101 KINGSBRIDGE 



in the parish of Rattery, held there a knight's fee in the 

 time of Henry IV. and were residing there in 1630* 



The family were never ennobled, but they have always 

 borne ' the grand old name of Gentleman/ and we can add, 

 from experience, that the Luscombe of the present fully 

 sustains Westcote's character of the Devon gentry, ' they are 

 civil, affable, kind, and courteous to strangers.' Combe 

 Royal undoubtedly was so named because part of the King's 

 demesne, but it also merits the distinguishing epithet, as 

 one of the kings of the wooded valleys of the country. 



The entrance lodge is at one extremity of the valley, 

 the house is at the other end; and the approach is by a 

 road winding along the valley between the well-planted 

 hills which border each side. Its situation is peculiarly 

 adapted to the growth of exotic plants, as it is two hundred 

 and eighty feet above the sea level, and screened by hills from 

 the prevailing south-west winds, and also from the north 

 and east. 



The successful culture of the trees of the Citrus family 

 is a peculiarity of Combe Royal, as it is believed that the 

 luxuriance and fruitfulness of the trees cannot be equalled 

 in England, when it is remembered that no protection is 

 afforded them beyond the walls on which they are trained, 

 and the frames of wood or reed with which they are 

 covered by night, and partially by day, when needful, in 

 the winter. One Seville Orange tree, from which vast 

 quantities of fruit are annually gathered, is traditionally 

 known to be 250 years old, from the fact that the grand- 

 mother of the present proprietor was told when a child by 



* " It is believed that the Combe Royal family branched from the parent 

 stock more than three centuries ago, and after residing at Scobbahul and 

 Wood, settled in their present home." — J. L. 



