140 



ANTIQUITIES OF THE TOWN OF OKEHAMPTON. 



Continned from page 56. 



Centuries have rolled away since St. George's banner last 

 floated over the turrets of their hold. By an act which Warner, 

 in his " Walk through Devonshire," justly stigmatizes as one " of 

 senseless barbarism," Henry VIII. dismantled and laid the castle 

 of Okehampton in ruins. I may not dwell farther on this topic 

 just now ; but two little anecdotes will place in a striking view 

 the change time has wrought in this castle and its possessors. 



In 1390, an old writer tells us, that a Sir Piers Courtenay 

 held a joust with sharp lances in presence of the royal court in 

 London, his antagonist being a Scotch gentleman who had af- 

 fronted him. It was no great satisfaction to the English knight, 

 who was remarkable for his personal beauty, that the honors of 

 the day were won by him — with the loss of two of his front teeth.* 



There is a curious paper preserved in the British Museum ; a 

 report of stores in the keep of Norbam Castle made in 1522, not 

 long after the battle of Flodden. Among other provisions it enu- 

 merates " three great vats of salt eels, and the like number hogs- 

 heads of salted salmon." I fear such dainties are less abundant 

 in our modern garrisons. 



The civil warfare of the next reign in one instance only that I 

 can discover, approached near Okehampton : — it broke out at 

 Sampford Courtenay on Whitmonday, in the year 1549. Some 

 edicts of Edward Vlth following up the Reformation, begun by 

 his late father, had excited general discontent. In the West they 

 flew to open rebellion. Risdon says " that Hellion, a gentleman, 

 was slain at Sampford, in opposing the insurgents ; — and that he 

 was buried in the church yard. North and Souths 



The Barony of Okehampton was renewed in 1620, in person 

 of Sir John Mohun, who was then created, by Charles I., Lord 

 Mohun of Okehampton ; he having chosen that title from one of 

 his maternal ancestors being an heiress of Courtenay. I should 

 observe that on the demise of Edward Courtenay above mentioned 

 his lands were divided " among distaffs," as Risdon would say : 

 they fell in portions to his four aunts. This lin'^ bocame extinct 

 in Nov. 1715, when Charles, the last Lord Mohun, fell in a duel 



* As the face was the part least protected by the ancient armour, combatants 

 chiefly aimed here : it is on this account (hat they are represented in pictures 

 in a stooping posture. 



