ANCIENT CASTLES OF DEVON. 141 



Many of these monuments of ancient magnificence 

 having withstood in part the inclemencies of time 

 and weather, have been demohshed for the sake of 

 the materials : thus the country has been deprived of 

 those remains, which, in the eyes of foreigners, are 

 essential to the dignity of a nation ; and which, if 

 rightly considered, tend to inspire the beholder with 

 a love of the order and confidence, that now gener- 

 ally obtain, by leading him to compare the present 

 with those times, when such buildings were erected : 

 times, in which this unhappy land was distracted by 

 intestine wars ; when from those strong holds of 

 despotism, rearing their front above crags and pre- 

 cipices, hosts of savage w^arriors saUied forth under 

 the banners of their chieftains, either for slaughter, 

 or rapine, in some adjoining domain ; when the son 

 was armed against the father, and brother slaugh- 

 tered brother ; when the lives, honour, and property 

 of the wretched inhabitants depended on the nod of 

 an arbitrary sovereign, or were subject to the more 

 tyrannical and capricious wills of lawless and foreign 

 barons. 



Let it not be supposed that the ancient chevaliers 

 of the Anglo-Saxon, or of the Norman line were 

 totally insensible to the gentle calls of humanity ; 

 or indisposed to refresh their spirits, wearied with 

 the chase, or wounded by the honors of battle, 

 with the evening lay of the minstrel, chaunted to his 

 harp, whether he sang the charms of the fair, or the 

 praise of the brave. Very recent inquiries have led 

 to the pleasing discovery that there existed an 

 Anglo-Norman literature, chiefly cultivated by the 

 early songsters, or, as they were styled, Trouveres 

 of those times. Learning was held in comparatively 

 high estimation in the courts of Beauclerc, and of 

 Plantagenet. Coeur de lion was himself an enthu- 

 siastic votary of the Muses. During many centu- 

 ries Arthur was the hero of romance. Milton 

 glances at the fame of '' Ucher's son, begirt v^ith 

 British and Armoric knights.'' Arthur was origin- 



