estored. Of the religious houses in the Diocese of Exeter this
monastery was the most important, and it eclipsed them all by 'the
extent, convenience, and magnificence of its buildings.' Orgar, Earl of
Devon, founded it in 961, and Ordulph, his son, completed it on such a
grand scale, that there was room for one thousand inhabitants.

The abbey had only stood for about thirty years, when a frightful blow
fell: the Danes burst upon the country, harrying it with fire and sword.
They landed in Cornwall, and here Egbert hastened with his army and
defeated them at Hingston Down; but a great horde broke away, and
crossing the border descended on Tavistock, where the inhabitants in a
body rose to meet them and a terrible battle was fought. Its deadly
nature is summed up with great directness in an old jingle:

'The blood which flowed down West Street
Would heave a stone a pound weight.'

The abbey was robbed and then burned to the ground. No time, however,
can have been lost in rebuilding it, for about thirty years later
Livingus, the Abbot, was made Bishop of Devonshire, and was specially
chosen by King Canute to accompany him on his pilgrimage to Rome.

Tavistock was a Benedictine monastery, over which forty abbots ruled in
succession. Some of the later ones were noted for their lack of
discipline--even to the point of allowing the monks 'to affect the
fashionable costume of the times, adopting the secular buttoned hoods
and beaked boots'; but the earlier abbots were both pious and learned,
and one of the earliest printing-presses set up in England was owned by
the abbey. The first statutes of the stannaries that ever were printed
were printed here: a 'Confirmation of the Charter perteynynge to all the
tynners wythyn the co[=u]ty of Devonshyre wyth their Statutes also made
at Crockeryntorre by the whole ass[=e]t and c[=o]set of al the sayd
tynners'--of the date 1510. In very early days the abbots were 'lessees
of the Devonshire stannaries ... and controllers of the issues of royal
mines in Devon and part of Cornwall,' says Dr. Oliver.

At the Dissolution the King presented the abbey and most of its estates
to the Earl of Bedford. The first trace of this great family in
Devonshire that I have been able to find is a lawsuit in regard to
certain lands, between John Russell and Rohesia his wife and Henry de
Pomeroy, which took place in the reign of King John. But there was a
much closer connection with the county in