Lynton mariage custom - flowered chains before the bride

Not the best photo to illustrate this post - but it does involve love and flower ropes! I imagine the brides of Lynton where not as aristocratically impractical as this lady -Portrait of Madame de Bourbon-Conti as Venus by Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (1693–1775) or, Louise-Diane d'Orleans (1716–1736) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coypel_Bourbon-Conti.jpg

"A peculiar wedding custom observed at Lynton, North Devon, is that of chaining the bride at the gates of the churchyard. Young men stretch pieces of rope, adorned with flowers, or chains of twisted hay and straw decorated with ribbons and flowers, across the gateway, effectually preventing the exit of the bridal party. Thereupon the bridegroom scatters broadcast handfuls of small coins. The chain is immediately dropped and a rush made for the money leaving the bride free to proceed on her way. Sometimes, where special honour is paid to the bride, several chains are encountered on her way to her old home, and the bridegroom has again and again to pay his footing as a husband."

Hewett 1900

Map - Lynton

Dead Mans Grip

Smugglers Leap? Best guess at location - © Copyright rich cressman and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

"Returning to the abbey [Lee Abbey near Lynton] lodge by which we left the grounds, and taking the road by the coast from thence, we shall shortly see a deep gorge on the edge of the path. This is called the Smuggler's Leap. Tradition says that a smuggler-Lynmouth was a favourite haunt of theirs-was riding through the Valley of Rocks at midnight, with a keg of spirits on each side of his saddle, when a mounted exciseman rode out of the shadow and called on him to surrender. The smuggler's reply was a pistol shot. It missed its aim, however, and he fled as swiftly as his horse would bear him through the valley; the exciseman followed him at full speed. They passed Lee Abbey, rode down the hill, round the corner, and up the opposite side. The smuggler glancing back, saw his pursuer close behind him, and just at the top of the hill he felt a hand upon his collar. Pulling himself violently away, his horse tottered for an instant on the edge of the precipice; he caught at the arm of the excisernan, and both riders and horses were precipitated into the gorge. Their bodies were found on the rocks, frightfully mangled. The dead man's hand still firmly clasping the poor exciseman's arm told their story."

Valentine (undated)

Map - Valley of Rocks
Map - Smuggler's Leap

Duty point and the drowned girl - part 1

The sea is a deadly friend - Please attribute this website if you use my images.

"Lee Abbey is a very beautiful place near Lynton, buried in woods and with charming views from it. It originally belonged to the De Whichehalses. During the persecution of the Protestants in the Low Countries by Philip IL's Duke of Alva, great numbers of families fled for safety to England. Among these was Hugh de Whichehalse, who succeeded also in bringing his wealth with him. His son became one of the leading men in the West, and his granddaughter was one of the wealthiest heiresses of the time. A lover came to this young lady from the Court, wooed and won her love. and the wedding day was fixed; but the betrothed bridegroom never returned; he had found a fairer or a richer love. Jennefriedde Whichehalse was forsaken. On the very day that should have seen her wedded, they received the tidings that her false betrothed was married to the daughter of a foreign noble. There is in the Lee grounds a cliff called Duty Point, because here the coastguard watched for smugglers. It was the poor girl's favourite seat; to it she wandered on that unhappy day in her despair, and was never again seen alive. Either she threw herself into the sea, or she had walked too near the edge of the cliff and had fallen over. It was never known how the catastrophe happened, but the next day her body- was found on the rocks below. Her enraged and heartbroken father sought for justice on her false betrothed in the London Law Courts; but what could they do for him ? ..." [cont.]

Valentine (undated)

The Pixies and the church at Lynton

Sorry - not a very pixie like faerie - Daisy By Kelly Thompson
 • Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License.

"Lynton Church is situate in the centre of the village. There is a tradition about it very much resembling that of Hollington Church, near St. Leonards. It is said that it was intended to be built opposite Cherrybridge, on the Barnstaple road, but while the workmen brought materials or worked by day, the Pixies - the Devonshire fairies - carried the stones away by night, till the builders grew weary of their fruitless labour and erected it on the spot chosen by the Brownies."

Valentine (Undated)

Map - Lynton Church
Map - Cherrybridge

[Saint Leonard's is not in the Westcountry - the myth appears to be about the devil, rather than pixies!]

Raged Jack at Lynton

   
       
       
Reproduced courtesy of Francis Frith.
   

'Before long it [a footpath from Lynton and Lynmouth] brings you to a fantastic mass of rocks, known as "Ragged Jack".  To this group is attached the often-repeated legend of people turned into stone for misconducting themselves on a Sunday.'

Hope Moncrieff 1895