The charm of Bude, I imagine--and many people find it very charming--lies more in its surroundings than itself, more in the splendid coast and rolling sea than in the rather dull little town. The sands and boats at the river-mouth are picturesque, and so is the “cross-pool,” where Hawker in his sealskin coat once masqueraded as a mermaid (of a somewhat full habit), to the sad confusion of the youth of Bude.
Far more attractive in itself is Stratton, hard by, with the dark church-tower raised above the street, and half its houses hidden by the trees. In this church with the fine roof and the granite pillars is buried, under a black marble slab elaborately inlaid with brasses, a Sir John Arundel of the sixteenth century; the father, I believe, of John-for-the-King. And in the north aisle, with no stone to tell the tale of his brave and faithful service, lies Anthony Payne, the tender-hearted giant who taught little boys to fish, and fought with the strength of ten by Bevill Grenville’s side, and wrote a letter for which alone, if for nothing else, he deserves an epitaph. When Sir Bevill died at Lansdowne Hill it was Anthony Payne who broke the news to Lady Grenville. “You know, as we all believe,” he wrote, “that his soul was in heaven before his bones were cold. He fell, as he did often tell us he wished to die, in the great Stewart cause, for his country and his King. He delivered to me his last commands, and with such tender words for you and for his children as are not to be set down with my poor pen, but must come to your ears upon my heart’s best breath. Master John, when I mounted him upon his father’s horse, rode him into the war like a young prince as he is.… I am coming down with the mournfullest load that ever a poor servant did bear, to bring the great heart that is cold to Kilkhampton vault. O! my lady, how shall I ever brook your weeping face?”[12]
Down in the street we may find the house where this servant with the heart and tongue of gold was born and died. It was once a manor-house of the Grenvilles, but is now the “Tree” Inn, and shows little sign of age. Until lately there was a hole still in the ceiling through which Anthony Payne’s huge body was lowered after his death, since it was impossible to bring it down the narrow stairs; but now this room has been rebuilt. Fixed in the outer wall of the inn, however, is a relic of the battle on Stamford Hill, where “ye army of ye rebells … receiued A signall ouerthrow by ye Valor of Sir Bevill Granville and ye Cornish army,” and where Anthony Payne was valiant as his master. Once this stone was on the battle-field, but the owner of the land was so greatly harassed by sightseers that in his rage he dug out the memorial and built a house upon the spot!
