The Days of a Man 1913 



the tattered old stamped curtains, which the dim firelight made 

 appear like limbs of monsters reaching out from the walls. . . . 

 The chief use which the old mansion seems to have been put to 

 was as a refuge for visitors when outlaw bands attacked the 

 towns. These outlaws hide in the moors and live upon the 

 neighbors' goods, which they steal or receive as presents from the 

 smaller manors and farmers who paid to be spared being robbed. 

 . . . The Widecombe youths were good bowmen, and the 

 last time it was tried several outlaws were wounded and one was 

 slain. . . . The Great Church tower . . . formed a refuge from 

 which bowmen can command the head of the drawbridge and 

 banks of the moat on that side. 



According to traditions gathered by Mrs. McCon- 

 ne ^ * an< ^ others, the earlier name of Jordan hamlet 

 was Deandon, and in the reign of King John it be- 

 longed to a doughty knight, Sir William de Deandon, 

 first lord of Deandon Manor, a Crusader of great 

 physical strength. Crossing the river Jordan in ad- 

 vance of his troop, he was attacked and felled by 

 the Arabs; but, rising, he fought valiantly and 

 finally put his enemies to flight. For that display of 

 courage he became Sir William de "Jordan" the 

 name of his holding, "one of the six old manors of 

 Dartmoor mentioned in 1086 in the Doomsday 

 Book," being accordingly changed. From the Pal- 

 though you do not remember your grandmother, yet your dear mother is better 

 able to describe to you the gentle disposition, sterling womanly qualities, and 

 simple faith of one at whose knees she herself learned to pray, and from whose 

 example, to order a household. . . . That was indeed a memorable year, to 

 me on account of my marriage. . . 



"It was memorable to the nation, on account of the dire sickness of King 

 Henry VIII. Prayers were said for his recovery, and Christmas was ordered to be 

 a silent one by the authority at Court; no bells to be rung, no carols sung, or usual 

 merry-making indulged in. That Christmas, England sat still awaiting God's will. 



" But to me, with my young wife, settled in our newly-furnished house, with 

 kind friends around us, what did we care that the bells were silent, or merry- 

 making forbidden, so long as we could quietly make plans for our future life, 

 hoping and striving to render the days before us better and more useful than 

 those of ye good old times." 



1 See Chapter xxxni, page 217. 



