A few years ago I was shown such a pile from Lifton Church. I saw another great library, as I may call it, that was preserved in the rack in the ceiling of a cottage at Sheepstor, the property of an old fiddler, now dead. I saw a third in Holne parish. I have seen stray heaps elsewhere. Mr. Heath, of Redruth, published two collections from Cornwall and one from Devon, the latter from the Lifton store in part, to which I had directed his attention. I cannot doubt that some of the popular tunes that are found circulating among our old singers--or to be more exact, were found--were the composition of these ancient village musicians. Alas! the American organ and the strident harmonium came in and routed out the venerable representatives of a musical past; and the music-hall piece is now driving away all the sound old traditional melody, and the last of the ancient conservators of folk-song makes his bow, and says:-- "I be going, I reckon, full mellow, To lay in the churchyard my head, So say--God be wi' you, old fellow! The last of the zingers is dead." NOTE.--For the history of Devon: WORTH (R. N.), _History of Devonshire_. London, 1886. For Devonshire dialect: HEWETT(S.), _The Peasant Speech of Devon_. E. Stock. London, 1892. For Devonshire folk-music: _Songs of the West_. Methuen. London, 1895. (3rd ed.) _A Garland of Country Song_. Methuen. London, 1895. For most of what has been said above on the folk-songs of Devon I am indebted to the Rev. H. Fleetwood Sheppard, who has made it his special study. CHAPTER II. VILLAGES AND CHURCHES Devonshire villages not so picturesque as those of Sussex and Kent--Cob and stone--Slate--Thatch and whitewash--Churches mostly in the Perpendicular style--Characteristics of that style--Foliage in stone--Somerset towers--Cornish peculiarities of pinnacles--Waggon-headed roofs--Beer and Hatherleigh stone--Polyphant--Treatment of granite--Wood-work in Devon churches--Screens--How they have been treated by incumbents--Pulpits--Bench-ends--Norman fonts--Village crosses--How the Perpendicular style maintained itself in the West--Old mansions--Trees in Devon--Flora--The village revel. A Devonshire village does not contrast favourably with those in Essex, Kent, Sussex, and other parts of England, where brick or timber and plaster are the materials used, and where the roofs are tiled.