out that, whereas in most paintings of the Three Kings each has a
crown, that of the foremost usually laid on the ground, in this group
King Henry alone is crowned; the Cardinal has none; and the Prince, who
is represented as very young, is wearing a boy's cap. Mr Mozley has
searched carefully for a reason that would account for the group in this
little church, and has found what seems to be a perfectly sufficient
connecting link. Lord Hastings, who married the heiress of Lord
Hungerford, and incidentally acquired the Manor of Plymtree, was the
warm friend and political ally of Cardinal Morton. The son and successor
of Lord Hastings was a close personal friend of Henry VI, and in
consequence a colleague of the Cardinal, the King's chief counsellor.
There is no date on the screen, but from various deductions it is
believed to have been painted about the end of the fifteenth century, or
a little later, and either during the lifetime or just after the death
of the three subjects of the group, and of Lord Hastings.

Bradninch lies a short distance to the west of Plymtree, and this church
contains a very fine screen and an old and remarkable painting of the
Crucifixion. It was originally placed in an aisle that was built in the
reign of Henry VII by the Fraternity of St John, or the Guild of
Cordwainers.

The Culm runs past Bradninch, at a little distance to the east, and a
few miles farther on the river passes under the dark hills of Killerton
Park, a heavily wooded and irregular ridge, rising at either extremity
and ending in a decided slope down to the flat space just around. The
house is not an old one, although the Aclands have been here since the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Sir John Acland moved from the estate at
Landkey, near Barnstaple, where they were already settled in the reign
of Henry II. He built a house at Culm John (quite close to Killerton)
that was garrisoned for the King during the Civil War, and held out when
almost every other place in Devonshire had surrendered. But it has since
been pulled down.

There are many stories of different members of this family, but perhaps
the most romance lies in that of Lady Harriot Acland, who, with serene
courage, followed her husband through the horrors and hardships of a
campaign.

In 1776 Major Acland was with the army that had been sent to crush the
American struggle for Independence, and his wife had accompanied him.
The following extract is taken from a sta