story of Ruth Pierce of Potterne. 



27'6 



THE MARKET CROSS, DEVIZES. 



This inscription was by order of the authorities, recorded on a 

 tablet and hung up in the Market House, a row of sheds near the 

 cross. When that building was taken down it was transferred to 

 the pediment of a couple of pillars which stood opposite the Bear 

 Inn, supporting the sign of that house. No long time afterwards 

 Lord Sidmouth presented to the town the new Market Cross, and 

 the authorities then availed themselves of a panel in the new struc- 

 ture, to use their own language, " to transmit to future times a 

 record of an awful event which occured in this Market Place, in the 

 year 1753, hoping that such a record may serve as a salutary warning 

 against the danger of impiously invoking divine vengeance, or of 

 calling on the Holy Name of God to conceal the devices of falsehood 

 and fraud. 



A small tract based on this occurrence entitled " Ruth Pierce or 

 the evil consequence of Lying," and also a short handbill headed 

 " The Lie Punished," were published many years since by the Re- 

 ligious Tract Society. A religious tale, founded also on the same 

 materials, in which the whole circumstances are graphically described, 

 will be found in the first volume of Sunday Evening Readings, by 

 the Rev. H. C. Adams. 



The original inquisition on Ruth Pierce of Potteme, bearing date 



