212 Widecombe-in-the-Moor. flat stones lying side by side, under which were found. more calcined human bones, some charcoal, and a bronze dagger - blade and its pommel, the latter inlaid with pins of gold. These,' says Mr. Bate, are the only interments of the kind met with on Dartmoor, nor can we learn that anywhere else are such met with, excepting in the northern part of Norway.' There are several other barrows on this great hill, and it is probable that a careful search would disclose other objects of interest. From the articles at present found it would appear that these barrows were, as the excavator suggests, thrown up late in the flint or early in the bronze period. From heather to fern, from fern to gorse we descend, and ultimately strike one of those moorland lanes, in summer the dry bed of what is in winter a torrent, or at any rate a very moist thoroughfare. This leads us direct to the church and to a very humble inn, which supplies the wants of the few wayfarers who wander to Widecombein-the-Moor. Close at hand, overshadowed by the lofty tower, stands a row of fifteenth-century almshouses, the only noteworthy edifice in the 'church town,' which is of very small size; in fact, we may almost say of Widecombe -by the way, it is invariably pronounced Wid-de-combewhat the author of 'Lorna Doone' said of Oare, there is no village' there. This ancient building, known as the church house, is substantially built of granite, and has a veranda in front resting on columns of the same stone. In front, and close to the lych-gate of the churchyard, grows a venerable yew, whereon were formerly hung the carcases of all foxes and badgers slain in the parish. A reward of 5s. was offered for a full-grown fox, while a cub fetched but half that amount, and a badger was only valued at Is. This curious payment lasted from 1736 till about twenty years since.* *Things New and Old concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor,' edited by Robert Dymond, F.S. A. Widecombe-in-the-Moor. 213 Having regard to the small population of this moorland parish, one is surprised at the size of the church. It speaks to a far larger number of inhabitants having once frequented the neighbourhood, and we shall call to mind the days when Dartmoor was alive with tinners, and busy companies 'streamed' the rivers for the much-sought metal. Indeed, the tower is said to have owed its erection to a band of successful miners who erected it as a thankoffering. Now the church is but partially seated, and I suppose a congregation of 100 souls is a large assemblage for an edifice constructed to seat at least six times that number. The building appears to date from the latter part of the fifteenth century, and succeeded an earlier edifice of which no traces now remain. Its style is wholly Perpendicular. There is a nave, north and south aisles and transepts, and a chancel with north and south chantry aisles. The length is 104 feet. The cradle roofs have some quaintlycarved bosses, amongst others the three rabbits with ears conjoined, which we have before noticed in the churches of Tavistock and Chagford. This device has reference, it is supposed, to an alchemical symbol, as connected with the mining population. Of the screen the lower part only survives; effigies of our Lord, SS. Peter, Thomas, James and Sebastian, a king and queen, and some ecclesiastical figures appear upon it.* But the glory of the church is the tower, a noble example, compared, and justly, with that of Magdalen College, Oxford. The top is battlemented and crowned with fine crocketed pinnacles. It is of later date than the church, and has been the cause of the roof of the nave being raised. For the arch opening from the tower * Dymond. The church registers contain some curious entries; among them he mentions a loyal churchwarden, who in 1725 thus signs himself: 'William Tremills, his hand and pen; God bless King George and all his men.' 214 The Widecombe Thunderstorm. into the church was loftier than the then existing roof, which was consequently lifted, and is considerably higher than that of the chancel, which retains its original level. The church being in a deplorable state of repair, was restored about ten years since, and the funds raised for the purpose were in some measure realized by the sale of the interesting little work from which many of the particulars here mentioned were derived. Notwithstanding its situation in a deep valley between the spurs of Dartmoor, this moorland village is bleak enough in winter. The quaint ejaculation, 'Widdecombe in the cold country, good Lord!' is a local expression and a true one, particularly when the northern blast comes roaring down between Hameldon and the opposite tors. 'Widdecombe folk be plucking geese to-day,' is a phrase frequently heard along the southern slopes of Dartmoor when a snowstorm is raging, and woe then to the traveller who is wandering out on the trackless waste. But thunderstorms are the species of climatic disturbances for which Widecombe has gained a notoriety, and, indeed, so prevalent are electric visitations said to be, that the combe is sometimes called the 'valley of thunderstorms.' It is especially notorious for a fearful tempest which broke over it on the 21st October, 1638, when the church was considerably shattered, and several people lost their lives. A rent in the tower, one of the effects of the storm, is plainly discernible.* The verses by the schoolmaster, Richard Hill, commemorating this awful storm, will be found on a board in the tower, and were put up by the churchwardens in 1786 to replace the original. A fragment of this latter has recently been discovered and fixed near its more modern copy. It goes almost without saying that the disaster is attributed to Satanic agency. A woman who kept the inn at Poundsgate avers that a rider mounted on a coal * Vide Appendix E. |