est king in Christendom.' His audacity reached the
point of bandying words with the Queen, who seems, from the polite irony
of her tone, to have been amused by his vanity.

'I hope,' said the Queen, 'I shall hear from you when you are stated in
your Principality?' 'I will write unto you,' quoth Stuckley. 'In what
language?' said the Queen. He returned, 'In the stile of Princes, To our
dear Sister.'

And on this Stukely departed, but not to Florida, for he met with
reverses which dashed his plans, but not his spirits. Westcote quotes 'a
ditty made by him, or of him,' apparently at this time:

'Have over the waters to Florida.
Farewell good London now;
Through long delays on land and seas,
I'm brought, I cannot tell how.

'In Plymouth town, in a thread-bare gown.
And money never a deal:
Hay! trixi trim! go trixi trim!
And will not a wallet do well?'

Unfortunately, his career was a great failure. From sunning himself at
the Court of Elizabeth, he turned to paths of disloyalty, and became the
'Pope's pensioner.' The Pope created him Marquis of Leinster, and added
several minor titles, and then this 'Title-top heavy General' attempted
in vain to carry treasonable help to the Irish rebels. Yet he had 'the
fortune to die honourably.' Arrived in Lisbon at the moment when the
King of Portugal was starting in a campaign to Barbary, Stukely was
persuaded to join his army, and fell, fighting gallantly, at the Battle
of Alcasar, 1578.

'A Fatal Fight, where in one day was slain
Three Kings that were and one that would be fain.'

About five miles to the north, at King's Nympton, the Pollards were
settled for some generations, and many of them 'lived to be as proper
gentlemen as most in this or any other county.' Sir Hugh Pollard fought
in the Civil War, and as Governor of Dartmouth Castle made a brave and
resolute though unsuccessful defence. After the Restoration, Charles II
appointed him Comptroller of the Household. It was said of Sir Hugh
'that he was very active and venturous for his Majesty in the worst of
Times, and very hospitable and noble with him in the best.'

Five miles north of Bishop's Nympton is the old town of South Molton,
and the manor was part of the demesne of Edward the Confessor. In the
reign of Edward I, Lord Martin held it 'by sergeantry to find a man with
a bow and three arrows to attend the Earl of Gloucester when he goeth to
Gower [in Wales] to hunt.'