Devon (England) -- Antiquities; Devon (England) -- History
Orgar, the father of Ordulf, had a daughter named Elfrida, the fame of
whose loveliness came to the ears of the King. Edgar, being unwedded,
despatched Earl Ethelwold to Tavistock on a mission of observation, and
the courtier was empowered, if report erred not, to demand her in
marriage for his royal master. Ethelwold came, and saw, and was
conquered. Although much older than the fair lady, he fell in love with
her, and gained her assent and that of her father to their union. This
he could do only by concealing from them the more advantageous offer of
a royal alliance. With equal duplicity he kept from the King not only
the knowledge of his bride’s surpassing beauty, but the bride herself,
being assured that her appearance at court would be fatal. However, in
no long time the truth leaked out, and Edgar set out for Dartmoor,
ostensibly to hunt. Ethelwold, in desperation, now made full confession
to his wife, whom he charged to disguise her charms, but the vain and
ambitious woman, angered at his deceit, displayed them the more, and the
King, resolved on Ethelwold’s death, actually slew him at Wilverley or
Warlwood in the Forest.
After the departure of the Romans and before the final absorption of
Devon by the Saxons, there are signs that the Kelts of South-West
Britain were in intimate touch with their brethren on the other side of
St. George’s Channel. At any rate, the Ogham inscriptions found in the
neighbourhood of Tavistock testify to the missionary enterprise of the
Island of Saints during the latter part of the fifth and the beginning
of the sixth centuries after Christ. For most purposes, the centre of
county life has from the first been Exeter, but to this rule there was
at one time an important exception, which was not Tavistock, but the
little town of Crediton, situated on a tributary of the Exe. An old
rhyme has it—
Kirton was a market town,
When Exeter was a fuzzy down.
Little can be said for this view on general historic grounds, but from
the standpoint of ecclesiastical Anglo-Saxondom, Crediton had a decided
claim to the preference, for was it not the birthplace of Winfrid (St.
Boniface), and the seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops from the year 909
until 1050, when Leofric, for fear of the Danes, transferred the see to
Exeter? This prelate was installed by Edward the Confessor and Queen
Edith, who, holding him by the hands, invoked God’s blessing on future
benefactors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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