The Blackmore country . hn Cogan,of Uffculme, his son Philip, and others, in theyear of grace 1299. Entering the buildings vi etarmis, they ejected the monks and lay brethren,who, after the custom of their order, were carryingon farming operations there; and beat andwounded two of the abbots servants to suchpurpose that he was deprived of their servicesfor a year or longer. Moreover, they were saidto have captured three score oxen and a score ofcows, and driven them to Cogans manor ofUffculme, whither also they bore certain furcce,which were there burnt. To this grave indictment Cogan replied,
The Blackmore country . hn Cogan,of Uffculme, his son Philip, and others, in theyear of grace 1299. Entering the buildings vi etarmis, they ejected the monks and lay brethren,who, after the custom of their order, were carryingon farming operations there; and beat andwounded two of the abbots servants to suchpurpose that he was deprived of their servicesfor a year or longer. Moreover, they were saidto have captured three score oxen and a score ofcows, and driven them to Cogans manor ofUffculme, whither also they bore certain furcce,which were there burnt. To this grave indictment Cogan replied,denying the trespass, and alleging that the twomanors adjoined, and that the abbot desired to lift furcce, etc., the property of Cogan, where-upon he instructed his men to prevent him, whichthey did. Now as to those furcce. Writingaforetime on the subject, I fell into the pardonableerror, if error it be, of supposing that the term,being employed in an agricultural or pastoralcontext, denoted pitchforks. It is my present. THE HINTERLAND 41 belief that these furcce were the kind of thing thatgave its name to Forches Corner, just over theSomerset border—in other words, gallows. Theabbot, as lord of Broadhembury, had not onlyassize of bread and beer in that manor, but, verycertainly, a gallows. The Lady Amicia, Countessof Devon, had at least one gallows, and consider-ing the extent of her domains, probably gallowsgalore; and apparently John Cogan had Abbot of Dunkeswell, it seems to me, musthave had at least two. If this reading be correct,the undignified squabble was all about that grislysymbol of mortality and power. It is possible that a distorted version ofthis affair yet lingers in Culmstock tradition. Ihave heard from a Methuselah of the placethat, according to an old tale, a band of free-booters named Sylvester made an eyry of Hackpen,whence they descended to the more fertile regionsbelow, raiding the farms, and carrying off thefleecy spoil to their hold on the hil
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