vanity,' because 'they dedicated everything they found
magnificent in any place to the glory of Hercules.'

Four miles south-east of the headland lies Hartland town. It has been
briefly described as 'a very quiet street of grey stone cottages and
whitewashed houses on a high and windy tableland.' Close by is Hartland
Abbey, founded, according to tradition, by Githa, the wife of Earl
Godwin, and mother of Harold II, in honour of St Nectan; for she 'highly
reverenced the man, and verily believed that through his merits her
husband had escaped shipwreck in a dangerous tempest.' In the reign of
Henry II, leave was given to Oliver de Dynant to change the community of
secular canons into regular canons of St. Augustine's order, and to
found a monastery for them. But between the successors of the founder
and the canons matters did not always run smoothly; in fact, on one
occasion, about a hundred years later, they actually came to blows in
the church, as is made clear by an entry in the register of Bishop
Bronescombe, for it records that the bishop had reconciled the church,
'which had been polluted by an effusion of blood in an affray between
Oliver de Dinham and the canons.'

After the Dissolution the Abbey was bestowed by the King upon the
Sergeant of his cellar, a man named Abbott. Parts of the Abbey remained
unaltered and in good repair till the end of the eighteenth century,
when, in building the present house, the unfortunate taste of the period
destroyed the hall, which was over seventy feet long, and a portion of
the cloisters, which were then still perfect. Parts of them, however,
are still standing. The cloisters had been rebuilt at a very early
date, for Dr. Oliver quotes an inscription which was over one of the
arches that shows them to be the work of the Abbot John of Exeter, who
resigned in 1329. Bishop Stapledon had found many defects in the
structure of the Abbey, when he made his visitation in 1319, and had
ordered them to be at once remedied. During the alterations made about
one hundred and twenty years ago, the monument of a Knight Hospitaller
was found, and within the last few years small pieces of carved stone
have been dug up--amongst others, a Madonna's head with traces of blue
and gold still upon it; a monk kneeling, and a knight and lady hand in
hand. The Abbey is now the property of Sir Lewis Stucley.

Nearer the shore, and on high ground, is the church of St Nectan, whose
tall pinnacled tower is