Devon (England) -- Antiquities; Devon (England) -- History
Jean Dorot (1507–1588) and Pouce Denis Debrun (1729–1807), have each
worn the title of French Pindar, whilst Gabriello Cluobrera (1552–1637)
was the acknowledged Italian Pindar. Peter’s work has been translated
into most of the continental tongues, and has been appreciated in
Germany especially but not in France, his Francophobia being all too
evident in many allusions to the French people. His poetry is too full
of the localisms of his native county to be fully appreciated by any but
Devonians, and too full of personal and political references and
allusions to persons about the court and in the London society of that
day to appeal successfully to readers of the present generation.
Our Dr. John Wolcot was the fourth child of Dr. Alexander Wolcot,
himself a surgeon’s son residing at Kingsbridge, on the bank of the
estuary at the foot of the town. The grounds of the family dwelling
extended from the old Dartmouth Road at the back down to the water’s
edge, and the house, though much altered, still retains its name of
Pindar Lodge. His baptismal register, preserved at the Church of St.
Thomas à Becket, Dodbrooke, is dated May 9th, 1738. Of his mother we
have not been able to gather much information beyond her name—Mary
Ryder—and that she belonged to a local family. The Ryders are still
numerously represented in the townships both of Kingsbridge and
Dodbrooke.
The Grammar School of Kingsbridge, erected at the cost of the old
Puritan, Thomas Crispin, Merchant of Exeter, and endowed by him in 1670,
was the place where he commenced his education under the mastership of
John Morris. It is to be regretted that no roll of scholars earlier than
1830 is extant, so that we have to depend upon indirect though undoubted
evidence as to his connection with this school, but there are lively
legends of his school days preserved in the folk-lore of the district,
one of which is too characteristic to be omitted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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