“In Martin’s Comb long lay I hiyd, Obscur’d, deprest w^{th} grossest soyle, Debaséd much w^{th} mixéd lead, Till Bulmer came, whoes skill and toyle Refinéd me so pure and cleen, As rycher no wheer els is seene. “And adding yet a farder grace, By fashion he did inable Me worthy for to take a place To serve at any Prince’s table; Comb Martyn gave the Oare alone, Bulmer fyning and fashion.” The mines were greatly troubled with the inrush of water; difficulties referred to in the verses inscribed upon a cup presented, like the other, in 1593, to Sir Richard Martin, Master of the Mint, and Lord Mayor of London. This weighed 137 ounces: “When water workes in broaken wharfe At first erected were, And Beavis Bulmer w^{th} his Art The waters ’gan to reare, Dispercéd I in earth did lye Since all beginnings old, In place cal’d Comb, wher Martin longe Had hydd me in his molde, I did no service on the earth, Nor no man set me free, Till Bulmer by his skill and charge Did frame me this to be.” Floods again drowned the works, and although a report was presented to Parliament in 1659, and other timid attempts made, nothing was accomplished until 1796. Operations were continued for six years, and over nine thousand tons of ore sent to South Wales, for smelting. In 1813, and on to 1817, more ore was mined, but the cost exceeding the value of the silver obtained, the enterprise was again discontinued. In 1833 a company was formed, with a capital of £30,000, and the works were once more reopened. About half this sum was spent in sinking new shafts, and in machinery, but some very good lodes were discovered, and three dividends were paid out of profits. But eventually the shares were rigged up to a high premium on the Stock Exchange, and those who were well informed of the likelihood that the lode would not prove a lasting one got out at a profit, while credulous purchasers were left to witness the prosperity of the undertaking speedily melt away. By 1850, the last chapter of silver-mining at Combemartin was ended. The miners’ rubbish-heaps still remain, and even at the present day the urchins paddling in the bay at low-water occasionally discover fragments of ore. Hemp-growing and the manufacture of shoe-makers’ thread were also industries carried on very extensively in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but Combemartin has long been looked down upon as an abjectly poor place, and only its great church and the surrounding scenery save it from being passed by in contempt by the writers of guide-books. Combemartin church tower, indeed, finds mention in a North Devon folk-rhyme, in which it is placed, for due admiration, with those of Berrynarbor and Hartland: “Hartland for length, Berrynarbor for strength, And Combemartin for beauty.” [Illustration: COMBEMARTIN CHURCH.]