Budleigh Past and Present

It seems so right that an exhibition about Sir Walter Raleigh, famous for his pioneering efforts to colonise the New World, should take place in the village where he was born, just the day after Americans celebrate their independence on 4 July. Left: The portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh in All Saints Church, East Budleigh, where he and his family worshipped Sir Walter was certainly a monarchist when he flattered his Queen Elizabeth in all possible ways, including laying his fine cloak over that puddle so that she might not get her feet wet. Below right: The Sir Walter Raleigh pub sign in East Budleigh But many republicans like Oliver Cromwell and John Milton have also seen him as a victim of a tyrannical monarch, the Stuart King James I, who imprisoned him and then ordered his execution. Many Americans of the past saw him as a patriotic hero and defender of liberty comparable to George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt. The American navy in 1776 even named a frigate after him, ironic whe...