Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
After that he had no love for parsons of the Church or indeed ministers
of any denomination, for every one of them, he said, would bury him
alive, if they could. Once an itinerant Methodist preacher came across
him and asked his way. Black John volunteered to show him a short cut
across the park, and led him to a paddock, in which his master kept a
favourite bull. He thrust the preacher into it and fastened the gate.
What ensued is matter of guess-work. A yell and a bellow were heard,
and some object was seen projected into the air over the hedge. Soon
after Black John appeared at the Hall with a white tie in his hands,
which he gave to his master, and said, “This be the vag-ends of the
minister--all I could recover.”
“When gout and old age had imprisoned Mr. Arscott in his easy chair,
Black John nuzzled among the ashes of the vast wood fires of the
hearth, or lay coiled upon his rug like some faithful mastiff watching
every look and gesture of his master; starting up to fill the pipe or
tankard of old ale, and then crouching again. At the squire’s death and
funeral, the agony of the misshapen retainer was unappeasable. He had
to be removed by force from the door of the vault, and then he utterly
refused to depart from the neighbourhood of the grave. He made himself
another lair, near the churchyard wall, and there he sobbed away the
brief remnant of his days.”
The story goes that on one long and tremendous chase, Dogget running by
his master’s horse--
“How far do you make it?” said Simon the son.
“The day that’s declining will shortly be done.”
“We’ll follow till Doomsday,” quoth Arscott,--before
They hear the Atlantic with menacing roar.
On this occasion the chase continued to Penkenner.
Through Whitstone, and Poundstock, St. Genny’s they run,
Like a fire-ball, red, in the sea set the sun.
Then out on Penkenner--a leap, and they go,
Full five hundred feet to the ocean below.
In this memorable run, the fox went over the cliffs and the hounds
after him; but Arscott and the rest of the hunters drew up, and
though he lost his hounds, he did not lose his life. Penkenner is
a magnificent and sheer cliff, west of St. Genny’s Church. A deep
cleft is on one side, and Crackington Cove on the other. There was no
possible escape for the fox. As to the “sons of the Blue” who were in
this memorable run with Arscott, of Tetcott, opinions differ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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