JOHN PRINCE. 365 
flashes of humour, as when he says of Browne, the Tavistock poet, 
‘“‘he got wealth, and purchased an estate (which in a poet is near 
as rare a sight as to see a black swan) ;” and again when he refers 
to one of his heroes as ‘‘once innodated with the bonds of matri- 
mony,’ and another as ‘‘twice involved in a state of matrimony.” 
The work grew and grew, and what with digressions and 
genealogies, in which he evidently delighted, but was not always, 
I fear, quite correct, as he nears the end he is compelled to omit 
sketches he had prepared, because the volume was already swollen 
above the subscription price. Among those omitted was a memoir 
of Nicholas Monk, younger brother of George Duke of Albemarle, 
and who was created by King Charles II. Bishop of Hereford. 
Though his book was not illustrated with pictures, I must refer to 
a few of the beautiful little sketches he gives of scenes in Devon 
with which his heroes were connected, in addition to those already 
noticed. Quaint is the reference to Torbay and the village of 
Tormohun. ‘‘ This is a small village lying in the eastmost part of 
Torbay; a bay, says Camden, of about twelve miles in compass. 
But of late years it is become much more famous than ever before, 
especially for that it yielded a landing-place in the most westerly 
creek thereof named Brixham Kay unto the Prince of Orange, our 
now gracious sovereign K. Wm. 3rd, on the 5th Novem., 1688. 
As also for being the station for several summers together of the 
Royal Navy and the Dutch fleet in confederacy with us in our late 
war with France.” 
Sharpham House, on the Dart, the birthplace of Edward Drew, 
Serjeant-at-Law and Recorder of London, he describes as ‘“‘a 
pleasant seat, in the parish of Ashprington, about a mile and a half 
below the town of Totnes, in this county” (Prince’s miles, I must 
observe, were long, it being nearer three miles, and I find this so in 
several cases). ‘‘ It stands upon an ascent just over the river Dart, 
upon the west side thereof in its way to Dartmouth, where it 
disembogues itself into the ocean, about five miles from there to 
the south. It hath also a fine prospect of the river up to the town 
of Totnes, by which it is well near semi-insulated, whose daily 
flux and reflux affordeth in the season the choicest fish and fowl 
of various kinds both for recreation and hospitality, of which there 
was no want in the last possessor’s time, Henry Blackaller, Esq., a. 
J.P. of this county, an honest and friendly gentleman who lately 
inhabited there.” 
