OKEHAMPTON
Origin of Okehampton obscure--The Ockments--Moor
seekers--Okehampton Castle--French prisoners--Church--Belstone
and Taw Marsh--Cranmere Pool--Tavy Cleave--South
Zeal--Prehistoric monuments--An evening at the "Oxenham
Arms"--The Oxenham white bird--Mining misadventures--"Old
vayther"--Ecclesiological excursions--Early Christian monuments.
What brought Okehampton into existence? It is not fathered by
the castle, nor mothered by the church. Both have withdrawn to a
distance and repudiated responsibility in the stunted bantling. It
"growed not of itself," like Topsy, for it did not grow at all; it
stuck.
Sourton Down on the west, Whiddon Down on the east--where the devil,
it is reported, caught cold--Dartmoor on the south, shut Okehampton
in. It was open only to the wintry north, where population is sparse.
Formerly, once in the day, once only did the mail coach traverse
the one long street, ever on the yawn, and this was the one throb
of life that ran through it. No passenger descended from the coach,
no meals were taken, no lodging for the night was sought. The mails
were dropped and the coach passed away.
[Illustration: TAW MARSH]
There were, in Okehampton, no manufacture, no business, no
pleasure even, for it had no assembly balls, no neighbourhood.
Okehampton was among towns what the earth-worm is in the order
of animated nature, a digestive tube, but with digestive faculty
undeveloped. Now all is changed. The War Office has established
a summer barrack on the heights above it, and life--in some
particulars in undesirable excess--has manifested itself. Trade has
sprung up: a lesson in life--never to despair of any place, any more
than of any man. It has an office to fill, a function to perform,
if only patience be exercised and time allowed. But if Okehampton
in itself considered as a town be ugly and uninteresting, the
neighbourhood abounds in objects of interest, and the situation is
full of beauty.
Two brawling rivers, the East and the West Ockments, dance down from
the moors and unite at the town; and if each be followed upwards
scenes of rare wildness and picturesque beauty will be found.
It is towered over by Yes Tor and Cosdon, two of the highest points
on Dartmoor, and some of the moor scenery, with its tumbled ranges
of rocky height, is as fine as anything in the county of Devon.
The Ockment (_uisg-maenic_)[21] or stony water, gives its name
to the place; the Saxon planted his _tun_ at the junction of the
streams, whereas the earlier _dun_ of the Briton was on the height
above the East Ockment. Baldwin the Sheriff was given a manor
there, and he set to work to build a castle, in the days of the
Conqueror. Some of his work may be seen in the foundations of the
keep. He took rolled granite blocks out of the river bed and built
with them. But later, when the neck of slate rock was cut through on
which the castle stands, so as to isolate it from the hill to which
it was once connected, then the stone thus excavated was employed
to complete the castle keep. Baldwin de Moels, or Moules, was the
sheriff, and his descendants bore _mules_ on their coat armour. The
castle and manor remained in the hands of the de Moels and Avenells
till the reign of Henry II., when they were given to Matilda
d'Avranches, whose daughter brought it into the Courtenay family.
[21] The Ock (_uisg_, water) occurs elsewhere. The Oke-brook flows
into the West Dart below Huckaby Bridge; and Huckaby is Ock-a-boe.
The earlier name of the Blackabrook must have been Ock, for the
bridge over it is Okery.
The castle stands half a mile from the town. "Okehampton Castle,"
says Mr. Worth, "differs from the other ancient castles of Devon
in several noteworthy features. Most of the Norman fortalices,
whether in this county or in Cornwall, have round shell keeps, as at
Plympton and Totnes, Restormel and Launceston, may be seen to this
day. The typical Norman castles, with the true square keeps, were
fewer in number, but, as a rule, of greater comparative importance.
Among them, that of Okehampton occupies what may be regarded as a
middle position. More important than Lydford in its adjuncts, it
must have been much inferior to Exeter--Rougemont; nor in its later
phases can it ever have compared with the other Courtenay hold at
Tiverton, as a residence, with their present seat at Powderham, or
in extent and defensive power with the stronghold of the Pomeroys
at Berry. Nevertheless, in the early Middle Ages it must have been
regarded as a place of no little strength and dignity, when the
Courtenays had completed what the Redverses began."
The keep is planted on a mound that has been artificially formed by
paring away of a natural spur of hill; it is approached by a gradual
slope from the east, along which, connected with the mound by
curtain walls, are the remains of two ranges of buildings, north and
south. On the north is the hall, and adjoining it the cellar; on the
south guard-rooms and chapel, and above the former were the lord's
rooms. A barbican remains at the foot of the hill. The whole is
small and somewhat wanting in dignity and picturesqueness. All the
buildings except the keep were erected at the end of the thirteenth
century.
In the chapel may be seen, cut in the Hatherleigh freestone, "Hic
V...t fuit captivus belli, 1809." In the churchyard are graves of
other French prisoners. Many were buried, or supposed to have been
buried, at Princetown, where the prisons were erected for their
accommodation. Recently, in making alterations and enlarging the
churchyard there, several of their graves have been opened, and the
coffins were discovered to be _empty_. Either the escape of the
prisoners of war was connived at, and they were reported as dead and
buried, or else their bodies were given, privately, for dissection.
Okehampton Church was burnt down in 1842, with the exception of
the fine tower. It was rebuilt immediately after, and, considering
the period when this was done, it is better than might have been
expected. The chapel of S. James in the town was "restored" in a
barbarous manner some thirty years later.
Finely situated, with its back against rich woods, is Oaklands
House, built by a timber merchant named Atkyns, who made his fortune
in the European war, and who changed his name to Saville. It is now
the property of Colonel Holley. On the ridge above the station is
a camp. The East Ockment should be followed up to Cullever Steps.
On the slope of the Belstone Common is a circle called the Nine
Maidens, but there are a good many more than nine stones. These are
said to dance on Midsummer night, and to be petrified damsels who
insisted on dancing on a Sunday when they ought to have been at
church. The circle is no true "sacred circle," but the remains of a
hut circle consisting of double facing of upright slabs, formerly
filled in with smaller stone between.
One of the most interesting excursions that can be made from
Okehampton is to Belstone and the Taw Marsh. This was once a fine
lake, but has been filled up with rubble brought down from the tors.
At the head of the marsh stands Steeperton Tor, 1739 feet, rising
boldly above the marsh, with the Taw brawling down a slide of rock
and rubble on the right. This is one way by which Cranmere Pool may
be reached. Cranmere is popularly supposed to derive its name from
the cranes that it is conjectured may have resorted to it, but as
no such birds have been seen there, or would be likely to go where
there is neither fish nor spawn, the derivation must be abandoned.
[Illustration: YES TOR]
It is more probably derived from _cren_, Cornish "round," or from
_crenne_, to quake, as the pool is in the heart of bogs. It lies
at the height of over 1750 feet, in the midst of utter desolation,
where the peat is chapped and seamed and is of apparently great
depth. But the pool itself is nothing. Gradually the peat has
encroached upon it, till almost nothing but a puddle remains.
In this vast boggy district rise the Tavy, the two Ockments, the
Taw, the North Teign, and the two Darts. The nearest elevation is
Cut Hill, that reaches 1981 feet, and Whitehorse Hill, 1974. Across
this desolate waste there is but one track from Two Bridges to
Lydford, narrow, and only to be taken by one, if on horseback, who
knows the way. On each hand is unfathomed bog. Cut Hill takes its
name from a cleft cut through the walls of peat to admit a passage
to Fur Tor.
Even in this wilderness there are cairns covering the dead. One is
led to suppose that they cover peculiarly restless beings, who were
taken as far as possible from the habitations of men. I remember
seeing a cairn in Iceland in a howling waste that in historic times
was raised over one Glâmr who would not lie quiet in his grave, but
walked about and broke the backs of the living, or frightened them
to death. He was dug up and transported as far as could be into the
wilderness, his head cut off and placed as a cushion for his trunk
to sit on, and then reburied.
Cranmere Pool, though but a puddle, deserves a visit. The intense
desolation of the spot is impressive. On such solitary stretches,
where not a sound of life, not the cry of a curlew, nor the hum of
an insect is heard, I have known a horse stand still and tremble and
sweat with fear. Here a few plants becoming rare elsewhere may still
be found.
There is a story told in Okehampton of a certain Benjamin Gayer,
who was mayor there in 1673 and 1678, and died in 1701, that he is
condemned nightly to go from Okehampton to Cranmere to bale out the
pond with a thimble that has a hole in it.
Tavy Cleave may be visited from Okehampton or from Tavistock. There
is but one way in which it ought to be visited to see it in its
glory. Take the train to Bridestowe and walk thence to the "Dartmoor
Inn." Strike thence due east, cross the brawling Lyd by steps to
Doe Tor Farm, and thence aim for Hare Tor: keep to the right of
the head of the tor and strike for some prongs of rock that appear
south-east, and when you reach these you have beneath you 1000 feet,
the ravine of the Tavy as it comes brawling down from the moor and
plunges over a bar of red granite into a dark pool below. Far away
to the north comes the Rattle Brook, dancing down trout-laden from
Amicombe Hill and Lynx Tor, and to the east in like desolation rises
Fur Tor, set in almost impassable bogs.
Between the Cleave rocks and Ger Tor is a settlement with hut
circles well preserved, but one in a far better condition lies
beyond the Tavy on Standon.
Tavy Cleave is fine from below, but incomparably finer when seen
from above.
In June it is a veritable pixy fruit garden for luxuriance and
abundance of purple whortleberries.
All the veins of water forming depressions have been at some remote
period laboriously streamed.
Another interesting excursion may be made to South Zeal. The old
coach-road ran through this quaint place, but the new road leaves
it on one side. A few years ago it was more interesting than it
is now, as some of the old houses have recently been removed. It,
however, repays a visit. Situated at the opening of the Taw Cleave,
under Cosdon Beacon, it is a little world to itself. The well-to-do
community have extensive rights of common, and of late have been
ruthlessly enclosing. None can oppose them, as all are agreed to
grab and appropriate what they can. This has led to much destruction
of prehistoric remains. There was at one time a circle of standing
stones from eight to nine feet high. This has gone; so has an
avenue of upright stones on the common leading to West Week. But
another of stones, that are, however, small, starting from a cairn
that contains two small kistvaens, is beside and indeed crosses
the moor-track leading towards Rayborough Pool; and on Whitmoor is
a circle still fairly intact, though three or four of the largest
uprights have been broken and removed to serve as gate-posts. Near
this is the Whitmoor Stone, a menhir, spared as it constitutes a
parish boundary.
In South Zeal is a little granite chapel, and before it is a very
stately cross. The inn, the "Oxenham Arms," was formerly the
mansion of the Burgoynes. I spent there an amusing evening a few
winters ago. I had gone there with my friend Mr., now Dr., Bussell
collecting folk-songs, for I remembered hearing many sung there when
I was a boy some forty years before. I had worked the place for
two or three days previously, visiting and "yarning" with some of
the old singers, till shyness was broken down and good-fellowship
established. Then I invited them to meet me at the "Oxenham Arms" in
the evening.
But when the evening arrived the inn was crowded with men. The
women--wives and daughters--were dense in the passage, and outside
boys stood on each other's shoulders flattening their noses, so that
they looked like dabs of putty, against the window-panes. Evidently
a grand concert was expected, and the old men rose to the occasion,
and stood up in order and sang--but only modern songs--to suit the
audience.
However, the ice was broken, and during the next few days we had
them in separately to sup with us, and after supper and a glass,
over a roaring fire, they sang lustily some of the old songs drawn
up from the bottom-most depths of their memory. There were "Lucky"
Fewins, and old Charles Arscott, and lame Radmore, James Glanville,
and Samuel Westaway, the cobbler. I remember one of them was
stubborn; he would not allow me to take down the words of a song
of his--not a very ancient one either--but did not object to the
"pricking" of the tune. It was not till two years after that he gave
way and surrendered the words.
The old house of the Oxenham family is in the neighbourhood, but
has passed away into other hands. To this family belonged, there
can be little doubt, the John Oxenham who was such an adventurous
seaman and explorer in the Elizabethan days. He was one of those who
accompanied Francis Drake in the expedition to Nombre de Dios in
1572, and afterwards, in an adventure on his own account, was the
first Englishman who launched a keel on the Pacific Ocean, or South
Sea, as it was then called. He fell into the hands of the Spaniards,
and was carried to Lima, where he was executed as a pirate. His
story has been worked into Kingsley's _Westward Ho!_ The omen of the
appearance of a white bird before death, supposed to belong to the
family, is there effectively introduced.
The house of Oxenham is of the last century, and was built about
the year 1714, the date which is sculptured on one of the granite
pillars of the entrance gates. The family does not seem to have
been qualified to bear arms in 1620, the last Herald's visitation,
but the coat borne by the family is _ar. a fess embattled between 3
oxen sa._ The story is told that once upon a time a certain Margaret
Oxenham was about to be married to the man of her choice. In the
midst of the preparations on the wedding morn, when all was going
merrily, the white bird appeared and hovered over the bride-elect.
The ceremony, however, proceeded, and at the altar of South Tawton
the hapless bride was stabbed to death by a rejected lover.
There is a remarkably circumstantial printed account of some
appearances of the family omen in the year 1635 in a very rare
tract, entitled, _A True Relation of an Apparition in the likenesse
of a Bird with a white brest, that appeared hovering over the
Death-Beds of some of the children of Mr. James Oxenham, of Sale
Monachorum, Devon, Gent._ Prefixed to the tract is a quaint engraved
frontispiece. It is in four compartments; in each of the first three
is a representation of a person lying in a bed of the four-post
type, and in the fourth is a child in a wicker cradle. Over each
individual is a bird on the wing, hovering. At the foot of these
pictorial compartments are the names of those above whom the bird
appears: John Oxenham, aged 21; Thomasine, wife of James Oxenham the
younger, aged 22; Rebecca Oxenham, aged 8, and Thomasine, a babe.
This tract may have been provoked by a letter of James Howell to
"Mr. E. D.," dated 3rd July, 1632, and written from Westminster:--
"I can tell you of a strange thing I saw lately here, and I
believe 't is true. As I pass'd by St. Dunstans in Fleet-street
the last Saturday, I stepp'd into a Lapidary, or stone-cutter's
shop, to treat with the Master for a stone to be put upon my
Father's Tomb; and casting my eyes up and down, I might spie a
huge Marble with a large inscription upon 't, which was thus to
my best remembrance:--
"'_Here lies_ John Oxenham, _a goodly young man, in whose
chamber, as he was struggling with the Pangs of Death, a Bird
with a white brest was seen fluttering about his Bed, and so
vanished_.
"'_Here lies_ Mary Oxenham, _the sister of the said_ John, _who
died the next day, and the same Apparition was seen in the
Room_.'
"Then another sister is spoke of. Then:--
"'_Here lies hard by_ James Oxenham, _the son of the said_ John,
_who dyed a Child in his Cradel a little after, and such a Bird
was seen fluttering about his head, a little before he expir'd,
which vanish'd afterwards_.'
"At the bottome of the Stone ther is:--
"'_Here lies_ Elizabeth Oxenham, _the Mother of the said_ John,
_who died sixteen years since, when such a Bird with a white
Brest was seen about her bed before her death_.'
"To all these ther be divers Witnesses, both Squires and Ladies,
whose names are engraven upon the Stone. This Stone is to be
sent to a Town hard by Exeter, wher it happen 'it."[22]
[22] _Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_, 5th edition, p. 232. London, 1678.
There are several suspicious points about the story. No such a
monument exists or has existed in South Tawton Church, nor is one
such known to have been set up in any other in the county. The stone
was of marble, and therefore not for the graveyard, but for the
interior of the church.
According to the registers there was a John Oxenham, _senior_, died,
and was buried May 2nd, 1630, but not one of the others mentioned.
There were two John Oxenhams in the parish: John, son of James and
Elizabeth, born in 1613; and John, son of William and Mary, born in
1614. Mary was the sister of the latter, and their father was the
village doctor. But it was Elizabeth, according to Howell, who was
the mother. No James, son of John, was baptised at the time at South
Tawton. Elizabeth, the mother, according to Howell, died about 1616.
No such a person was buried at South Tawton at any date near that.
The persons named in the tract of 1635--three years after Howell's
letter--are also four, but they are of Zeal Monachorum. But the name
of Oxenham does not occur at all in the registers of that parish,
and in the tract, apparently, South Zeal has been mistaken for Zeal
Monachorum.[23] In the first edition of Howell's epistles there is
no date to the letter; that was supplied later, probably by the
publisher. Now it is curious that in 1635 the name John Oxenham
does occur as having been buried at South Tawton on July 31st,
aged twenty-one. He was baptised July 10th, 1614. But there are no
entries of Thomasine, wife of James, nor of Rebecca, aged eight,
either baptised or buried; nor of Thomasine the babe.
[23] The author of the tract could not find any _parish_ of Zeal
in Devonshire except Zeal Monachorum, where, as he did _not_ know,
there were no Oxenhams, and so he converted the hamlet of Zeal in
South Tawton, where the Oxenhams _were_ at home, into the Zeal where
they were not.
In the tract we are informed that the white-breasted bird appeared
when Grace, the grandmother of John Oxenham, died, in 1618.
And in fact we do find in the South Tawton registers for that date,
September 2nd, 1618, Grace, the wife of John Oxenham, was buried.
That Howell's quotation from memory refers to the same four as are
named in the tract is, I think, probable. He had not seen the tract,
or he would have quoted the names correctly. The letter was not
written at the date added to it at a later period, but in the same
year as the tract appeared, when he was a prisoner in the Fleet for
debt. Whether he ever saw the monument may be doubted, and he may
have merely written for publication with mention of the story which
he had from hearsay. As to the tract, it was one of those pious
frauds by no means uncommon among the "goody-goody" writers of that
and other days, and the incident of the white-breasted bird was an
invention employed to "catch" the attention of readers, and lead on
to the moral and pious sentiments that stuff the remainder of the
tract. The trick of giving a list of witnesses was one resorted to
by the ballad and tract mongers of the period, and it is noticeable
that those whose names are appended as witnesses never existed at
South Zeal, in South Tawton parish.
When once this pious fraud had been launched, it rolled on by its
own weight, and it became a point of honour in the family to uphold
it; and plenty of after-apparitions were feigned or fancied to have
been seen.
The whole story of the alleged appearances of the white bird has
been gone into with thoroughness by Mr. Cotton, of Exeter, who to
some extent credits it; that is to say, he thinks that some real
instances of birds fluttering at the window may have given rise
to the story. But the basis is rotten, and the superstructure
accordingly will not stand.[24]
[24] COTTON (R. W.), "The Oxenham Omen," in _Transactions of the
Devonshire Association_, 1882.
A mine had been worked formerly above South Zeal. It had been under
a "captain," of practical experience but no scientific knowledge.
It yielded a small but steady profit. Then the directors and
shareholders became impatient. They discharged the old captain,
and sent down a fellow who had passed through the mining college,
had scientific geology and mineralogy at his fingers' ends. He
scouted the machinery that had been hitherto in use, sneered at the
old-fashioned methods that had been pursued, boasted of what he was
going to do, revolutionised the mine, reorganised the plant, had all
the old machinery cast aside, or sold for old iron; had down new and
costly apparatus--then came heavy calls on the shareholders--renewed
calls--and there was an end of profits, and as _finis_ a general
collapse.
Some years ago a great fraud was committed in the neighbourhood. It
was rumoured that gold was to be found in the gozen--the refuse from
the mines. All who had old mines on their land sent up specimens
to London, and received reports that there was a specified amount
of gold in what was forwarded. Some, to be sure that there was no
deception, went up with their specimens and saw them ground, washed,
and analysed, and the gold extracted. So large orders were sent up
for gozen-crushing machines. These came down, were set to work, and
no gold was then found. The makers of the machines had introduced
gold-dust into the water that was used in the washing of the crushed
stone. I made use of this incident in my novel _John Herring_.
But to return to the singers. Here is a song of local origin, which,
however, I did not obtain from these South Zeal singers. I must
premise that the local pronunciation of Okehampton is Ockington.
At Ockington, in Devonshire,
Old vayther lived vor many a year.
And I along wi' he did dwell
Nigh Dartimoor 'tes knawed vull well.
Diddle-diddle-dee.
It happ'nd on a zartain day,
Vour score o' sheep--they rinned astray.
Zeth vayther, Jack go arter'n, yū.
Zez I--Be darned if ee'r I dū.
Diddle-diddle-dee.
Purvokèd at my sāacy tongue,
A dish o' brāath at me he flung.
Then fu' o' wrath, as poppy red
I knacked old vayther on the head.
Diddle-diddle-dee.
Then drayed wor I to Ex't'r jail,
There to be tried--allowed no bail,
And at next Easter 'zizes I
Condemnèd was therefor to die.
Diddle-diddle-dee.
Young men and maydens all, I pray
Take warnin' by my tragedy.
Rin arter sheep when they are strayed,
And don't knack vaythers on the 'ead.
Diddle-diddle-dee.
South Tawton Church is fine. The restorer has taken the monumental
slabs, sawn them in half, and employed them for lining the drain
round the church, thus destroying the historical records of the
parish. This is the more to be regretted, as a fire that occurred in
the parsonage has seriously damaged the old registers. There is a
fine Wyke monument in the church.
But by far the most interesting church within an excursion of
Okehampton is Bratton Clovelly, which, although not large, has a
stately grandeur internally that is very impressive. Much money
has been spent in "restoring" this church. The glass is good,
but the new work in wood and alabaster is barely passable. North
Lew Church contains very fine old oak, beside modern woodwork of
poverty-stricken design.
There are some early Christian monuments near Okehampton, a well at
Sticklepath with an inscribed stone by it, and another inscribed
stone by the roadside from Okehampton to Exeter.
NOTE.--Books that may be consulted:--
BRIDGES (M. B.), _Some Account of the Barony and Town of
Okehampton_. New edition, Tiverton, 1889.
WORTH (R. N.), "Okehampton Castle," in _Transactions of the
Devonshire Association_, 1895.