Salting the corpse in Devon

Salt - By Mark Schellhase (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

"An old nurse once told me that if a plate of salt be placed on the breast of a corpse, it would help the dead to rest peacefully, as it kept evil spirits from tormenting the soul on its journey through the dark valley."

Hewett 1900

The Devil comes to Widecombe

"Widecombe on a summer's day does not, however, suggest its evil repute as the haunt of his Satanic Majesty.  "What do you know about your ghostly enemy?" asked the west-country parson in Sunday-school.  "Please, sir, he lives to Widecombe."  came the prompt reply.

From the bitter cold of the winter fog and snow, from the wild winds that sweep down the valley, and howling round Bell Tor and Hound Tor, echo to the yell of the Wisht Hounds, has Widecome earned its reputation. The story of the great storm everywhere repeated keeps this notoriety alive.

In October, 1638, On a Sunday when all the folk were in church, the tower was struck, - it shows marks of the rents to this day - the lightning injuring many of the congregation, while a storm of never-to-be-forgotten awfulness swept over the valley.  A long rude poem printed on boards, and now placed in teh tower, tells of the this storm, and its ravages, and of the very miraculous escapes of many of the people.

The verses were written by the village schoolmaster, Richard Hill, who is related to one of the victims of the storm.

Local legend has minute particulars to account for this fearful thunderstorm. At Poundsgate, near Leusdon, an old woman who happened to be at home that morning saw a man ride up on a coal-black horse.  He inquired the way to Widecombe and and asked for a drink.  This she gave to him and the awful identity of the stranger was revealed by the liquor hissing as it went down his throat! She fled with a scream, and the Evil One galloped all the way to Widecombe.  Here everyone was in church, but alas! a member of the congregation was asleep.  This gave the devil his opportunity : he snatched up the culprit and flew with him through the roof of the church tower, vanishing with his victim on the wings of a storm so terrific, that it has never been forgotten.

Some say the soul of the sleeper was due that day to the devil, who came to fetch him and caught him napping."

Cresswell 1921 (Dartmoor with its surroundings: a handbook for visitors)

Map - Widecombe on the Moor

Dosemary Pool - part 3

'...Tregeagle, in the ballad, is a shepherd dwelling "by the poole on the moore." He was ambitious and unscrupulous. "I wish for all that I see !" was his exclamation, when "a figure gigantick" is seen "midst the gloom of the night."

This spirit offers Tregeagle, in exchange for his soul, all that he desires for one hundred years. Tregeagle does not hesitate:--

"'A bargaine! a bargaine!' he said aloude;
'At my lot I will never repine;
I sweare to observe it, I sweare by the roode.
And am readye to scale and to sygne with my bloode,
Both my soul and my body are thine."

Tregeagle is thrown into a trance, from which he awakes to find himself "cloathed in gorgeous attyre," and master of a wide domain of great beauty:

"Where Dozmare lake its darke waters did roil,
A castle now reared its heade,
Wythe manye a turrete soe statelye and talle;
And many a warden dyd walke on its-walle,
All splendidly cloathed in redde."...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

The Demon Tregeagle - part 4

'...Involving, as this did, large sums of money--and indeed it was a question upon which turned the future well-doing or ruin of a family--it was fought by the lawyers with great pertinacity. The legal questions had been argued several times before the judges at the assizes. The trials had been deferred, new trials had been sought for and granted, and every possible plan known to the lawyers for postponing the settlement of a suit had been tried. A day was at length fixed, upon which a final decision must be come to, and a special jury was sworn to administer justice between the contending parties. Witnesses innumerable were examined as to the validity of a certain deed, and the balance of evidence was equally suspended. The judge was about to sum up the case and refer the question to the jury, when the defendant in the case, coming into court, proclaimed aloud that he had yet another witness to produce. There was a strange silence in the judgment-hall. It was felt that something chilling to the soul was amongst them, and there was a simultaneous throb of terror as Tregeagle was led into the witness-box.


When the awe-struck assembly had recovered, the lawyers for the defendant commenced their examination, which was long and terrible. The result, however, was the disclosure of an involved system of fraud, of which the honest defendant had been the victim, and the jury unhesitatingly gave a verdict in his favour.
The trial over, every one expected to see the spectre-witness removed. There, however, he stood, powerless to fly, although he evidently desired to do so. Spirits of darkness were waiting to bear him away, but some spell of holiness prevented them from touching him. There was a struggle with the good and the evil angels for this sinner's soul, and the assembled court appeared frozen with horror. At length the judge with dignity commanded the defendant to remove his witness.

"To bring him from the grave has been to me so dreadful a task, that I leave him to your care, and that of the Prior's, by whom he was so beloved." Having said this, the defendant left the court...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903