The South Devon CoastHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The South Devon Coast
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
Devon (England) -- Description and travel
The States at once gave orders for the replenishing of all stores, the
princess, for her part, ordered prayers four times daily, and at last,
on the evening of November 1st, the fleet again put forth, with an east
wind. The original idea was to have landed in the mouth of the Humber,
and it must have seemed, to many of the Englishmen who accompanied the
expedition, an ill-omen that they were carried down channel into that
identical West Country which had proved so fatal to Monmouth.
The English fleet was assembled, watchful, at the mouth of the Thames,
but unable, in the teeth of the east wind, to emerge; and saw, with
helplessness, the great concourse of ships go, full sail, down channel.
Despite the fears of those who looked upon the west as ominous of ill,
the elements were thus working for the success of William, who thus,
unchallenged, arrived off the coast of Devon. Arrived there, the more
timorous began to fear being carried too far west to Plymouth, or beyond,
from which the intended march to the capital, along the heavy roads of
autumn, would be a toilsome and hazardous undertaking.
But all things made for success, and, arrived in Torbay on the night
of November 4th, the easterly wind ceased and changed to soft breezes
from the south. The next morning the landing began, in this harbour of
Brixham. It was November 5th, the auspicious anniversary of the famous
failure of the Popish “Gunpowder Treason and Plot,” and the bells of
Brixham rang out joyously, to celebrate History made, and History in the
making.
[Illustration: OBELISK MARKING THE SPOT WHERE WILLIAM OF ORANGE LANDED.]
Brixham Quay was then just a quay, and little else. The crowded houses of
this later age were represented only by a few scattered fish-cellars and
sheds, and in place of the stone piers and artificial harbour we now see
was merely a pool formed by nature, unassisted by art.
Many legends of this landing survive at Brixham. One tells how the
prince, standing in the boat that brought him towards the shore,
exclaimed in the best English he could command, to the people who
crowded the quay, “Mine goot beoble, I mean you goot, I am come here for
your goot—for all your goots”; but I think that is suspiciously like
one of the famous Ben Trovato’s stories, and it certainly has been told
of other aliens coming to these shores. The legends then go on to tell
how the prince asked if he were welcome, and being assured of the fact
replied that, if he were really welcome, they should come and fetch him;
which means no more than that there were then no stairs to the water, and
that, if a fine gentleman wished to land dry and clean, he must needs be
carried ashore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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