15. Mines and Minerals.

A Modern Cider Press

It is interesting to note that printing was early introduced into Devonshire. In 1525 the fifth printing-press in England was set up in Tavistock. There are paper-mills at Cullompton, iron-works near Kingsbridge, glove-factories at Torrington, umber-works at Ashburton, tanneries and shoe-factories at Crediton, and agricultural implement works at Exeter.

Ship-building Yard, Brixham

In addition to the very important Government works at Devonport and Keyham dockyards, there is a considerable amount of ship and boat-building, especially on the Dart and at Brixham, and the industry employs altogether about 3500 men.

There was a time when mining, especially tin-mining, was the most important industry of Devonshire. Traces left all over Dartmoor show that at a very early period tin was obtained there by the process called "streaming," that is to say by the washing of grains of the metal out of the disintegrated and crumbling granite. Vast numbers of abandoned shafts sunk in search of tin, copper, iron, manganese, and even silver, remain, together with their too often ugly buildings, as evidence of the former magnitude of the industry. At the present day, however, only twenty-four mines are in active operation, providing employment for no more than 700 men, who, in 1907, raised less than 1700 tons of metal of all descriptions.

The tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall were early formed into a corporate body whose affairs were managed by a Stannary parliament that met on Hingston Down. At a later period, probably at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Devonshire men held their own parliament, which assembled on Crockern Tor. They were governed by a Warden—Sir Walter Ralegh held the office for some years—appointed by the Duchy of Cornwall, who collected the Duchy dues or royalties, and having ascertained the purity of each block of tin by "coinage," that is, by cutting off for analysis a "coin" or corner, stamped it with the Duchy arms. A miner convicted of selling impure tin was punished by having some of the melted metal poured down his throat.Lydford, Tavistock, Chagford, and Ashburton were called Stannary Towns, since at each of those places blocks of tin might be tested; and the arbitrary nature of the Stannary Court is hinted at in the proverbial expression: "Lydford Law; hang first and try afterwards."

The chief mining district of Devonshire begins at the Tamar and extends across Dartmoor and along its borders. The most important centre was Tavistock, but there were rich mines at North Molton, where several kinds of metal were worked, near Ashburton, and elsewhere.

The principal ores are those of copper and tin; some iron is worked, and there are rich veins, believed to be not yet exhausted although not now worked, of galena or silver-lead.

The Devonshire mines formerly produced more tin than those of Cornwall; but since the fourteenth century the output of the latter county has been the greater. The quantity now raised in Devonshire is inconsiderable, and in 1907 amounted to only 94 tons. Tin is very largely used in making what is called tin-plate, which is really sheet-iron dipped into the melted metal. It is also mixed with copper to make bronze or machine-brass, and it was for the manufacture of bronze that it was so much sought after by the ancient inhabitants of the country.

Copper-mining in Devonshire is believed to be a comparatively modern industry. It is not known whether the ancient Britons made their own bronze from native tin and copper, or whether they imported it from abroad. The Devon Great Consols Mine, four miles from Tavistock, once by far the richest mine in England, and oneof the richest in the world, has shipped as much as 1200 tons of copper in a single month, and has produced altogether 3 ½ million pounds' worth of ore; but it now yields little but arsenic. In 1907 only 652 tons were raised in the whole county. The ore is not exhausted, but the cost of raising it from deep mines is too great to withstand foreign competition.

Devon Great Consols Mine

Ores of iron and zinc are widely distributed, but are little worked; and the annual yield, both of these metals and of manganese, of which this county was once a chief source of supply, is inconsiderable. Very rich silver-lead ore was formerly worked at Bere Alston and at Combe Martin, but the mines in both places have been abandoned. A very massive cup, made of Combe Martin silver, givento the Corporation of London by Queen Elizabeth, is still used at the inauguration of each Lord Mayor. Arsenic and arsenical pyrites, ochre, and umber are obtained, especially from some mines whose more valuable ore is exhausted. Cobalt, tungsten, and uranium also occur, and gold has been found in small quantities, generally in streams, as, for instance, in the West Webburn and below Lethitor.

Although the metal mines of Devonshire have lost their old importance, there are other minerals of great commercial value, of which altogether more than a million tons are obtained in the course of a year. China clay, or kaolin, a product of the natural decomposition of granite, is worked at Lee Moor, and more than 75,000 tons—which, however, is only one-tenth of that obtained from Cornwall—are annually exported, especially to Staffordshire, for the making of fine earthenware. Other kinds of potter's clay, white at Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracy, and red at Watcombe, are dug in still larger quantities.

There are many quarries in Devonshire, the most important of them being of limestone, of which more than half a million tons are worked every year. Heytor granite was used in London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, and Lundy granite in the Thames Embankment. But the stone is not considered equal to that from Cornwall. The same remark applies to the slate, of which only 5000 tons are now raised annually. There are old quarries of it near Kingsbridge, and also at Tavistock and other places. Colyton slate is used for billiard-tables.Marble is worked at Chudleigh, and a finer quality at Ipplepen, Torquay, and Plymouth. There are large quarries at Beer. The material for whetstones has long been dug in the Blackdown Hills, where the refuse from the workings, like lines of railway embankment, is a feature in the landscape.

Stone Quarry, Beer

There is no coal in Devonshire, but there is much lignite at Bovey Tracy, where, in the bed of an ancient lake, a deposit of layers of it occurs, alternating with clay and sand, to a depth of 100 feet. On account of its disagreeable smell while burning and its low heating-power it is not used for fuel except for firing bricks, and to some extent in the pottery-kilns. There are also extensive beds of anthracite or culm near Bideford; butthis, again, is not of a quality to serve as fuel, except for lime-burning, and the product of the one solitary working is ground up to make a paint called Bideford Black. There are vast and valuable deposits of peat on Dartmoor, in some places as much as thirty feet deep.

The fisheries of the British Islands form one of our most important industries, providing regular or occasional employment for nearly 100,000 men and boys in the catching of the fish; for a very great number of persons engaged in secondary occupations connected with the industry, who probably far outnumber the actual fishermen; and for innumerable people of all grades engaged in distributing the eight million pounds' worth of fish brought into the ports of England and Wales each year by British ships alone. The fisheries also furnish an immense quantity of cheap and wholesome food, which, by rapid methods of transit, is available in all parts of the country.

By far the most productive of our fishing-grounds, although not as predominant as it was some years ago, is the North Sea—an area of more than 150,000 square miles, in which are taken more than half of all the British-caught fish, not including shell-fish, which are annually landed on the coasts of England and Wales. More fish are brought, every year, into Grimsby, Hull, Lowestoft, and Yarmouth than into all the other fishing-ports ofEngland put together. It is interesting to note that, while according to the latest returns there were 1731 British steam-trawlers and drifters, exclusive of ordinary fishing-boats, engaged in the North Sea fisheries, there were only 451 similar craft belonging to the ports of Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France put together. In other words there are four British steam-trawlers in the North Sea to every foreigner. Much fishing is also done by English trawlers off the shores of Iceland, Norway, and the Faroës, and the boats now go as far even as the White Sea and the coast of Morocco.

About half the fish are taken by trawling, which consists in dragging a beam of wood, with a net attached to it, along the bottom of the sea, in comparatively shallow water. Very many different species are caught in this way, but haddock, plaice, and cod are by far the most numerous, and make up between them nearly half the total amount of all the fish landed in England and Wales in a year. Much fishing is also done with seine nets, or with drift nets, both of which are long nets, attached to floats of cork or to air-bladders and let down into the sea without regard to the depth, and sometimes at a considerable distance from the shore. Stake nets, fastened to poles fixed in shallow water near the land, are also much used. Herrings are the chief fish caught in drift nets and seines, and more of them are landed than of any other kind of fish. The latest return gives the total quantity of herrings annually brought into English ports as rather more than 200,000 tons, of cod as about 100,000 tons, and of plaice as about 50,000 tons. Pilchards, which are full-grownsardines, and much resemble herrings in appearance, are caught in large quantities—which, however, seem trifling in comparison with those of the three fish named above—in seine nets off the coasts of Cornwall and Devon, and nowhere else in the British Isles. Many fish, especially halibut, cod, and ling are taken with hook and line, sometimes at great depths. Crabs and lobsters are caught in wicker traps or baskets called pots, and oysters are usually taken by dredging.

Fish Market at Brixham

In spite of its two long stretches of seaboard, the fisheries of Devonshire are not equal in productiveness to those of Cornwall, and are insignificant in comparison with those of the east coast; and the total value of the fish landed at all its ports taken together amounted, accordingto the latest return, to no more than £150,000, or one-nineteenth of what is landed at Grimsby alone. It was far exceeded at five other east-coast fishing stations.

The fish of the English Channel differ considerably from those of the North Sea. Haddock, the most abundant species on the east coast, is very rare in the south, and practically none are caught at any of the Devonshire fishing stations. The cod, again, is a northern species, and is almost entirely absent from both the Bristol and the English Channels. Whiting is one of the most abundant of English Channel fish; and in this species, as well as in soles and turbot, the south coast is of all the British fishing-grounds second only in productiveness to the east coast. More conger-eels are caught in the English Channel than anywhere else off our islands, and there is also a great abundance of gurnards, skates, and dogfish.

The Devonshire fishermen catch great quantities of whiting, herring, mackerel, sprats, and pilchards, together with considerable numbers of soles, turbot, plaice, pollack, skates, congers, crabs, lobsters, and prawns. Herrings were formerly very abundant off Lynmouth. The last great shoals appeared in 1823. A skate caught off the south coast of Devonshire measured nine feet by six and a half feet, and weighed 560 pounds. The quantity of sprats annually caught in Devonshire waters is very great, but, as in other districts, varies very much in different years. Thus the amount brought into Torquay in 1905 was more than 500 tons, or more than were landed at any other port in the kingdom; but in 1906 the quantity was only 100 tons. Pilchards, as has beenalready observed, are confined to Cornwall and to the south coast of Devon; but by far the greater quantity are taken at the fishing stations of the former county. Almost all the pilchards caught in Devonshire waters are landed at Plymouth. None are taken further east than Dawlish. These fish, which are particularly oily, are mostly salted and exported to the Mediterranean. Dogfish, which are very abundant and formerly thrown away as worthless, are finding an increasing market, especially in London, where they are filleted and sold as "flake."

Brixham Trawlers

The most important fishing stations are Plymouth, Brixham, and Torquay, the annual value of whose fisheries according to the latest return is about £66,000, £60,000 and £8,000 respectively. There is also a good deal offishing off Exmouth, Teignmouth, Dartmouth, Torcross, and Budleigh Salterton, where the annual values vary from £4000 to £750 a year. It is interesting to compare these figures with the annual value of the fish brought into Grimsby, which, by the last return, amounted to nearly three millions sterling.

There are valuable salmon fisheries at Exmouth, Teignmouth, and Babbacombe; and most of the Devonshire streams abound with trout, although the fish as a rule run small. Thirteen Devonshire fisheries are named in Domesday Book. The most valuable was that at Dartington, for which two fishermen paid a yearly rent of eighty salmon.

The ports of Devonshire once ranked among the first in England, and her sailors have for many centuries been famous for their enterprise and daring. It was from this county that the first English trading-expeditions sailed to Africa, Brazil, and North America. They were Devonshire men, who, by taking possession of Newfoundland, established the first English colony—in which most of the old families are of Devonshire descent. Devonshire ships were long the terror of the Spanish Main. Devonshire men were among the very foremost in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. A Devonshire captain was the first Englishman to sail round the world; and although we remember with regret that his friend and comrade was the first Englishman toengage in the iniquitous traffic of the slave-trade, we are proud to think that few men did more than he to improve our ships and the condition of our seamen.

In their palmy days, in the century or more following the flight of the Armada, Bideford and Topsham had each of them more trade with the young colonies of North America than any other English town except London. Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Dartmouth, Brixham, and Appledore were once important seaports. At the present day not one of the whole seven has sufficient trade to be honoured with a separate entry in the Government Shipping Returns. Plymouth is now the only maritime town of commercial importance. Even its traffic, large as it seems, is small in comparison with that of London or Liverpool, and as far as trading statistics go, it stands no higher than thirtieth among the ports of the United Kingdom.

Several causes have contributed to the decay of the Devonshire ports. Most of them are situated on river-estuaries which, in the lapse of ages, have become silted up by mud and sand brought down by the rivers, or obstructed by shingle washed up by the waves. The harbour of Sidmouth was destroyed by the encroachment of the sea and the fall of the cliffs which formerly protected it. Again, the tonnage of ships, and consequently the amount of water they draw, have very greatly increased since Tudor and Stuart times, when these ports were in their prime; and it would be impossible for the large vessels of to-day to navigate the shallow and danger-strewn waters of our estuaries, even if they could crossthe bars by which they are obstructed. Nor is it worth while to improve the navigation by dredging, as is done to so great anextenton the Thames, the Mersey, and the Clyde. The industries of Devonshire are now of small importance, and the county has no great manufacturing centres to supply freights. Plymouth Sound is the only busy waterway, and Plymouth is the one populous town requiring large quantities of imports.

The only harbour in North Devon given in the shipping returns is Barnstaple, with which are associated Ilfracombe, Bideford, and Appledore. Ilfracombe, the only port in the long stretch of coast between Bridgwater and Padstow, had formerly a good deal of traffic with Wales and Ireland, but its tidal harbour is now visited only by excursion steamers and small coasting-vessels.

The other three towns are river-ports. Barnstaple is eight miles from the mouth of the Torridge, Appledore is just inside the entrance of the Taw, and Bideford is five miles up the same river, whose estuary is obstructed by a dangerous bar, only to be crossed at high tide. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries all three towns had an active trade with North America; and even in comparatively recent times ships of 1000 tons have been moored at Barnstaple quay. But at the present day only 37 cargo-carrying vessels sail to and from the whole group in a year, and the trade (chiefly in timber and dye-stuffs) of all four together, principally with home ports, but also with Sweden and Norway and some other European countries, amounts to little more than £18,000 in twelve months.

Dartmouth, Brixham, and Salcombe form another group of ports, all of which have played a part in history. Their total trade, the import of timber and the export of ships and boats, amounts to nearly £19,000 a year, and such foreign intercourse as they have is chiefly with Sweden, Norway, and Russia.

Exeter and Exmouth, with which is associated Lyme Regis in the adjoining county of Dorsetshire, rank next in importance, Topsham, the ancient port of Exeter, having gone entirely to decay. Their annual trade, about half of which consists of wood, cured fish, and sugar, and which, as regards foreign intercourse, is mainly with France, Germany, and Sweden, is nearly £100,000.

The trade of Teignmouth and Torquay together, in the importation of paper-making materials and timber, and in the export of China-clay, chiefly with English ports, but also with France, Germany, Belgium, and Norway, amounts to £110,000 in the twelve-month.

Teignmouth

Plymouth which, as has been already pointed out, is the only large sea-port in the county, has four times as much trade, and is entered and cleared by four times as many vessels as all the other ports of Devonshire put together. Its chief imports are grain (£540,000), timber (£250,000), sugar (£135,000), guano and manures (£110,000), and petroleum (£52,000); and its principal export is £52,000 worth of clay. Its imports and exports taken together amount to 1 ¾ million pounds sterling, and it is entered and cleared by 1656 ships in a year. Its chief foreign trade is with France, but its commerce maytruly be said to be world-wide. Thirteen lines of ocean steamers sail from or call at Plymouth, the principal of which are the White Star, American, Norddeutscher-Lloyd, and Hamburg-American for the United States; the Orient and Peninsular and Oriental for Australia; the latter and the British India for India; the Shaw-Savill and New Zealand SS. Co. for New Zealand; and the British and African for the West Coast of Africa. There are also regular sailings of steamers for France, Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Isles, and various home ports.

It is interesting to compare this sea-traffic with that of London, which is entered and cleared by 18,491 cargo-carrying ships in the course of twelve months, and has a total annual import and export trade of 333 millions of pounds sterling; which are respectively about 11 times, and about 190 times as large as the corresponding figures for Plymouth.

But although Plymouth is a place of considerable maritime trade, a busy fishing station and a port of call for ocean-going steamers, for whose accommodation are provided spacious docks and ample quays, its greatest importance and renown—remembering that we include with it its sister towns of Stonehouse and Devonport—rest upon its rank as a naval station, as an arsenal which is second only to that of Woolwich, and as a naval dockyard which is the largest in the kingdom.

The anchorage at the head of the Sound, once very much exposed and dangerous in southerly winds, is now protected by a stone breakwater nearly a mile long, designed to shelter ships of the Royal Navy. It was commenced in 1812 by Rennie, continued by his son, modified in the slope of its sides and improved in stability by violent storms, especially in 1817, and completed in 1840.

Drake's Island from Mt. Edgcumbe, Plymouth

Taking all its various features into account, its commerce, its passenger traffic by means of ocean-liners and other steamers, its fisheries, its docks and dockyards, its barracks, its factories of marine appliances, its arsenal, and lastly the vast number of ships of all sizes, belonging to the navy, to the mercantile marine, or to the fishing-fleet, that are constantly leaving or entering the Sound, Plymouth is one of the most important sea-ports in the British Empire.

The history of our country begins with the Roman occupation. For although we have ample and striking traces, in the shape of earthworks and stone circles, tools and weapons, pottery and ornaments, of the successive races of men who lived here before Julius Caesar set foot in Britain, those ancient and primitive people left no written records, not so much as an inscription on a single coin, and our knowledge of them is in the highest degree vague and uncertain.

Of many parts of our island the Romans took complete possession, constructing fortresses, making roads, establishing towns, building baths and temples andluxuriously appointed villas, and scattering, wherever they went, the coins whose lettering and devices have revealed to us so much concerning the some time masters of the world. In Somerset, for example, to which the conquerors were attracted partly by the hot and health-restoring springs of Bath, and partly by the silver-bearing lead mines of the Mendip Hills, the relics of their occupation have been found from one end of the county to the other.

In Devonshire, on the other hand, such relics are so few, and are confined to so limited an area that we are driven to the conclusion that, except as regards the city of Exeter, there was no definite Roman occupation at all. There is probably not one camp of Roman workmanship in the whole county. It is doubtful if any Roman road went farther than the river Teign. The sites of only two Roman villas are known with certainty. And although Roman coins have been found in many places, sometimes in hoards of hundreds, and in one case even of thousands, they are not absolute proof of actual occupation. The names Chester Moor, Scrobchester, and Wickchester, all near the Cornish border, may, perhaps, be of Roman origin.

There is, however, no doubt that Exeter, believed to be theIsca Dumniorumof Antonine'sItinerary—that wonderful register, planned by Julius Caesar and carried out by Augustus, of distances and stations along all the roads in the Empire—was an important Roman town; and there is reason to think, from the coins that have been found at many points within the walls, that the citywas held by the Romans from the latter half of the first century of the Christian era until the time when the legions were recalled from Britain. The site ofMoridunum, the second Roman station mentioned in theItinerary, has not been identified, but there is some ground for the theory that it was at Hembury, four miles from Honiton.

A few vague and brief allusions in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, believed to refer to this county, describing how "Ina fought against Geraint," how "Cynewulf fought very many battles against the Welsh," and how "Egbert laid waste West Wales from eastward to westward," contain practically all that we know of the Saxon conquest of Devonshire. There is, indeed, so little record of actual fighting that it seems probable that the invaders settled here rather as colonists than conquerors, although Athelstan appears to have found it necessary to expel from Exeter the Britons who had so far shared the town with the Saxons.

The chief events in Devonshire between the departure of the Romans and the Norman Conquest were the repeated descents, spread over a long period of years, of the pirates whom we speak of as Danes or Northmen or Vikings; who pillaged the coast towns, sacked Exeter, sailed up the Tamar, and burnt and plundered Tavistock and Lydford. Victory was not always on the side of the marauders. Their first raid, in 851, was repulsed with great slaughter; and when, five and twenty years later, Guthrum seized Exeter, King Alfred promptly drove him out of it.

During the Saxon period there were mints at Exeter, Barnstaple, Totnes, and Lydford, and thousands of Devonshire-struck silver pennies are in existence. By far the greater number of them are in the royal museum at Stockholm, the most numerous being those of Ethelred II and Canute. Of the former there are in Stockholm 2254 specimens, compared with 144 in the British Museum. These Swedish specimens probably represent partly the plunder carried off by the Northmen, partly the bribes vainly paid to the invaders by Ethelred (whose surname of Unradig, "he who will not take counsel," or "the headstrong," has been misrendered "the Unready"), and partly the results of commerce while Canute was king.

Penny of Ethelred II, struck at Exeter

The year succeeding the Battle of Hastings found William the Conqueror before the gates of Exeter, a place already regarded, as it continued to be for many centuries, as the key of the West of England. He took the city after a brief siege and proceeded to secure his hold upon it by building the castle of Rougemont, which was hardly finished when it was unsuccessfully attacked by the Saxons. A year later the sons of Harold also tried in vain to take it. The last man of mark inDevonshire to hold out against Norman rule was Sithric, the Saxon abbot of Tavistock, who, when all was lost, fled to Hereward's camp of refuge in the Fens. A few Englishmen were left by the Conqueror in possession of their estates; but the county, as a whole, was divided among a number of Norman nobles, some of whose descendants, Courtenay, Carew, and Champernowne, for example, still survive in Devonshire. An interesting link with Norman times and customs is the ringing of the curfew bell, which is still kept up at Exeter, Okehampton, and other places. At eight o'clock every evening thirty strokes are sounded for "Curfew," and then eight more for the hour.

In the stormy reign of King Stephen Exeter was the last place to hold out for Queen Maud. The king was admitted into the town by the citizens, but the castle of Rougemont cost him a three months' siege.

The importance of Devonshire sea-ports brought the county into great prominence in mediaeval times. Part of Richard Cœur-de-Lion's crusading fleet, we are told, assembled at Dartmouth—a town which Chaucer, probably regarding it as a typical sea-port, chose for the native place of the Shipman in theCanterbury Tales. No other part of England furnished so many ships and men for Edward III's expedition against Calais. Again and again, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the French, in reprisal for what they had suffered by the attacks of England, harried the coast of Devon, plundering and burning Teignmouth, Plymouth, and other places on the coast.

The Black Death, the most terrible and destructive epidemic of which we have any record, which devastated the whole of England in 1348 and 1349, was very severe in this county, paralyzing agriculture and trade, and stopping for a time the building of Exeter cathedral.

Fighting in Devonshire during the Wars of the Roses was confined to an unsuccessful and half-hearted siege of Exeter by the Yorkists, and to attacks on the fortified manor-houses of Shute and Upcott. But many men in the county took sides in the struggle, and some of the great families suffered severely. Sir William Bonville was beheaded after the second Battle of St Albans. Of the ancient house of Courtenay, Thomas, Earl of Devon, was executed at York, Sir Hugh was beheaded at Sarum, and Sir John was killed at Wakefield Green. The county as a whole was Lancastrian. Queen Margaret herself was there after her defeat at Barnet; and French gold coins found in Blackpool sands are believed to be relics of the landing there, in 1470, of Warwick and Clarence. But when in the same year Edward IV visited Exeter, he was so well satisfied with his reception that he presented the corporation with a sword of state, which is still carried in processions before the mayor.

The peace of Devonshire in the fifteenth century was further disturbed by a rising, in 1483, against Richard III; by the march through the county, in 1497, of an army of Cornishmen who had risen in revolt against a heavy war-tax, and who were ultimately beaten at Blackheath; and by the insurrection, also in 1497, ofPerkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the Richard Duke of York usually said to have been murdered in the Tower, and who made a desperate although vain attack upon Exeter, when some of his men fought their way into the town, but were driven out again by the citizens.

About fifty years later, in 1549, there was a widespread and determined and altogether much more serious rebellion called the "Commotion," caused partly by the suppression of the Monasteries, which was greatly objected to by the poor, and partly by the introduction of the Prayer Book. The insurgents, who had collected from all parts of the West Country, and who were led by such men of mark as Pomeroy, Arundel, and Coffin, laid siege to Exeter and Plymouth, and for a time held the king's troops helplessly at bay. In the end, however, Lord Russell, one of the newly-created Lords Lieutenant, aided by German cavalry and Italian arquebusiers, defeated the rebels with great slaughter in a series of hotly-contested battles. The vicar of St Thomas in Exeter, who had encouraged the rising and who was described as very skilled both with the long-bow and the hand-gun, was hanged "in his Popish apparel" on the tower of his own church, and his body was left there for four years.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth has been called the Golden Age of English History. And among the heroic figures of that stirring time there are few more striking than the little group of Devonshire men who played so gallant a part in making England great:—Drake and Hawkyns, the scourges of Spain; Ralegh, courtier andsoldier, sailor and author; Gilbert, the discoverer of Newfoundland; and Grenville, who at Flores, in theRevengeof immortal memory, kept at bay a Spanish fleet of fifty-three sail.

Signatures of Drake and Hawkyns

The great event of the reign was the defeat of the Armada. And although Howard of Effingham, the Lord High Admiral, showed himself a skilful and intrepid sailor, it is Drake whom we always think of first in connection with the victory. It was Drake whose buccaneering exploits on the coasts of Spain and her colonies did so much to heighten Philip II's ambition to humiliate England. It was Drake who, in 1587, dashed into Cadiz, where the Armada was preparing, and by destroying 100 ships and vast quantities of stores, delayed for a whole year the sailing of the expedition. And when at last the Armada had been sighted, it was Drake who, according to the commonly received tradition,thinking it wiser to wait until the enemy's fleet had passed Plymouth Sound, and so take them in the rear, persuaded his fellow-captains to stay and finish that never-to-be-forgotten game of bowls, before the English ships, lying ready in the Catwater, should slip theirmoorings and stand out to sea. It was Drake who was foremost in the attack. It was Drake who took theCapitana, the flagship of Pedro de Valdez, and brought her, the first prize of the great victory, into Torbay. And when the English fireships had scattered the hostile fleet in headlong flight, it was Drake who was foremost in the chase.

Flagon taken by Drake from the “Capitana” of the Armada

Flagon taken by Drake from the “Capitana” of the ArmadaIn Windsor Castle

Drake's Drum

Among the relics of Devonshire's greatest hero, carefully treasured by his descendants at his old home at Buckland Abbey, are his sword and the famous drum that he carried with him round the world; while at Nutwell Court are flags that he flew while in command of thePelican, the miniature of herself given to himby Queen Elizabeth, and other objects of the greatest historical interest. And among the Royal plate in Windsor Castle is preserved the noble wine-flagon of bold silver-giltrepousséwork, standing nearly a yard high, which Drake took from theCapitanaof the Armada and presented to Queen Elizabeth. An illustration of it, from a photograph taken for this book by command of the Queen, is here shown for the first time.

The “Mayflower” Stone on Plymouth Quay

During the retreat to Spain a second Armada vessel, the hospital-shipSt Peter the Great, was driven ashore in Hope Cove; and the pulpit of St James's church, Exeter, and the timber roof of Tiverton School were, it is believed, made of wood either from this ship or from theCapitana.

It was not until this period that Plymouth came into prominence as a naval station. A special tax was levied on the pilchard fishery to provide money for the fortifications,and a leat or water-course was constructed with the primary object, it is said, of supplying fresh water for the royal ships.

A memorable event in James I's reign was the sailing of theMayflower. Preceded by another ship called theSpeedwellshe set sail from Leyden in the autumn of 1620, having on board a number of Puritan refugees bent on finding in North America the religious freedom denied to them in England. The two vessels having met at Southampton and put into Dartmouth, were finally driven back by stress of weather into Plymouth, whence—her consort having proved unseaworthy—theMayfloweralone continued the voyage, ultimately landing her 101 exiles at Plymouth, Massachusetts, which, however, had received its name five years before.

In the Civil War between Charles I and the Parliament, few counties saw more fighting than Devonshire. The fighting consisted, however, not of pitched battles, but of sieges and attacks on fortified positions; which, indeed, was characteristic of the whole war, in whatever part of the country it was waged. Every Devonshire town of importance, a great number of villages, many castles, manor-houses, and even churches played a part in the struggle.

As a whole, the towns, with the exception of Exeter, sympathised with the Parliament, while the rural districts, encouraged by the great landowners, were mainly for the king. The royal forces were, however, numerous in Devonshire; Goring's army, in 1642, was 6000 strong; and although fortune wavered, and although towns weretaken and retaken, there came a time, before the arrival of Fairfax and the New Model Army, when the royal standard flew from nearly every important town in Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall. There was one conspicuous exception. The party of the people never lost its hold on Plymouth, which, at a cost of 8000 lives, or more than the entire population of the town, withstood a blockade lasting from 1642 to 1646, together with many desperate attacks by Hopton, Prince Maurice, and the King himself, enduring altogether a longer siege than any other town in England.

Exeter was early seized for the Parliament, but the majority of the citizens were Royalists, and the city, which was regarded as one of the strongest Cavalier holds in the west, was soon retaken by Prince Maurice. Queen Henrietta was there in 1644, and there King Charles's youngest daughter, afterwards Duchess of Orleans, was born. When Fairfax retook the town in 1646 he allowed the garrison to march out with all the honours of war.

That year saw the final ruin of the Royal cause in the west, and the dispersal of the only army which, although little better than a mob, still kept the field for the King.

One of the most important, and at the same time most fiercely-contested Parliamentary victories, was the storming of the town of Torrington by Fairfax, at midnight, in the winter of 1646. After the battle, the church, which had been used by the king's troops (as also was Exeter cathedral) as a powder-magazine, wasblown up, and 200 Royalist prisoners who had been confined in it and many of their guards were killed. The loss of Torrington was the death-blow of the Royal cause in Devon. All that a brave man could do, Hopton did. But the county was sick of the Royalists and their methods. The people had learnt that the well-disciplined troops of Fairfax were not mere robbers, like the ruffians of Grenville and Goring; and after Torrington the Royal army melted away.

The last place in the county to hold out for the King except Lundy, where there was no fighting, but which did not surrender until 1647, was Clifton Castle, or Fort Charles, near Salcombe. After enduring a blockade and siege of four months, with the trifling loss of one man killed and one wounded, the besieged were granted the same terms as the garrisons of Exeter and Barnstaple, and marched out with matches lighted, drums beating, and colours flying.

After the Battle of Worcester, in 1651, Charles II took refuge for a time in Devonshire. Four years later there was an attempt at an insurrection in his favour, known as Penruddock's Rising, and Charles was proclaimed King at South Molton. The movement was promptly suppressed, and its leader, Colonel Penruddock, was executed. It is interesting to remember that, at the Restoration in 1660, Exeter was the first town in England to acknowledge Charles II, and that he was there proclaimed King ten days before he landed at Dover. Seven years later, in 1667, the great Dutch Admiral De Ruyter captured all the shipping in Torbay.

During the Commonwealth and later, when there was no copper coinage in this country, many tradesmen all over England struck money of their own, chiefly in the form of farthings. Nearly 400 varieties of Devonshire "tokens," as they were called, issued by sixty different towns, are known. Ninety-one were struck at Exeter alone, which is more than were issued from any other provincial town except Norwich. At a much later period shillings and sixpenny tokens of leather were in circulation at Hartland.

After the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire, in 1685, Axminster was the first town that he occupied, and a number of Colyton men are said to have joined his army. Otherwise the rebellion hardly touched Devonshire. Yet Judge Jeffreys put to death, at various places in the county, thirty-seven of the Duke's misguided followers. After the Battle of Sedgemoor, Wade and other fugitives attempted to escape by sea from Ilfracombe, but they were obliged to put back, and were caught in the woods near Lynton.

When, under very different auspices, William of Orange landed at Brixham on the 5th of November, 1688, he marched to Exeter, as the chief city of the west. The citizens at first held aloof, but in the end they gave to the Deliverer their hearty and most valuable support.

Two years later the French admiral Tourville, fresh from his victory over our fleet off Beachy Head, landed a strong force at Teignmouth, and sacked and burnt that part of the town which ever since has been known as French Street.

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