Page:A book of the west; being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall.djvu/342

CHAPTER XV.

TAVISTOCK

Origin of Tavistock—Foundation of the Abbey—S. Rumon—Edgar and Elfrida— Abbot Aylmer—Aldred—The Parish Church—Glanville—The Story of Mrs. Page—John Fitz—The Story of Sir John Fitz—The Story of Lady Howard—Sir Richard Grenville—Early inscribed stones—Statue of Sir Francis Drake— Buckland Abbey—Morwell—Lydford, its castle, ravine, and waterfall—Brent Tor—Endsleigh—Mary and Peter Tavy—Whit Tor.

CERTAIN towns tell you at a glance what was their raison d'être; Tavistock has clustered about its abbey, that lay low near its fish-ponds, whereas Launceston clings about its castle, that stood high to command the country round.

Very possibly the original Saxon stockade was where still some earthworks remain, above the South Western Railway, but the centre of life moved thence on account of the fancy coming into the head of Ordulf, Earl of Devon, to found an abbey by the waterside in the valley beneath him. The legend, as told in a cartulary summarised in Dugdale's Monasticon, is that, in the reign of Edgar, Ordulf was one night praying in the open air, when he saw a pillar of fire brighter than the sun at noon hovering where now anyone, on any day, may see a lowering cloud of smoke. That same night an angel bade