Devonshire Characters and Strange Events

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Baring-Gould Sabine. Devonshire Characters and Strange Events

PREFACE

HUGH STAFFORD AND THE ROYAL WILDING

THE ALPHINGTON PONIES

MARIA FOOTE

CARABOO

JOHN ARSCOTT, OF TETCOTT

WIFE-SALES

WHITE WITCHES

MANLY PEEKE

EULALIA PAGE

JAMES WYATT

THE REV. W. DAVY

THE GREY WOMAN

ROBERT LYDE AND THE “FRIEND’S ADVENTURE”

JOSEPH PITTS

THE DEMON OF SPREYTON

TOM AUSTIN

FRANCES FLOOD

SIR WILLIAM HANKFORD

SIR JOHN FITZ

LADY HOWARD

THE BIDLAKES, OF BIDLAKE

THE PIRATES OF LUNDY

TOM D’URFEY

THE BIRD OF THE OXENHAMS

“LUSTY” STUCLEY

THE BIDEFORD WITCHES

SIR “JUDAS” STUKELEY

THE SAMPFORD GHOST

PHILIPPA CARY AND ANNE EVANS

JACK RATTENBURY

JOHN BARNES, TAVERNER AND HIGHWAYMAN

EDWARD CAPERN

GEORGE MEDYETT GOODRIDGE

JOHN DAVY

RICHARD PARKER, THE MUTINEER

BENJAMIN KENNICOTT, D.D

CAPTAIN JOHN AVERY

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT

THE STOKE RESURRECTIONISTS

“THE BEGGARS’ OPERA” AND GAY’S CHAIR

BAMPFYLDE-MOORE CAREW

WILLIAM GIFFORD

BENJAMIN R. HAYDON

JOHN COOKE

SAVERY AND NEWCOMEN, INVENTORS

ANDREW BRICE, PRINTER

DEVONSHIRE WRESTLERS

TWO HUNTING PARSONS

SAMUEL PROUT

FONTELAUTUS

WILLIAM LANG, OF BRADWORTHY

WILLIAM COOKWORTHY

WILLIAM JACKSON, ORGANIST

JOHN DUNNING, FIRST LORD ASHBURTON

GOVERNOR SHORTLAND AND THE PRINCETOWN MASSACRE

CAPTAIN JOHN PALK

RICHARD WEEKES, GENTLEMAN AT ARMS AND PRISONER IN THE FLEET

STEER NOR’-WEST

GEORGE PEELE

PETER PINDAR

DR. J. W. BUDD

REAR-ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD CHICHESTER, BART

Отрывок из книги

Hugh Stafford, Esq., of Pynes, born 1674, was the last of the Staffords of Pynes. His daughter, Bridget Maria, carried the estate to her husband, Sir Henry Northcote, Bart., from whom is descended the present Earl of Iddesleigh. Hugh Stafford died in 1734. He is noted as an enthusiastic apple-grower and lover of cyder.

He wrote a “Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit” in a letter to a friend in 1727, but this was not published till 1753, and a second edition in 1769. The family of Stafford was originally Stowford, of Stowford, in the parish of Dolton. The name changed to Stoford and then to Stafford. One branch married into the family of Wollocombe, of Wollocombe. But the name of Stowford or Stafford was not the most ancient designation of the family, which was Kelloway, and bore as its arms four pears. The last Stafford turned from pears to apples, to which he devoted his attention and became a connoisseur not in apples only, but in the qualities of cyder as already intimated.

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Messrs. Veitch, the well-known nurserymen at Exeter and growers of the finest sorts of apples, inform me that they have not heard of it for many years. Mr. H. Whiteway, who produces some of the best cyder in North Devon, writes to me: “With regard to the Royal Wilding mentioned in Mr. Hugh Stafford’s book, I have made diligent inquiry in and about the neighbourhood in which it was grown at the time stated, but up to now have been unable to find any trace of it, and this also applies to the White-Sour. I am, however, not without hope of discovering some day a solitary remnant of the variety.”

This loss is due to the utter neglect of the orchards in consequence of the passing and maintenance of Lord Bute’s mischievous Bill. This Bill was the more deplorable in its results because in and about 1750 cyder had replaced the lighter clarets in the affections of all classes, and was esteemed as good a drink as the finest Rhenish, and much more wholesome. Rudolphus Austen, who introduced it at the tables of the dons of Oxford, undertook to “raise cyder that shall compare and excel the wine of many provinces nearer the sun, where they abound with fruitful vineyards.” And he further asserted: “A seasonable and moderate use of good cyder is the surest remedy and preservative against the diseases which do frequently afflict the sedentary life of them that are seriously studious.” He died in 1666.

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