BUCKLAND ABBEY. 181 



to assist in the choir every day, during divine service, 

 and to teach four boys of the convent, any one of whom 

 he may choose to wait upon him as his servant. He 

 farther engages to instruct the boys, and those monks 

 who may wish to learn, in the art of Music and playing 

 the organ. N. B. This indenture was admitted and 

 allowed by the Augmentation Court, 18th December, 

 1540. 



The Abbey of Buckland is said to have planted the 

 earliest orchards in the county. 



After the dissolution of this monastery, the scite was 

 first granted" 33. Henry VIII." to Richard Greynfeld, 

 and four years after, it was conveyed to Richard Crymes 

 of London. In the time of Queen Elizabeth, it was 

 purchased by Sir Francis Drake, in the possessisn of 

 a descendant of whose family it still continues. 



The sword and shield of Sir Francis Drake are sus- 

 pended in the hall of the Abbey. In the deer-park is 

 preserved the stunted yet venerable form of an aged tree, 

 called " Drake's Oak " to the arms of which, accord- 

 ing to tradition, the valiant sea Captain fled for pro- 

 tection from the daring onset of a stag; whose antlers 

 struck more dread than he felt when he encountered 

 the grand Armada, or even when he braved the perils 

 of the ocean in circumnavigating the globe. It is re- 

 lated that when he returned after having sunk several 

 ships of the Spanish flotilla, in 1588, he jocosely said, 

 " We have only singed the beard of the King of Spain. " 



The Abbey is embowered with fruit trees and groves, 

 like that of Vallombrosa, amid a forest of the Apennines. 

 It is the painter's province to delineate the coy pictur- 

 esque beauties of the Tavy, as from its union with the 

 Walkham above the abbot's weir, it winds below Den- 

 ham Bridge, by the Abbey borders in swift descent, 

 towards the vale of Maristow, and the woods of War- 

 leigh ; where its channel gradually spreads into an open 

 bay, before its confluence with the Tamar. 



