Nature’s true Poet, blest with fancies sweet, And voice as swift and changeful as our brooks, We country swains cast often wondering looks On those great singers that around thee meet; For Spenser, Sidney, thy chief teachers were, And Wither, Drayton, Jonson, called thee friend; And, like enough, kind Shakespere did commend Thy “modest muse.” And yet, we all may share The scenes of beauty that inspired thy lay; For still, by “Blanchdown Wood” the Tamar sweeps; Still trickle streamlets down the “Dartmoor” steeps, And sing blithe music to the lambs at play; Still through “sweet Ina’s Combe” the Walla leaps, Hurrying to greet the Tavy on its way. D. P. ALFORD. THE BLOWING UP OF GREAT TORRINGTON CHURCH. BY GEORGE M. DOE. The town of Great Torrington played a not inconspicuous part in the Civil Wars, the culminating and dramatic incident of which was the blowing up of the Parish Church after the defeat and flight of the Royalist forces who were then in the town. The fight at Torrington, too, was the last important engagement of the campaign in the West, being the final decisive blow to the Royalist cause there. A very accurate and full account of the whole of the doings in North Devon during this stirring time is to be found in the late Mr. R. W. Cotton’s invaluable work on _Barnstaple and the Northern part of Devonshire during the Great Civil War_, 1642–1646, and the incidents more particularly relating to Great Torrington were collected by me and embodied in a little book entitled, _A few Pages of Great Torrington History_, 1642–1646, and the blowing up of the Church is also dealt with in my paper in the _Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the year 1894_. Though of far less importance than the final battle, there were two other previous engagements at Great Torrington. The first of these took place in December, 1642, when a party of Parliamentarian horse and foot from Barnstaple attacked the Royalists then in the town. From the varying accounts given by each party, it is, however, uncertain which side came off best in the encounter. [Illustration: GREAT TORRINGTON CHURCH (OLD).] [Illustration: GREAT TORRINGTON CHURCH (NEW).] There are entries of burials in the Parish Register of Great Torrington of this date, one being that of Christopher Awberry, a trooper of Sir Ralph Hopton, who was killed by the “goeing off of a muskett unawares upon the maine gard,” and was buried “Souldier Like,” and another of Thomas Hollamore, “slaine by ye goeing off of a muskett.”