Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and CoastsNorthcote, Rosalind
History
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Northcote, Rosalind
Devon (England)
The church is a fine Perpendicular building, and has a high embattled
tower, with slender crocketed pinnacles springing sixteen feet above the
summit. The roof is battlemented, and the tracery in the windows is
graceful. On either side of the chancel stands an altar-tomb--that on
the north side being in memory of John Waldron, on the south of George
Slee, both benefactors to the town in having founded almshouses. The
sides of the tombs are boldly and curiously sculptured, being covered
with raised devices, and a deeply lettered inscription is engraved in
the top of each. A picture of St Peter being delivered by the angel from
prison, painted by Richard Cosway, hangs over a north doorway. Cosway
was born in Tiverton, and the letter that accompanied his gift expressed
good feeling and his warm affection for his native town.
The most distinctive feature of the church is the very decorative
'Greenway' chapel. John Greenway was a rich wool-merchant of Tiverton,
and on the walls of the chapel was inscribed this couplet:
'To the honour of St. Christopher, St. Blaze, and St. Anne,
This chapel of John Greenwaye was began.'
It is interesting to note, of the three saints to whom the chapel was
dedicated, that St Christopher was the patron of mariners and one of the
'sea-saints,' St Blaze the special patron of wool-combers; while St
Anne particularly presides over riches. An old distich runs:
'Saint Anne gives wealth and living great to such as love her most,
And is a perfite finder-out of things that have beene lost.'
So that the help of all three was peculiarly necessary to make John
Greenway a prosperous man!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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