Cissy watched him set about cleaning out the ovens, arranging the tinder and some twigs, then striking a spark to ignite them. ‘You’re a good man, Nob,’ she said contentedly.
‘Aye, an’ you’re a good woman. Come here, lass, give us a kiss.’
She dutifully gave him a peck on the cheek.
‘Nay, come on, make it a real one.’
‘I don’t have time.’
‘Course you do. An’ if you play your cards right, you can have me body as well.’
She clipped him round the ear. ‘Later, maybe.’
‘Ah, might be too late by then. You don’t know what you’re missing!’ he called as she left the shop.
She was a great woman, he reckoned. Sara would get all the support she needed from Cissy, and so would Emma. Poor woman was almost distraught about her husband, but she’d knuckle down soon enough. She had to, with all her kids. And although she had a few bob now, that wouldn’t last for ever. Nob shrugged. Someone else who’d have to come and get free pies. He wouldn’t let anyone’s children suffer.
He wondered about Sara’s claim on Joce. At least he might be able to help there… Even if the wedding wasn’t official, hadn’t been held at the church door, Sara still had a claim. Nob could bear witness to that Joce had no family, did he?
It was a little later, into the forenoon, that a clerk appeared in the doorway.
‘Quick, a beef pie! I am due in the abbot’s court.’
‘Master, I have one almost ready for you,’ said Nob calmly. ‘And I might be able to let you have it for a discount.’
‘Discount?’ The clerk’s eyes sharpened. ‘That sounds expensive.’
‘It could prove a nice little earner for a good master-at-law,’ Nob said dreamily. ‘Helping a wealthy widow. A young, attractive, blonde, wealthy widow.’
The clerk leaned upon the counter. ‘Tell me more…’ he invited.
Glossary
Abbot’s lodging: A separate building in the western wall of Tavistock’s monastic plot.
Acolyte: The term denoting an inferior church officer, usually an assistant or sometimes a novice.
Alms: Donations of food, or money, or clothing to the poor and needy, for example beggars at the abbey’s gates or the lepers living at the maudlin.
Almoner: The monk whose duty it was to distribute alms to the poor.
Calefactory: A room in the convent set aside for relaxation. Here, the monks could sit with a mug of ale and let their aches and pains drift away.
Centenar: In the King’s Host, the officer in charge of a hundred men.
Coining: This was the process by which tin was assayed or tested. It was taken to a coinage town (e.g. Tavistock), where it was weighed, a corner was chipped off and checked, and the amount of tax due was called out and paid before the ingot was stamped ready for sale to one of the waiting pewterers. We know that there were five such coinings per annum at Tavistock in 1303.
Commission of Array: The feudal host was available to the King for his wars. As a matter of duty, all able-bodied males aged between sixteen and sixty were inspected by the Commissioners of Array, and the best taken, in theory. In practice, like so much of medieval life, corruption was rife.
Dorter: Monks’ dormitory.
Frankpledge: Every boy over the age of twelve was expected to swear an oath that he would keep the peace himself, but he also had a duty to prevent others from being fractious. By the terms of this pledge, if a crime was committed, the whole community was penalised.
‘Gardy Loo!’:This was the cry of ‘Gardez l’eau!’ or ‘Watch out! Water!’ which housekeepers roared before emptying their chamber pots into the street. See kennel below!
Host: Under ancient feudal law each man in the kingdom must arm himself with those weapons suitable for his status, and present himself whenever called. These men, whose attendance was based upon their loyalty to their master, whether it be the knight, his lord, or the King himself, had to serve a set number of days, usually living off die land, and then might return home.
Indentures: Because the host was growing unwieldy and insufficient for a task such as the defence of assets in France, for example, indentures were gradually introduced. An indentured man could expect board and lodging, pay while fighting, a uniform and other perks. A contract was written and then tom in two, one half kept by the lord, one by the serving warrior. The indentures were the tear-marks in both halves which could later be matched to prove the validity of either half.
Kennel: This was the large gutter which ran down the middle of a street.
Layrwyta: In the days when all peasants were slaves, their owners were reluctant to see too much breeding. Children were an expensive overhead. One way to prevent expense was to fine women who were sexually incontinent; thus the layrwyta was a tax on children born out of wedlock.
Medarius: The abbey’s monk who purveyed mead, ales and wines for the community.
Morning star: A simple but deadly weapon, consisting of a club with nails hammered into the top.
Receiver: Towns with their own markets raised considerable sums of money. Receivers were responsible for collecting up all the money owed to the town, and for keeping a true and accurate account. As with so many offices in medieval times, this post was widely open to corruption.
Reivers: An old term for the thieves, blackmailers and murderers who commonly raided on either side of the Scottish Marches. Often, little wars were begun as a direct result of their predations.
Reredorter: Behind the dorter, the communal toilets.
Salsarius: The monk who was responsible for looking after the monastery’s stock of salted meats and fish, so important during the winter months.
Shavaldore: During Edward II’s turbulent reign many men decided to take what they could without reference to the law. Shavaldores were marauders who raided and robbed all over Durham and the area of the Marches. Many knightly outlaws proliferated at this time, and weren’t to be brought to heel until Edward HI launched the Hundred Years’ War and gave them a new, and more profitable, focus for their energies.
Stannaries: The name given to the districts where tin was mined and smelted. Men living there were exempt from local laws because they were the King’s own. They answered only to the Stannary Courts and the Stannary Parliament.
Undercroft: The name given to the vaulted cellars beneath the abbey’s buildings; used for storage.
Vintenar: A commander of twenty men-at-arms in the King’s host.
Author’s Note
The story of the Abbot’s Way is one of those ancient tales which are all but impossible to validate. It’s true that many of the books which include the tale make the legend sound almost feasible… but not to a truly cynical mind. For one example, look at the little booklet Dartmoor Legends Retold – vol. II by T.H. Gant and W.L. Copley, published by Baron Jay.
I picked this story as the start point for my novel because it offers an attractive amount of detail – the name of the Abbot of Tavistock of the time (Walter), the fact that there was a dispute with the monks of Plymstock Abbey (I changed this to Buckfast because I can find no record of an abbey in Plymstock) and the name of the leading protagonist, Milbrosa. However, lest there be any doubt, I personally do not believe that the legend as retold here has any historical validity. It is a curiosity, nothing more.
In some ways this story shows the extreme difficulty of being accurate when you are writing historical works. While it is possible that somewhere amongst the old Abbey papers a record of the event exists, I seriously doubt it. If such a record was there, the keen eye of Professor H.P. R. Finberg would have spotted it years ago, and he would have gleefully reported it in his superb history Tavistock Abbey (Cambridge University Press, 1951).
The way that history, or much of it, has been passed down through the centuries is not by means of researched and authenticated material, but by word of mouth. Stories which once bore a shred of truth are now so embellished and distorted that the man behind
the myth of Robin Hood, for example, would be hard put to recognise himself, just as the Dark Ages warlord King Arthur (if he ever existed) would be astonished to hear about Camelot and his Knights of the Round Table. Word-of-mouth stories were subsequently written down, of course, and then were copied out by others and used as ‘historical’ documents. In this way we learn of the flight of Brutus (not the assassin) from Troy and his eventual landing in Devonshire, where he wrestled with and beat the indigenous population of giants, thereby taking over the entire kingdom of England, Wales and Scotland. That story, originally invented by Virgil, appeared in many monastic histories after Geoffrey of Monmouth first penned it. Subsequently, when King Edward I needed a justification to lay claim to Scotland, his spin-doctors hit upon the idea of following up this Roman concept. If the original men to arrive on Albion found a single, discrete political unit which they conquered, the logic said, the island always had been one entity, and still should be; thus the King of England was obviously the King of Scotland and Wales.
The Scots disputed this. Then, as now, they distrusted the ‘spin’ or propaganda emanating from Westminster. This claim, and the Scottish rejection of it, was to bedevil Anglo-Scots relations for hundreds of years, until the Scots agreed to let the English share their Royal Family in 1603 (James VI of Scotland; James I of England).
* * *
So what of the Abbot’s Way itself?
We know that hundreds of years ago a series of stone crosses was erected in southern Dartmoor. At some point it was given the name of the Abbot’s Way. This could have been because the Victorians noticed that it ran from the Abbey at Buckland to the Abbey at Buckfast – but others have disputed this. R. Hansford Worth points out that many tracks across the moors were well-defined long before the monasteries were built. The path from Buckfast to Nun’s Cross is unmarked by crosses – although they could have been stolen, of course. In his book Worth’s Dartmoor (1967) he proposes that if the Abbot of Buckfast did sponsor a new path, it would have gone by Holne over the Holne Ridge to Horn’s Cross. From there it went over Horse Ford on the O Brook to Down Ridge (where there are two crosses), on to Ter Hill, and then to Childes Tomb via Mount Misery. After a cross west of Fox Tor Mire, it led to Nun’s, or Siward’s, Cross. After this section, the route follows more closely the way marked on modern Ordnance Survey maps.
Now, I cannot claim any great knowledge of this part of the moor, but I rather like Worth’s methodology: seeking out and following the line of all the crosses – and, of course, there were more of them in his time. And those which had gone in Worth’s day were still sometimes remembered by his contemporaries (who had themselves dug them up to use as gateposts), so for the purposes of this book I have assumed that Worth was correct. If you look at the map of the area, it is very noticeable that on the route suggested above, between Buckfast and Nun’s Cross, you pass nine stone crosses; by following the route marked as the ‘Abbot’s Way’ on the map, you pass two. If the Abbot’s Way was marked by crosses, which route is more likely?
If you wish to follow in the footprints of the story, I would recommend Eric Hemery’s excellent Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks (Robert Hale, 1986). Like me, Hemery prefers Worth’s route rather than the curious one given on the OS maps. And don’t forget to buy the Dartmoor Rescue Group’s book on walks in Dartmoor, because it gives excellent advice on all aspects of walking. Most of all, enjoy the feel of the moors. There are few places in our crowded little island where we can really see how things would have been, hundreds of years ago. Dartmoor has changed in many ways, but as you stand at Siward’s Cross and gaze south and east, it is easy to sense the millions of people who have tramped past here over the centuries, through rain and sleet, frozen to the marrow, undernourished and desperate, and weighed down by overwork.
I only hope you don’t feel the same as them!
Michael Jecks
Dartmoor
July 2001
The Last Templar Mysteries
The Last Templar
The Merchant’s Partner
A Moorland Hanging
The Crediton Killings
The Abbot’s Gibbet
The Leper’s Return
Squire Throwleigh’s Heir
Belladonna at Belstone
The Traitor of St Giles
The Boy-Bishop’s Glovemaker
The Tournament of Blood
The Sticklepath Strangler
The Devil’s Acolyte
Find out more
First published in the United Kingdom in 2001 by Headline Book Publishing
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
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Copyright © Michael Jecks, 2001
The moral right of Michael Jecks to be identified as the creator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781800321250
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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