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                          Transcriber’s Note:
                          ###################

    This e-text is based on the 1908 edition of the book. Minor
    punctuation errors have been tacitly corrected. Inconsistencies
    in hyphenation and spelling, such as ‘ale-house’/‘alehouse’ and
    ‘Mary Wilcocks’/‘Mary Willcocks,’ have been retained. The asterism
    symbols in the book catalogue at the end of this text have been
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    # p. 126: ‘1852’ → ‘1825’
    # p. 685: ‘fro mthe’ → ‘from the’

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                         DEVONSHIRE CHARACTERS
                          AND STRANGE EVENTS




                        BY THE SAME AUTHOR

                        YORKSHIRE ODDITIES
                        TRAGEDY OF THE CÆSARS
                        CURIOUS MYTHS
                        LIVES OF THE SAINTS

                        ETC. ETC.




[Illustration:

    _G. Clint, A.R.A., pinxt._      _Thos. Lupton. sculpt._

MARIA FOOTE, AFTERWARDS COUNTESS OF HARRINGTON, AS MARIA DARLINGTON IN
THE FARCE OF “A ROWLAND FOR AN OLIVER” (1824)]




                              DEVONSHIRE
                              CHARACTERS
                          AND STRANGE EVENTS
                       BY S. BARING-GOULD, /M.A./

                    WITH 55 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
                   REPRODUCED FROM OLD PRINTS, ETC.


                                           O Jupiter!
            Hanccine vitam? hoscine mores? hanc dementiam?

                                 /Terence/, _Adelphi_ (Act IV).


                   LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
                  NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMVIII




         PLYMOUTH: WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LIMITED, PRINTERS




PREFACE


In treating of Devonshire Characters, I have had to put aside the chief
Worthies and those Devonians famous in history, as George Duke of
Albemarle, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
the Coleridges, Sir Stafford Northcote, first Earl of Iddesleigh, and
many another; and to content myself with those who lie on a lower
plane. So also I have had to set aside several remarkable characters,
whose lives I have given elsewhere, as the Herrings of Langstone (whom
I have called Grym or Grymstone) and Madame Drake, George Spurle the
Post-boy, etc. Also I have had to pretermit several great rascals,
as Thomas Gray and Nicholas Horner. But even so, I find an _embarras
de richesses_, and have had to content myself with such as have had
careers of some general interest. Moreover, it has not been possible to
say all that might have been said relative to these, so as to economize
space, and afford room for others.

So also, with regard to strange incidents, some limitation has been
necessary, and such have been selected as are less generally known.

I have to thank the kind help of many Devonshire friends for the
loan of rare pamphlets, portraits, or for information not otherwise
acquirable--as the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lady Rosamond Christie, Mrs.
Chichester of Hall, Mrs. Ford of Pencarrow, Dr. Linnington Ash, Dr.
Brushfield, Capt. Pentecost, Miss M. P. Willcocks, Mr. Andrew Iredale,
Mr. W. H. K. Wright, Mr. A. B. Collier, Mr. Charles T. Harbeck, Mr.
H. Tapley Soper, Miss Lega-Weekes, who has contributed the article
on Richard Weekes; Mrs. G. Radford, Mr. R. Pearse Chope, Mr. Rennie
Manderson, Mr. M. Bawden, the Rev. J. B. Wollocombe, the Rev. W. H.
Thornton, Mr. A. M. Broadley, Mr. Samuel Gillespie Prout, Mr. S. H.
Slade, Mr. W. Fleming, Mrs. A. H. Wilson, Fleet-Surgeon Lloyd Thomas,
the Rev. W. T. Wellacott, Mr. S. Raby, Mr. Samuel Harper, Mr. John
Avery, Mr. Thomas Wainwright, Mr. A. F. Steuart, Mr. S. T. Whiteford,
and last, but not least, Mr. John Lane, the publisher of this volume,
who