Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/261

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THE MOHUN FAMILY
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The only really picturesque old house in Fowey is the "Lugger Inn," where Mr. Varcoe, the kindly host, has, more than once, made me very comfortable. A beam in the house bears the date 1633. The "Ship" is older; it was built in 1570, as the date over the chimney-piece records, but the house has been modernised externally. Near the club, on the south side, stands the house of Peter Pindar.

Immediately opposite Fowey is Polruan, the Pool of S. Ruan, who was an Irishman like Finbar. His bones were translated by Ordgar, Earl of Devon, to Tavistock in 960. Thence an excursion can be made to Lanteglos, dedicated to S. Wyllow, a local saint, murdered by a kinsman, Melyn. The church is chiefly interesting as containing monuments of the Mohun family. Indeed, it would seem to have been their principal place after Dunster.

Reginald, a younger son of Baron John Mohun of Dunster (died 1330), married a daughter of John Fitz-William, and settled at Hall, in Lanteglos. From Hall the Mohun family removed to Boconnoc, and a baronetcy was obtained in 1612 for the head of the house. John, son of the first baronet, was a venal adherent of Charles I., and owed his eleva- tion to the peerage mainly to the clamorous impor- tunities of a still more venal placeman. Sir James Bagg. Writing to the Duke of Buckingham, the latter urged, "Mr. Mohun is so your servant, as in life and fortune will be my second. Enable him by honour to be fit for you; so in the Upper House or in the country will he be the more advantageous to your grace."

Mohun was created Baron of Okehampton in 1628.