supported by three massive stone ribs.'

The barony of Okehampton was one of many grants made by the Conqueror to
Baldwin de Brionis, and some generations later it passed by marriage to
the Courtenays, in which family it remained until the Marquis of Exeter
was attainted and beheaded in 1538. The Castle was among the possessions
that Queen Mary restored to the Earl of Devon, and on his death in 1556
his lands were divided amongst his heirs. Okehampton Castle fell to the
share of the Mohuns, and in 1628 John Mohun was granted a peerage and
took the title of Lord Mohun of Okehampton. The last Lord Mohun died in
1712.

To the barony of Okehampton belonged Floyer's Hayes, in the parish of St
Thomas the Apostle, near Exeter, and it was held on this curious tenure:
'That if the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, came at any time into Exe Isle,
they [the Floyers] were to attend them, decently apparelled with a clean
towel on their shoulders, a flagon of wine in one hand and a silver bowl
in the other, and offer to serve them with drink.'

About thirteen miles south-west of Okehampton, Sydenham stands in a
beautiful valley, overshadowed by woods, in which the shining green of
the laurels, the darker masses of the rhododendrons' tapering leaves,
patches of russet bracken, and feathery light green moss make a feast of
colour, even when overhead there is only the bare tracery of twigs and
branches. The coverts lie on a hill-side that is steep and fairly high,
and at the foot is a rushing stream which is crossed by a bridge exactly
opposite the front of the house.

The following notes have been most kindly sent me by Mrs. Tremayne:

'The Manor of Sidelham, or Sidraham, now called Sydenham, appears to
have been originally held by four Saxon Thanes, whose names have not
been preserved, and to have passed from them into the hands of that
powerful noble, Judhaell de Totnais. On his banishment by William Rufus,
his property was confiscated, and Sydenham gave its name to a family who
still possessed it in the reign of Henry III, and was succeeded by a
family called Mauris, from whom it passed in marriage to Trevage, and
from Trevage to Wise. Part of the house dates from the fourteenth
century, and is said to have originally formed a quadrangle or H, but in
the reign of Elizabeth it was built into the shape of an E, and is a
very perfect example of Tudor domestic architecture.

'Sir Edward Wise, in the reign of James I, very much beautifie