Budleigh Past and Present

  A Lesson with Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, wherein are discussed divers Topics of Great Importance for young Scholars in all Partes of the World to-day, and principally for the young Scholars of the Academy of Brixington in the fair Town of Exmouth, following their visit to the Church of All Saints  in Budley   The fair Town of Exmouth that ye see here is proud of its fine Academy of learning in the village of Brixington.   ‘Twas from here that the learned schoolmistress Dame Sarah did aske us that we should speake to her young scholars of the said Academy when they did visit our home village of Budley.   Photo by Christine Chittock Naturally for our meting in the Church of All Saints did we weare our finest apparel and other accoutrements: our fur-lined cloak, our pearl-encrusted doublet, accompanied by our pipe, our best beard, our rapier and our most extreme arrogance. The scholars of Brixington were much delighted and impressed. And there did they enquire of

    The Protestant Martyrs’ Memorial in Exeter, at the corner of Barnfield Road and Denmark Road August 1557. The Catholic Queen Mary has been on the throne of England since 1 October 1553. She is determined to reverse the changes in religion that have occurred since the Protestant Reformation took place during the reign of her father King Henry VIII. Over the last two years, since February 1555, a total of 227 ‘heretics’ – men and women, two of them pregnant – have been put to death. All, except for one, were burnt alive. The 228 th is a Cornishwoman by the name of Agnes Prest. Denounced by her husband, she’s been arrested as a ‘heretic’, transported to Exeter and condemned to death by burning ‘for refusing to worship a piece of bread as God’.   No doubt she has also caused a scandal by speaking out about such matters of theology, for which women are considered ill-suited. A good wife, say the authorities, should rather concern herself with household matters.   Hayes Barton