessed
the rejoicings in celebration of the coronation of Queen Anne.
"Saw a very pretty procession of three hundred girls in good
order, two and two march with three women drummers beating, and
a guard of twenty young men on horseback. Each of the females
had a white rod in her hand, on the top of which was a tossil
made of white and bleu ribband (which they said was the Queen's
coleurs) and bone-lace, the great manufacture. Then they had
wandered about the town from ten in the morning [it was eight in
the evening when he saw them] huzzaing every now and then, and
then wearing their rodds. Then they returned at nine, and then
break up very weary and hungary."[7]
[7] Quoted in "Some Seventeenth Century Topography," _Western
Morning News_, May 9th, 1876.
Taste declined during the latter part of last century, and some
of the designs of Honiton lace were truly barbarous--frying-pans,
snails, drumsticks, and stiff flowers. But there were always some
who did better. At the beginning of this century all taste was
bad. Bald imitations of nature prevailed, without any regard to
the exigencies of art. Roses and other flowers were worked in
perspective; it was thought sufficient to servilely copy nature and
leave grouping to chance.
Queen Adelaide had a dress made of Honiton lace. By her desire all
the flowers were copied from nature, and the first letter of each
spelt her name.
Amaranth.
Daphne.
Eglantine.
Lilac.
Auricula.
Ivy.
Dahlia.
Eglantine.
The present Queen also had her wedding-dress of Honiton lace, and it
cost a thousand pounds.
Unhappily, design sank very low. Perhaps the lowest stage of
degradation in design was reached in 1867, when a Honiton lace
shawl sent to the Paris Exhibition from Exeter received a prize and
commendation. Nothing can be conceived worse. That it should have
been rewarded with a medal shows that either the judges pardoned
the ineptitude in design for the sake of the excellence of the
work, or else that they themselves stood on the same level of
artistic incompetence which then prevailed. Since then, happily,
design has been more studied. There is still a good deal of very
sorry stuff produced--as far as artistic design is concerned--but
at the same time there is much faithful copying of good antique
work. All old work is not good; there were bad artists in the past,
but the general taste was better than it is now. I was once in the
shop of one of our foremost furniture dealers and decorators in
town, when a young married couple came in to choose curtains and
carpets for their new home. I had been talking with the head of the
establishment about artistic furniture, and he had shown me carpets,
curtains, and wall-papers, such as no designer in the fifteenth,
sixteenth, or seventeenth centuries would have blushed to produce.
The young couple passed all these samples by--blind to their merits,
and pounced on and chose some atrocious stuff, bad in colour and
bad in art. When they were gone, the proprietor turned to me: "You
see," he said, "the public is still uncultivated; we are forced
to keep rubbish in our trade to satisfy those whose taste does
not rise above rubbish." Now it is the same with regard to lace.
There is badly designed lace as well as that which is as good as
anything drawn by a great master in the past. Let the public eye be
discerning to choose the good and reject the evil, and then the poor
lace-workers will not be set to produce stuff that never ought to
have time, labour, eyesight devoted to it.
There are some trades that are hurtful to those employed in them.
The lace-making by machinery at Nottingham is said to induce
decline.
The following letter I have received on the subject of the Honiton
lace-workers:--
"They are most certainly not a short-lived lot--until within the
last eight or nine years Mrs. Colley was the youngest worker
I knew, and she is fifty-one; Mrs. Raymond is sixty-four.
There are a good many over sixty, and several still at work
over seventy. I have never had cases of decline come under my
notice, and if there was any I must have known it. Until the
fresh impetus was given to the trade by exhibitions, the younger
workers stopped learning, and there was no school, so that the
trade depended on the old ones, and all have to commence the
work from five to seven years of age. I think it may fairly be
assumed to be at any rate not injurious to health, and judging
from the age to which they continue to work, not to the sight
either."
Thus the buyers of lace can do it with a safe conscience.
There is a woman's name associated with Devon, who was a great
landed proprietress and an heiress, and this was Isabella de
Fortibus. She was sister of Baldwin, Earl of Devon, a De Redvers,
and on his death, without issue, she inherited the splendid estates
of the earls of Devon, and became Countess of Devon in her own
right. She, however, also died without issue in 1292.
On Farway Common, near Honiton, three parishes meet, and there were
incessant disputes as to the boundary. Isabella decided it thus. She
flung her ring into the air, and where it fell that was to be the
point of junction for Gittisham, Farway, and Honiton. The spot is
still called "Ring-in-the-Mere." Such at least is the local legend
accounting for the name.
In the neighbourhood of Honiton are the ruins of Dunkeswell Abbey,
but they are reduced to a gateway only. It belongs to Mrs. Simcoe,
of Walford Lodge, Dunkeswell, a handsome house built about the end
of last century by General Simcoe, famous in the American Revolution
as the commander of Simcoe's Rangers. He was Governor of San Domingo
at the time of the insurrection, and afterwards Governor-General
of Canada. Mrs. Simcoe possesses interesting relics connected with
him, as well as Napoleonic relics that belonged to her father,
Lieut.-General Jackson, _aide-de-camp_ to Sir Hudson Lowe at St.
Helena.
Mohuns-Ottery, once a great seat of the Carews, was burnt down in
the beginning of this century, and all that remains of the mansion
are three arches. The Grange, Broadhembury, has been more fortunate;
it has a magnificent oak-panelled room, with ghost stories attached,
and there are those alive who declare that they have seen the ghost.
The church possesses, among other points of interest, a curious
window with projecting corbels that represent the spirits of the
good in happiness within, and the spirits of the bad without in
discomfort--not to put too fine a point on it, as Mr. Snagsby would
say.
There are several fine fortifications, as already said: Dumpden,
accessible only on foot, and Hembury are the most important.
Books to be consulted:--
ROGERS (W. H. H.), _Memorials of the West_. Exeter, 1888.
FARQUHARSON (A.), _The History of Honiton_. Exeter, _n.d._, but
1868 (_scarce_).
For the Axe Valley: PULMAN (G. P. R.), _The Book of the Axe_.
London, 1875.