"
[Illustration: THE STILL TOWER, TAVISTOCK ABBEY]
The old abbey had done good service in its time, as it had given
Tavistock the claim of being the second town in England where a printing
press was erected, for in 1524 one had been put up in the abbey, and a
monk named Rychard had printed a translation of Boethius' _De
Consolatione Philosophiae_, and a Saxon Grammar was also said to have
been printed there. The neighbourhood of Tavistock was not without
legends, which linger long on the confines of Dartmoor, and, like
slander, seemed to have expanded as time went on:
The flying rumours gathered as they rolled,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told,
And all who told it added something new,
And all who heard it made enlargement too!
On every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew.
Fitzford was the name of one of the river suburbs of Tavistock, and was
once upon a time the residence of the Fitze family. According to some
ancient histories of Devon, one of which had the significant title of
_The Bloudie Book_, Sir John Fitze was noted as a turbulent, dangerous
man, ever ready with his sword on all occasions. Meeting with many of
his neighbours at a noontide dinner at Tavistock, he was vaunting his
free tenure and boasting that he did not hold a foot of land from any
but the "Queene of England," when his neighbour, "Maister Slanning,"
reminded him of a small piece of land he had of his for which he was
liable for rent, but for which no payment had been asked by reason of
"courtesie and friendshippe.
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