A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
Due south of this, on the south side of the highest point of Stall
Moor, Staldon Barrow, are two more stone rows, almost, but not quite,
in a line. In the neighbourhood are many cairns and kistvaens. The
stones here are larger. Taken together the rows run over 1,400 feet.
They can be seen from Cornwood Station when the light is favourable.
Again another row on Burford Down, a continuation of the same moor,
starts from a circle containing a kistvaen near Tristis Rock, and
stretches away north to a wall and across an inclosed field, but here
it has been sadly pillaged for the construction of the wall. It still
runs 1,500 feet. The Erme valley has been much worked by streamers, and
some of the mining operations have been carried on at a comparatively
recent period.
By the side of a little lateral gully on the right hand in descending
the river is a beehive hut among the streamers' mounds; it is quite
intact, and shelter may be taken in it from a passing storm. It is,
however, not prehistoric, but is a miners' _cache_.
Another, also perfect, is a little further down, on the other side of
the river before reaching Piles Wood.
Harford church, another foundation of S. Petrock, stands high. It
contains nothing of interest except an altar tomb with brasses upon it,
in memory of Thomas Williams, Speaker of the House of Commons, of the
family of that name formerly resident at Stowford, in the parish. And
in the second place, a monument to John and Agnes Prideaux, the parents
of John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester. This was set up by the latter in
1639.
Hall, not far from the church, was for some time the residence of the
notorious Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, who was tried and
condemned for bigamy. It was a hard case. She was born in 1726, and was
the daughter of Colonel Thomas Chudleigh, who died when Elizabeth was
quite a child. In 1744, when she was aged only eighteen, she visited
her maternal aunt, Anne Hanmer, at Lainston, near Winchester, met at
the Winchester Races Lieutenant Hervey, second son of Lord Hervey,
and grandson of the Earl of Bristol, who was then aged twenty. He was
invited to Lainston, and one night in a foolish frolic, at eleven
o'clock, with the connivance, if not at the instigation, of Mrs.
Hanmer, Elizabeth was married to Lieutenant Hervey by the rector in the
little roofless ruin of a church. No registers were signed, and the
bridegroom left in two days to rejoin his ship, and sailed for the West
Indies.
She never after that received Lieutenant Hervey as her husband, and
he instituted a suit in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London
for the jactitation of the marriage, and sentence was given in 1769
declaring that the marriage form gone through in 1744 was null and
void. On the strength of this Elizabeth married the Duke of Kingston,
March 8, 1769.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account