If the song existed in 1710, and referred to this John Arscott, it was no doubt written still earlier. The last of the Arscotts, however, Black John’s master, would seem more likely to be the subject of it. Mr. Baring-Gould, who includes it among his “Songs of the West,” says that one of the many versions supplied to him was dated 1772, which would suit this theory. Hawker himself published the song in “Willis’s Current Notes” for December, 1853, and it has since his death been erroneously included in his poems, for apparently he only claimed to have been the first to print it, though he doubtless added some touches of his own. Black John is mentioned in his version, and Mr. Baring-Gould says that “the author of the song is said to have been one Dogget, who used to run after Arscott’s fox-hounds on foot.” A search for this name in the parish registers of Tetcott and Stratton has proved unsuccessful. Mr. R. P. Chope found a version of the song current at Hartland, and an old man there (over eighty in 1903) says that his father used to sing it seventy years ago. From Luke’s book we learn that-- “The Old house at Tetcott, which, as well as the mansion of Dunsland, had been built under the superintendence of the Architect sent by the government of Charles II. to build Stowe for the Earl of Bath, was taken down in 1831, and a Gothic cottage constructed in its stead. The demolition of the ancient structure was a very unpopular act, and the old crones of the neighbourhood shake their heads and say that Black John and Driver (a staghound), when the Cottage was burnt down a few years only after it had been built, were seen yelling and dancing round the flames. The origin of that fire was never ascertained.” [Illustration: STOWE: THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN, EARL OF BATH, SON OF SIR BEVILL GRANVILLE] Hawker’s poem, “Tetcott, 1831,” which is all his own, is an elegy on the destruction of the old house. He quotes one stanza of it on p. 87 of the present volume. The present representative of John Arscott’s family, Mrs. Ford, of Pencarrow, describes Tetcott as “an imposing Queen Anne’s house,” and speaks of “the front door steps under which John Arscott’s pet toad resided, and every morning came out to be fed by his kind master till the envious peacock killed him.” * * * * * Mrs. Calmady, of Great Tree, Chagford, writes as follows:--