nd the stars twinkl'd exceedingly; besides the
Ground was very wet after so much Rain and ill Weather; the Souldiers
were to stand to their arms the whole Night, at least to be in readiness
if anything should happen, or the enemy make an Assault, and therefore
sundry Souldiers were to fetch some old Hedges and cut down green Wood
to burn these with, to make some Fire.'

Mr Windeatt, writing in 1880, gives an astonishing instance of how few
links a chain may sometimes need in order to stretch from century to
century. He says a gentleman gave him the following account: 'There are
few now left who can say, as I can, that they have heard their father
and their wife's father talking together of the men who saw the landing
of William III at Torbay. I have heard Captain Clements say he as a boy
heard as many as seven or eight old men each giving the particulars of
what he saw then. One saw a shipload of horses hauled up to the quay,
and the horses walked out all harnessed, and the quickness with which
each man knew his horse and mounted it surprised them. Another old man
said: "I helped to get on shore the horses that were thrown overboard,
and swam on shore guided by only a single rope running from the ship to
the shore"; and another would describe the rigging and build of the
ships, but all appeared to welcome them as friends.

'My father remembered only one--"Gaffer Will Webber," of Staverton, who
served his apprenticeship with one of his ancestors, and who lived to a
great age--say that he went from Staverton as a boy with his father, who
took a cartload of apples from Staverton to the highroad from Brixham to
Exeter, that the soldiers might help themselves to them, and to wish
them "Godspeed."'

The gentlemen of the county were more tardy in their welcome, and
perhaps this is not very surprising, when one considers that they can
scarcely have recovered from the terrible vengeance that seared all who
had followed Monmouth only three years before.

Sir Edward Seymour, formerly Speaker of the House of Commons, was one of
the first and, says Macaulay, the most important of the great landowners
who joined the Prince at Exeter. He was 'in birth, in political
influence, and in parliamentary abilities ... beyond comparison the
foremost among the Tory gentlemen of England.'

Sir Edward evidently rode in great state, for the Duke of Somerset, his
descendant, still has a very imposing red velvet saddle, elaborately
embroidered