The George Inn at Axminster, standing in a plot formed by George Street, Victoria Place and Lyme Street, is a noble old place with a spacious courtyard. The barn above the archway at the back of the inn is very picturesque, with mouldering red and purplish tiles and hand-wrought iron cleats. Three miles south of Axminster we come to Musbury--it was to see a thatcher at this village that I was tempted to make a short expedition into Devon. The ancient Church of St Michael has been largely rebuilt. It contains many interesting old monuments, chiefly to members of the family of the Drakes, of Ashe. Musbury Castle is a British or Roman camp. Ashe House, the former seat of the Drake family, is now a farm-house. The New Inn is an odd little place, with a grey and shining stone floor, and windows set deep in thick walls. [Illustration: DRAKE MEMORIAL AT MUSBURY] Colyton is five miles south-west of Axminster in the picturesque valley of the River Coly, and three miles from the sea. The Parish Church of St Andrew contains much of great interest. The porch of the old vicarage house should be seen, with the inscription PEDITATIO TOTUM; MEDITATIO TOTUM, A.D. 1524, over the window. There is an ancient market-house here. The "Great House" is another old and interesting building. It was once the home of the Yonge family, and was built in the seventeenth century by John Yonge, a merchant adventurer who settled at Colyton, but it has been partly rebuilt, although the portion of the house which remains suggests something of the old building and contains some interesting carving. The Duke of Monmouth stayed here in 1680. There are interesting effigies of the Pole family in their chapel in the Church of St Andrew, which is fenced off with a stone screen erected by the vicar of Colyton, 1524-1544. The vicar was also Canon of Exeter, and his rebus figures prominently on the screen. The great tomb of Sir John Pole, buried in 1658, and Elizabeth his wife displays elaborate effigies, while the altar-tomb is that of William Pole, buried in 1587. Near by is a mural monument to his wife, Katherine, and another to Mary, wife of Sir William, the historian, and daughter of Sir W. Periham of Fulford. Both these ladies have their children kneeling round them. The author of the well-known _Description of Devon_ is buried in the aisle, but there is no monument. When I was staying with the headmaster of Colyton Grammar School (an ancient building bearing the date 1612) some twenty years ago there were representatives of the knightly family of Poles among his pupils. In the north aisle is the mausoleum of the Yonge family. Another interesting monument is an elaborate altar-tomb in the chancel with a recumbent female figure popularly known as "Little Choke-Bone," referring to Margaret Courtenay, daughter of William Earl of Devon, and Katherine, his wife, sixth daughter of Edward IV. She is said to have been choked by a fish-bone at Colcombe Castle in 1512.