WIDDECOMBE-IN-THE-MOOR. "Widdecombe in the cold country, Good Lord!" Such is the popular local ejaculation with regard to this romantic spot in the bleak days of Winter. On the bright and warm Sunday that I visited it, however, I did not realize this description. On the contrary, it was to me 66 Widdecombe in the hot country, good Lord!" I left Chagford early in the morning, in the company of friends. Over the breezy heights of Mildon we passed, then down a valley to Peter Bridge, where the little river was chattering, or rather singing over its pebbly bed what to me sounded like a psalm of praise in the silence of the day of rest. Everywhere our rugged way was illuminated and perfumed by golden gorse of brilliant hue, and most luxuriant blossoms. Heytree Common was climbed, and on its brown and breezy summit we lingered to enjoy the magnificent views that surrounded us. Yonder are many tors, with Lustleigh Cleeve in the valley; and on the other side, Hamel Down, with its brown bold summit, that seemed almost to touch the sky. Several miles of rugged road were passed, and then the verdant and beautiful vale of Widdecombe was visible to our expectant and delighted eyes. The straight grey tower of the old Church rises up in solitary grandeur from the green meadows and blooming orchards that surround it, whilst all around are cragged tors, weird old rocks, and silent downs : A vale of vernal freshness and delight! Set like a radiant jewel 'mid the steeps; The village of Widdecombe comprises a small inn a big parsonage house, and a few little cottages-all of granite, of course. It is a primitive and substan. tial hamlet, like the tors and the hills that surround it. The venerable sexton, the representative of the patriarchal life of the village, is a courteous, self-contained, and friendly old man, showing that it is not necessary to go to a boarding-school, or to live in the "lap of luxury," to acquire good manners-for are they not the product of the heart, rather than of the external and mechanical culture of the body? Approaching four-score years is this civil old man, and he is upright, active, and clear-headed. He said "I've been sexeen heer these 44 years; ma feyther was 98 when a died; and ma granfer was 54 yeers sexen of thik place." The longevity of the moormen is further confirmed by the ages recorded on the tombstones, which range from 70 to 90. One of the venerable departed moormen was a bit of a poet and preacher, I suppose, for on the stone recording his lamented death he has left this pious exhortation, as a legacy, behind him : All you that come our graves to view, Then welcome Death, come when it will. Outside the Church is the village green, and here, amidst quiet horses and cows feeding on the grass, I took my verdant seat. There stand, as they have stood for centuries in storm and sunshine, the giant tors of Honeybag and Bel, with Charpitor and the Chinkwell Rocks, and Hamel Down opposite thereto, The tors, from where I sat, looked like the remains of old castles; and the innumerable white and brown blocks of granite, with gorse and heather growing between, that lie scattered about the slopes, are not unlike dismantled towns. Underneath, the fields are strewn with huge stones, as though young giants had amused themselves by pitching about massive boulders in their hours of play. Away, in nooks and corners, are little moorland farms, with their rude granite walls, shaded by many a noble sycamore and oak, and environed by patches of shining gorse and bright green fern. The church, dedicated to St. Pancras, has a magnificent perpendicular tower, and is said to have been built by a company of tin-miners, as a pious acknowledgment of the success they had achieved in working the mines in the neighbourhood. Almshouses of granite, with verandahs and pillars of the same solid material, adjoin the churchyard. These cottages were built, it is said, in the 15th century. The interior of the church has an ancient and very primitive looking appearance. In the porch, and over the entrance to the door, is a gaudily painted triangle, with figures representing angels holding ladders against the sides, with the rude figure of a rosy-faced boy, or rather the head thereof, with wings, in the centre. Underneath are the words : How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven As I passed from the bright Spring sunshine into the cool shadow of the sacred edifice, I was much impressed with the peacefulness of the place, and with its venerable appearance and ancient associations. What says Charles Lamb of country churches ? "Would'st thou know 'the beauty of holiness?' Go alone, borrowing the keys of good Master Sexton; traverse the cool aisles of some country church; think of the piety that has kneeled there-the congregations, old and young, that have found consolation there: With no disturbing emotions, no cross conflicting comparisons, drink in the tranquillity of the place, till thou thyself become fixed and motionless as the marble effigies that kneel and weep around thee." There are no such effigies here, but there is a fine old east window, with the figures of Moses and Aaron thereon. I was here reminded of the tragical occurrence which took place more than two centuries and a half ago by an account thereof written on the large tablet in the north aisle, which is from the pen, t is said, of Richard Hill, the then schoolmaster of the village. Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, gives a quaint account of this terrible storm, which was attended by such fatal and disastrous consequences. He says: "In the year of our Lord, 1638, October 21, being Sunday, and the congregation being gathered together in the parish church of Wydecombe, in the afternoon in service time, there happened a very great darkness, which encreased to that degree, that they could not see to read. Soon after, a terrible and fearful thunder was heard, like the noise of many great guns, accompanied with dreadful lightning to the great amazement of the people, the darkness still encreasing that they could not see each other; when there presently came such an extraordinary flame of lightning as filled the church with fire, smoke, and a loathsome smell like brimstone; a ball of fire came in likewise at the window, and passed through the church, which so affrighted the congregation, that most of them fell down in their seats, some upon their knees, others on their faces, and some one upon another, crying out of burning and scalding, and all giving up themselves for dead. This our Mr. George Lyde was in his pulpit, and although much astonished, yet thro' divine mercy had no harm, but was a sad spectator of the hurt and sufferings of others, the lightning seizing on his wife and burning her cloathes and many parts of her body and another gentleman by her in the same manner; but her maid and child sitting at the pew-room had no hurt; another woman attempting to run out of the church, had her clothes set on fire, and was so miserably scorch'd and burnt that she died the same night. One Mr. Mead, had his head suddenly struck against the wall in his seat with such violence that he also died the same night, no other hurt being observed. His son sitting by him had no harm: at the same instant, another man had his head cloven, his skull rent in three pieces, and his brains thrown upon the ground whole; but the hair of his head, tho' the violence of the blow, stuck fast to a pillar near him, where it remained a woful spectacle a long time after. Some seats in the body of the church were turned upside down, yet those who sate in them had little or no hurt. One man going out of the chancel door his dog ran before him, who was whirled about towards the door and fell down stark dead upon which the master stepped back and was preserved. The church itself was much torn and defaced with the thunder and lightning; a beam whereof breaking in the midst fell down between the minister and clerk, and hurt neither. The steeple was much wrent; and it was observed where the church was most torn, there the least hurt was done among the people. There were none hurted with the timber or stone,but one maid, who it was judged was killed by the fall of a stone; which might easily happen, since stones were thrown down from the steeple as fast as if it had been by an hundred men. A pinnacle of the tower being thrown down, beat thro' into the church. The pillar against which the pulpit stood, being newly whited, was turned black and sulphury. There were in all four persons killed, and sixty-two hurt, divers of them having their linen burnt, tho' their outward garments |