Rosemary Perry just sent us an interesting enquiry (reproduced here by her kind permission) concerning the novel Warleigh:
I am exploring the history of a book, "Warleigh", by Anna Elizabeth Bray, published I believe in 1845 in Tavistock. Mrs. Bray (whose husband was the Vicar of Tavistock) dedicated this book to her friend Mrs. Southey. The book is also titled The Fatal Oak. I was born in Tamerton Foliot in 1938, and now reside in the United States. I have photographs of the same oak tree, which I believe had to be eventually taken down. After my mother's death in 1994 I was able to bring only a few items of value and interest back here with me, and one of these items was the book Warleigh. A hand-written inscription inside mentions that it was one of only six original printings. Can anyone verify this information?
Handily, I already had part of the story on this, as I posted a brief biographical piece about Mrs Bray a year ago - see Anna Eliza Bray. To answer the immediate bibliographic question: the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature mentions two editions: a 3-volume edition (standard format for early-Victorian novels) published by Longman in 1834 as Warleigh; or, The fatal oak. A legend of Devon; and a single-volume edition also by Longman in 1845. But a look in Google Books also finds a Chapman & Hall revised edition in 1884 (as Warleigh: a historical romance). None of them were any kind of limited edition; it's possible the "six original printings" refer to publisher's proof copies.
Beyond this, however, Warleigh ties in with Devon history as it retells and expands on an anecdote in John Prince's 1697 The Worthies of Devon. This tells of a squire called Copplestone (spelling varies between accounts) who, following a family dispute, stabbed his godson to death under an oak tree outside Tamerton Foliot church (the "Copplestone Oak"). There's more solid detail on this at Copleston.net, which has a scan and translation (pp 1/2) of a 1562 royal pardon granted to a Christopher Copleston concerning his murder of Christopher Monns. In The Novels and Romances of Anna Eliza Bray (1845), Mrs Bray explains the process of adaptation:
The romance next published, in 1834, was "Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak; a Legend of Devon." The first name was adopted from the noble and ancient mansion in which the scene of the story is principally laid. The second title refers to an aged oak, to which both history and tradition have annexed a tale.
"Warleigh" (now the property of the Reverend Walter Radclyffe) is situated not very far from the village of Tamerton Foliott, a few miles distant from Plymouth, in Devon. Near Tamerton church stands the very aged tree, alluded to above, which, to this day, is called the "Copplestone Oak." The few, but fearful circumstances connected with it, said to have occurred in the reign of Elizabeth, I have chosen as the foundation whereon to raise a superstructure of romance. An account of these circumstances 1 found briefly stated in that most valuable work, "Prince's Worthies of Devon." The biographer gives the name of the elder person (John Copplestone), who was so deeply implicated in the tragedy, to which the oak is said to have been a witness; but he does not state the name of the young man who was the godson of Copplestone, and so great a sufferer in that scene. I ventured, therefore, to call him Amias Radclyffe, in compliment to the family who are the present proprietors of Warleigh; but I think it right here to say that I have no authority whatever for doing so, except my own fancy.
Respecting the godfather (Copplestone), who in the days of Elizabeth was the proprietor of Warleigh, and of another mansion, called 'Copplestone,' Prince describes him as one of "extravagancies in his conversation," and of a 'malicious and revengeful mind." He then proceeds to relate the circumstances of the murder, to which those passions hurried on the wretched man who committed it. Not that he relates them (to use his own words) because he takes delight in "repeating the infirmities of men, but because he would make them as landmarks to posterity, that all may beware how they give themselves up to the transports of a bloody malice and revenge; which, in the end, will hurry them into the bottomless gulph of woe and misery."
Having set up this landmark by telling the tale, our biographer adds, that after Copplestone had committed the murder, he fled; that his friends made interest at court to sue out his pardon; and, at length, to procure it, cost him no less than thirteen manors of land in the county of Cornwall.
...
Although the circumstances on which I founded my tale are stated by Prince to have occurred in the reign of Elizabeth, I took the liberty to change the period to that of Charles the First. As those circumstances were entirely of a domestic nature, it was of no moment in whose reign they were made subservient to the purposes of romance. I had already, in "Fitz of Fitz-Ford," written a work relating to the days of the maiden queen; and, moreover, the time of Charles the First, I felt would afford me the opportunity of introducing characters, scenes, and events connected with a period of deep public and domestic interest in the West, as there was scarcely a family of any note throughout these counties, but their ancestors had severely suffered, in one way or the other, during the civil wars.
Warleigh; or, The fatal oak. A legend of Devon is available for reading online at the Internet Archive (volume 1 / volume 2 / volume 3). As to the "fatal oak" itself, the original appears to be no longer with us ...
On the Green by the church stood, until it was blown down not many years since, the Copplestone oak, scene of a murder by one of the Copplestones, made by Mrs. Bray the subject of one of her Devonshire novels.
- Tourist's Guide to South Devon, RN Worth, 1878 (Internet Archive touristsguideto02unkngoog)
... and Tamerton Foliot, on the north side of Plymouth, has undergone considerable suburban development. Warleigh House, however, still exists, under private ownership (see The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History; the Copleston.net gallery, which has a number of good images; and the Bing Maps interactive bird's eye view). (Some readers may remember the odd chapter in its history a couple of years ago, when the then owner first advertised internationally for a lady of the manor, then attempted to sell all his assets on eBay).
- RG
The Fatal Oak
