Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and CoastsNorthcote, Rosalind
History
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Northcote, Rosalind
Devon (England)
'John Waldron, merchant, and Richord his wife,
Builded this house in tyme of their life;
At such tyme as the walls wer fourtyne foote hye,
He departed this world even the eyghtynth of July (1579).
'Since youth and life doth pass awaye,
And deathe at hand to end our dayes,
Let us do so, that men may saye,
We spent our goods God for to prays.'
On one wall is a pack of wool bearing Waldron's staplemark and a ship,
and below them the words, 'Remember the poor.'
The greatest gift by far was that of Peter Blundell, who built and
endowed the well-known school that is called after him, and founded six
scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge as a further benefit to the
scholars of Blundell's. His will dictates most particular instructions
regarding the salaries of the master and usher, and as to the actual
building, even directing that there should be 'in the kitchen one fair
great chimney with an oven.'
In 1882 the school was transferred to Howden, but the building that
Peter Blundell planned, beneath the steep hill close to the Lowman, is
long and rather low, the colour a warm, soft yellow, still more softened
by stray indefinite tints of cream and buff. The slate roof is
high-pitched, the windows are square and mullioned, and there are two
porches, each with a window directly above the hooded doorway, and
crowned by a gable. The school-house stands back in a yard of plots of
grass and pebbled paths, and shaded by great old lime-trees surrounded
by a high wall.
Samuel Wesley was at one time head-master here, and was not universally
popular, for his scathing wit blighted the esteem earned by his high
gifts and principles.
Many of Blundell's scholars have done good work in the world, but
perhaps the most famous of them are the late Archbishop of Canterbury
(Dr. Temple) and R. D. Blackmore, the novelist, who were here in the
'thirties, contemporaries and friends, both 'day-boys' and lodging in
the same house in Cop's Court. Twenty years before the Archbishop came
to Blundell's, that celebrated sportsman 'Jack' Russell was here,
embarked on a stormy career, perpetually in scrapes due to his passion
for sport, which even led him to the point of trying to keep hounds
while he was actually at school. Contemporaries of Blackmore's were two
distinguished soldiers and writers on military subjects, Sir Charles
Chesney and his brother Sir George, the author of that account of an
imaginary German invasion which created so much excitement when, under
the name of 'The Battle of Dorking,' it appeared in 1871 in _Blackwood's
Magazine_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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