130 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



above spoken of between Ottery and the Continent claims a 

 moment's consideration. It is expressed by the royal arms of 

 France and England emblazoned on stone scutcheons over the 

 church's altar, and right nobly supported by the armorial bear- 

 ings of the Grandissons, Montacutes, and Courtenays. There 

 the lions of England, borne by Edward III., who assumed the 

 title of King of France about 1337, hold a proud position next 

 the golden lilies of France, the bearings of Isabel, daughter of 

 Philip IV., in whose right her son, Edward III., made claim to 

 that kingdom. The Manor of Ottery was granted by Edward 

 the Confessor in 1061 to the Cathedral Church of Rouen, in 

 Normandy. In Domesday Book it is described as being held 

 of the King by the Church of St. Mary at Rouen, and is valued 

 at a rental of sixty-six marks. John de Grandisson, Bishop of 

 Exeter in the time of Edward III., had long desired to found a 

 college of monks, and, having settled on Ottery as a most con- 

 venient site, after some negotiations bought the manor and ad- 

 vowson, and proceeded to the carrying out of his devout pur- 

 poses. The purchase was concluded in June, 1335. For this 

 corporation, which he prescribed should consist of a warden 

 and thirty-nine members, he drew up most minute statutes. 

 With an eye to domestic thrift, he lays down when and where 

 the wax for the candles may be bought at most advantage. 

 The very strokes of the bells are numbered ; and he says, with 

 some humour, "inhibemus ne nimis prolixe pulsentur, nee 

 iterum post officia vel in aurora, sicut solet Exonie ; quia nihil 

 prodest animabus 'sessonans aut cymbalum tinniens/ et tamen 

 multum nocet auribus et fabrice ac campanis."* A similar 

 instance of the good Bishop's dry humour comes out in the in- 

 junction that all the college should be indoors after the last 

 stroke of the " ignitegium," or curfew (this bell, we may add, 

 is still rung at Ottery during the winter half of the year) ; " et 

 propter pericula incendii et ignis que frequenter contingunt, pre- 

 * Statuta No. 76, ap. Oliver's Monasticon Dioc. Exon., p. 270. 



