209 

 ANTIQUITIES OF THE TOWN OF OKEHAMPTON. 



Continued and concluded from page 184. 



This church was much injured by the fanatics of the parliamenta- 

 ry army in the reign of Charles I. Sir W. Pole, in his collections 

 towards a description of Devon, informs us, that Cromwell quar- 

 tered two troops of horse in it ; and that a fair organ and several 

 monuments were broken by them. Their organ seems to have 

 been much cared for by the good burgesses of Okehampton; 

 Ricliard Hanagro, one of whose ancestors held the great tythes, 

 by will, dated July, 1623, left forty shillings for its repair. Every 

 species of havoc and profanation was committed in our religious 

 edifices by the mad enthusiasts of that period. The cathedrals 

 were especially objects of their fury : at Litchfield, says Dugdale 

 in his *' Short View of the late troubles," " courts of guard were 

 kept in the iles ; they broke up the pavement, and every day hunted 

 a cat with hounds throughout the church, delighting themselves 

 with the echo from its goodly vaulted roof." It is remarkable 

 that Lord Brook, who commanded the parliamentary forces, re- 

 ceived his death wound not long after from a church ; he was 

 shot through the vizor of his helmet with a musket ball. 



Of the chapel once standing in the hamlet of Keckbear, and on 

 the decay or demolition of which that part known as the sheaf 

 aisle was probably added to Okehampton Church, no satisfactory 

 information has reached me. 



I may not dismiss the topic without noticing the elegant re- 

 mains of what once constituted the Castle chapel. This seems 

 to have been one of the Lord Courtenay*s improvements above 

 noticed ; at least my inference is drawn thus. Richard Fitz 

 Baldwin, who died 25. June, 1137, was Jirst buried at Brightley, 

 his remains being subsequently removed to Ford Abbey. Is it 

 fair to suppose that these interments had not taken place were 

 there consecrated ground at the time within the castle walls ? 



If any one among my auditory has never seen, or having seen 

 hath never felt what the chastened beauty, the solemn retirement 

 of this lovely ruin should inspire — words of mine must utterly fail 

 to suggest them. From all that time has spared here, the remains 

 of two elegantly arched windows, with a small, but fair propor- 

 tioned niche in the massive outer wall of the castle itself (it forms 

 the south wall of the chapel) we may judge what it sliewed when 

 in its undecayed splendour. 



VOL. IV. — 1834. CO 



