Listen to the track:
The Langdon Hall Affair
This song is sung in the voice of Vincent Pollexfen Calmady, magistrate of Langdon Hall in Wembury. On New Year’s Day 1856, he tried to break up an illegal cockfight in a local orchard. Among the crowd was John Pascoe, who resisted when Calmady demanded his name. That night, as Calmady and his gamekeeper kept watch by the roadside, Pascoe and others confronted him in the dark. A struggle followed, sticks were seized, men knocked down, and fierce threats made. One accomplice, Marshall, even shouted he would shoot Calmady if he had a gun.
The drama ends in court, where Calmady recalls the events: Pascoe fined £5 for assault, Marshall to answer later. The song follows Calmady’s own telling of these events, moving from the orchard raid, to the midnight ambush, to the violent struggle, and finally to the courtroom judgment; a true Wembury story retold.
In Wembury fields on New Year’s Day,
I saw the gamecocks brought to play,
I seized the bag, I took the fowl,
The orchard crowd began to howl.
“Give me your name,” I called that day,
He clenched his fists, he turned away.
The parson warned, in urgent tone:
“This man’s a magistrate — leave him alone.”
Midnight footsteps on the lane,
Cigar light glowing in the rain.
Three men whispered in the dark,
One rushed forward, struck his mark.
Seized my stick, they dragged me down,
Angry voices all around.
Keeper struck and bodies fell,
Oaths and curses rung like hell.
By the hedge at Langdon gate,
They swore they’d shoot the magistrate!
“You mustachioed devil,” Marshall cried,
“If I had a gun you’d be dead tonight.”
Dark threats echoed through the air,
I faced them down in the midnight glare.
Five pounds the fine, the gavel fell,
Pascoe bound by prison’s spell.
Justice spoken, night laid bare,
The Langdon Hall Affair.