Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/33

Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 15 Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke," and some actually repeat his description verbatim. The paragraphs in Bolingbroke's letter which refer to the subject are : — (i.) "... to this was added a general indi- cation of the place he should come to, as near to Plymouth as possible." (ii.) "... The gentlemen acquainted with the country and perfectly well known to all our friends in those parts were dispatched before that the people of Devonshire and Somersetshire who were we concluded in arms might be apprised of the signals which were to be made from the ships and might be ready to receive the Duke." (iii.) " He embarked . . . and went on to the place appointed : he did more than his part. . . . one of the gentlemen who had passed over before him . . . joined him on the coast and assured him that there was not the least room to expect a rising. In a word he was refused a night's lodging in a country where the Duke had expected that multitudes would repair to him. He returned to the coast of Brittany, refitted his vessel and made a second attempt but a storm cast him back on the French coast." This account by Ormond's fellow Jacobite who was impeached with him is, I believe, the only contemporary account actually known ; but the ^hole letter is described by Professor Ward as untrustworthy. Three points are to be noticed : the writer does not actually say that the Duke landed, he leaves it to be inferred ; he does not mention the actual locality and he says the abortive attempt to sail from St. Malo was after, not before, he actually crossed the channel. In the Hbrary of the Devon and Exeter Institution is preserved a collection of i8th century newspapers which were published in Exeter, and in them I have found several notices which bear on this subject. They all occur in The Protestant Mercury or the Exeter Post Boy, a paper which was first published by Jos. Bliss on Sep. 16, 1715. (i.) Nov. ist, 1715, No. XL: — "Dartmouth, Oct. 23. A large ship putting into Brixham-Key this morning, our Customs House officers went off with their boat to board her, but were denied entrance. Some fishermen just come in report her to be a French vessel full of suspected Persons. A Man of War is just gone in chace of her."