182 THE STORY OF THE BETT1SCOMBE SKULL. 



for the kindness with which they are invariably received und shown over the 

 house. After laying the " foundation coin " of this now charity I turned my 

 back on the old house, feeling assured that its " ghostly tenant " would no 

 longer pine for burial when by staying above ground it might afford the means 

 of benofitting that church in whose soil it ought now to he resting. 



I there added that in the Bridport News of September, 

 1890, appeared some verses on " The Skull at Bettisconibe," 

 from a Lyme Regis correspondent, which afforded evidence 

 that the writer was aware of the suggested negro origin of the 

 skull and of the story that it had at one time been thrown 

 into the water. These lines, though not devoid of literary 

 merit, were written in rather too jocular and flippant a vein 

 for me to include them in my more serious collection of matters 

 bearing on the subject.* 



During a short holiday which I spent in England in 1906 I 

 paid another visit to Bettiscombe, and found matters in much 

 the same condition as when I was there last. The property, 

 which had for some time parted from the possession of the 

 Pinney family, had again recently changed hands, and another 

 tenant acted as the custodian of the skull. This good lady, 

 apparently for the convenience of her visitors, kept the skull 

 safe from injury in a band-box, but the whole was kindly 

 produced for my inspection ; whilst I found that the old 

 attics to which I had on my earlier visit reverently returned 

 it were as ruinous and dangerous to traverse as ever Perhaps 

 this was the reason for the change in the skull's resting-place, 

 but it had a depressing effect upon me though at this time I 

 was aware, of course, of the greater interest that might 

 justly be attributed to the skull in connection with my recent 

 discoveries in the Island of Nevis, which will form the subject 

 of the second part of this paper. I felt that the charm of the 

 old associations had, for me, in great measure departed. 



* Conf : an interesting parallel to this superstition amongst the natives 

 of British New Guinea which I gathered from a Blue-Book on the affairs 

 of that dependency (1899) and an account of which I sent to "Notes and 

 Queries " (7th Series X., 461). 



