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In the porch of the Church is the following inscription cut in stone :— " On 

 Monday, the 27th day of May, 1811, between the hours of 5 and 9 p.m., the 

 village of Mordiford was visited by a tremendous storm of thunder, lightning, 

 wind, and rain, by which the little river Pentaloe was swollen in some places to 

 an extent of 180 feet in width, with a depth of 20 feet. In passing the village it 

 swept away a large barn and cider-mill and a cottage adjoining, when William 

 Husbands, miller, Ann Edwards, his niece, Elizabeth Greenly, widow, and her 

 infant child, Jemima, were drowned. Just above the said village, on the road 

 leading to Woolhope, many hundred tons of rock were blown up and carried 

 through the said village, by which several of the houses of the inhabitants were 

 much injured and the gardens nearly destroyed. A subscription was promoted for 

 the principal suflFerers, and a sum of eighty pounds was collected and distributed 

 among them in proportion to their respective losses. — Charles John Bibd, A.M., 

 Rector of Mordiford." 



Judge Cooke in his 3rd volume of DuncumVs History, gives the following 

 particulars relating to 



[THE DRAGON OF MORDIFORD]. 



" The form of an animal, supposed to represent a dragon, was depicted on 

 the west end of this Church from a remote date until 1811, when, obliterated 

 during repairs to the edifice, it was not renewed. In A.U., 1670, Mr. Blount 

 observed "On the wall of this Church a serpent is pictured with this inscription : — 



This is the true effigies of the strange 

 Prodigious monster, which our woods did range. 

 In Eastwood it 1)5' Garson's hand was slayne, 

 A truth which old mythologists maintayne. 



" In 1799 an intelligent tourist, visiting this neighbourhood remarks, 'The 

 end of the Church of Mordiford is decorated with a painting of a large Green 

 Dragon ; an ornament so unusual and seemingly unconnected with the nature and 

 design of a place of worship, naturally excited our curiosity, which after some 

 inquiries was gratified. The stoi-y was told with great seriousness, and is 

 confidently believed in all its particulars by hundreds, and perhaps thousands, 

 without ever attempting to divest it of the absurdities which oppose credibility. 

 They further told us that the figure on the Church presents the exact size of the 

 dragon, which must have been 12 feet long. Its head is depicted of a very large 

 size, with a terrible aspect, a red mouth, and forked tongue. The wings are 

 elevated and expanded, and it is web-footed.' Another writer describes its sides 

 as being painted green and gold, having griffin-like wings, with a large and 

 formidable tail. 



" The traditional account is that a dangerous animal infested the woody and 

 rocky declivities in this vicinity, and that its ravages resembled those of the famed 

 Dragon of Wantley ; that this animal was destroyed by stratagem, and that its 

 existence was commemorated by the painting. A condemned criminal having 

 promise of pardon, provided he destroyed the monster, is supposed to have 

 accomplished the feat, when the animal was reposing, after his daily feeding, near 



