So writes the old poet quoted by Risdon, who adds that the Danes, cutting off St. Edmond's head, "contumeliously threw it in a bush."
But Topsham in Tudor times was a place of importance, a naval port, a mart and road for ships. Thanks to weirs built across the waterway by the Earls of Devon, Exeter began to lose its old-time trade, when the tide was wont to ascend to the city. Therefore Exeter fought the earls, and in the reign of Henry VIII. the city obtained a grant to cut a canal from Topsham. Thus vessels of fifteen tons burthen could ascend to the capital, and Topsham sank under the blow and lost its old importance.
Exmouth also figures in the reign of Edward I. as a naval port. In 1298 she contributed a fighting ship to the Fleet, and in 1347 sent ten vessels to aid the third Edward's expedition against Calais. From Exmouth, too, Edward IV. and Warwick, "the King Maker," embarked for the Continent.
Risdon also makes mention of Lympston, another village in the estuary, aforetime in the lordship of the Dynhams, "of which family John Dynham, a valiant esquire siding with the Earl of March, took the Lord Rivers and Sir Anthony his son at Sandwich in their beds, when he was hurt in the leg, the 37th Henry 6."
The villages are worth a visit still, but Exmouth is best known to those who visit Dawlish Warren now. For the open sea welcomes all who come hither, and the little holiday homes that stand on either side of the tidal stream are too few for those who would dwell here in July and August if they could.
I have seen dawn upon the Exe, and watched the mists rise upon these heron-haunted flats to meet the morning. Then the villages twinkle out over the water, and a land breeze wakens the sleepy dunes, ruffles the still waters and fills the red sails of little fishers that come down to the sea.
THE OLD GREY HOUSE
Among the ancient, fortified manors of the West Country there is a pleasant ruin whose history is innocent of event, yet glorified with a noble name or two that rings down through the centuries harmoniously. You shall find Compton Castle where the hamlet of Lower Marldon straggles through a deep and fertile valley not many miles from Torbay.