William of Orange when he disembarked at Brixham. Rawlin's
heir was a boy--beautiful, as a picture of him in the guise of a little
Cavalier shows--who died a minor in the year 1699, but who, during his
brief life, as a contemporary chronicler mentions, had distinguished
himself by an accomplishment extremely rare among the young country
gentlemen of his own day--indeed, we may add of our own--that is to day,
a precocious knowledge of Hebrew.

The young scholar was succeeded by a third Rawlin, his cousin, a
personage of a very different type, who, in concert with his next-door
neighbor, Mr. Cary of Torre Abbey, added to the pursuits of a Squire
Western the enterprise of a smuggler in a big way of business. He was,
moreover, a patron of the turf, having a large stud farm on Dartmoor,
with results which would have been disastrous for himself if the wounds
inflicted by the world had not been healed through his connection with
the Established Church. He was fortunately the patron of no less than
sixteen livings, or cures of souls, by the gradual sale of most of which
he managed to meet, as a Christian should do, the claims of his lay
creditors. Of the bottles of port with which he stocked the Cockington
cellars two, bearing the date of 1745, still remain--or till lately
remained--unopened. Through the successor of this typical Georgian the
property passed to my grandfather, of whom my father was a younger son.

Like many other younger sons, my father, to use a pious phrase, suffered
himself to be "put into the Church," where two of the livings still
owned by his family awaited him. These, to his temporal advantage, he
presently exchanged for another. His health, however, since I can
remember him, never permitted him to exert himself in the performance of
divine service. Indeed, his ecclesiastical interests were architectural
rather than pastoral. He accordingly, after a brief acquaintance with
his new parishioners, committed them to the spiritual care of a
stalwart and well-born curate, and bought a picturesque retreat about
ten or twelve miles away, embowered in ivy, and overlooking the river
Exe, where he spent his time in enlarging the house and gardens, and in
planting slopes and terraces, about a quarter of a mile in length, with
what were then very rare trees. He was subsequently given for life the
use of another house, Denbury Manor, of which I shall speak presently,
which I myself much preferred, and with which my ow