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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
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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 has taken the liveliest interest in its production.

Also to Messrs. Macmillan for kindly allowing the use of an engraving
of Newcomen’s steam engine, and to Messrs. Vinton & Co. for allowing
the use of the portrait of the Rev. John Russell that appeared in
_Bailey’s Magazine_.

I am likewise indebted to Miss M. Windeatt Roberts for having
undertaken to prepare the exhaustive Index, and to Mr. J. G. Commin for
placing at my disposal many rare illustrations.

For myself I may say that it has been a labour of love to grope among
the characters and incidents of the past in my own county, and with
Cordatus, in the Introduction to Ben Jonson’s _Every Man out of his
Humour_, I may say that it has been “a work that hath bounteously
pleased me; how it will answer the general expectation, I know not.”

                   *       *       *       *       *

I am desired by my publisher to state that he will be glad to
receive any information as to the whereabouts of pictures by another
“Devonshire Character,” James Gandy, born at Exeter in 1619, and a
pupil of Vandyck. He was retained in the service of the Duke of Ormond,
whom he accompanied to Ireland, where he died in 1689. It is said that
his chief works will be found in that country and the West of England.

Jackson of Exeter, in his volume _The Four Ages_, says: “About the
beginning of the eighteenth century was a painter in Exeter called
Gandy, of whose colouring Sir Joshua Reynolds thought highly. I heard
him say that on his return from Italy, when he was fresh from seeing
the pictures of the Venetian school, he again looked at the works of
Gandy, and that they had lost nothing in his estimation. There are many
pictures of this artist in Exeter and its neighbourhood. The portrait
Sir Joshua seemed most to value is in the Hall belonging to the College
of Vicars in that city, but I have seen some very much superior to it.”

Since then, however, the original picture has been taken from the
College of Vicars, and has been lost; but a copy, I believe, is still
exhibited there, and no one seems to know what has become of the
original.

Not only is Mr. Lane anxious to trace this picture, but any others in
Devon or Ireland, as also letters, documents, or references to this
artist and his work.




CONTENTS

                                                                   PAGE

    /Hugh Stafford and the Royal Wilding/                              1
    /The Alphington Ponies/                                           16
    /Maria Foote/                                                     21
    /Caraboo/                                                         35
    /John Arscott, of Tetcott/                                        47
    /Wife-sales/                                                      58
    /White Witches/                                                   70
    /Manly Peeke/                                                     84
    /Eulalia Page/                                                    95
    /James Wyatt/                                                    107
    /The Rev. W. Davy/                                               123
    /The Grey Woman/                                                 128
    /Robert Lyde and the “Friend’s Adventure”/                       136
    /Joseph Pitts/                                                   152
    /The Demon of Spreyton/                                          170
    /Tom Austin/                                                     175
    /Frances Flood/                                                  177
    /Sir William Hankford/                                           181
    /Sir John Fitz/                                                  185
    /Lady Howard/                                                    194
    /The Bidlakes, of Bidlake/                                       212
    /The Pirates of Lundy/                                           224
    /Tom D’Urfey/                                                    238
    /The Bird of the Oxenhams/                                       248
    /“Lusty” Stucley/                                                262
    /The Bideford Witches/                                           274
    /Sir “Judas” Stukeley/                                           278
    /The Sampford Ghost/                                             286
    /Philippa Cary and Anne Evans/                                   292
    /Jack Rattenbury/                                                301
    /John Barnes, Taverner and Highwayman/                           320
    /Edward Capern/                                                  325
    /George Medyett Goodridge/                                       332
    /John Davy/                                                      351
    /Richard Parker, the Mutineer/                                   355
    /Benjamin Kennicott/, /D.D./                                     369
    /Captain John Avery/                                             375
    /Joanna Southcott/                                               390
    /The Stoke Resurrectionists/                                     405
    /“The Beggars’ Opera” and Gay’s Chair/                           414
    /Bampfylde-Moore Carew/                                          425
    /William Gifford/                                                436
    /Benjamin R. Haydon/                                             457
    /John Cooke/                                                     478
    /Savery and Newcomen, Inventors/                                 487
    /Andrew Brice, Printer/                                          502
    /Devonshire Wrestlers/                                           514
    /Two Hunting Parsons/                                            529
    /Samuel Prout/                                                   564
    /Fontelautus/                                                    581
    /William Lang, of Bradworthy/                                    594
    /William Cookworthy/                                             600
    /William Jackson, Organist/                                      608
    /John Dunning, First Lord Ashburton/                             618
    /Governor Shortland and the Princetown Massacre/                 633
    /Captain John Palk/                                              700
    /Richard Weekes, Gentleman at Arms and Prisoner in the Fleet/    709
    /Steer Nor’-West/                                                718
    /George Peele/                                                   726
    /Peter Pindar/                                                   737
    /Dr. J. W. Budd/                                                 754
    /Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Chichester, Bart./                      772




ILLUSTRATIONS


    /Maria Fo