TRADITIONS OF WIDDICOMBE. 389 



side to the river. A romantic story cleaves to this 

 cliff. A too-confiding maiden, deeply wronged by her 

 lover, leaped, Sappho-like, from the summit; and 

 hence the sheer descent bears the name of the Lover's 

 Leap. 



We heard a good deal of Widdicombe " Widdi- 

 combe in the cold country;" "Widdicombe in the 

 Moor;" "Widdicombe in the Dartmoors;" "you 

 must see Widdicombe by all means." Our curiosity 

 was excited, and we set out. We wished, too, to see 

 Widdicombe Tower, that tall embattled structure 

 noted for its architectural beauty, and not less for its 

 having been the scene of a most fatal elemental war. 

 A terrible thunderstorm burst into the church during 

 afternoon service, Oct. 21, 1638, and besides crushing 

 and defacing the material building, killed four per- 

 sons, and more or less wounded sixty-two. One of 

 these was slain with unusual circumstances of horror. 

 " Another man," says the local record, " had his head 

 cloven, his skull wrent into three pieces, and his brains 

 thrown upon the ground whole ; but the hair of his 

 head, through the violence of the blow, stuck fast to a 

 pillar near him, where it remained a woeful spectacle 

 a long time after." Tradition affirms that the sufferer 

 was sacrilegiously playing at cards in his pew at the 

 time ; and that it was the Prince of Darkness himself 

 who, riding on the thunderbolt, accomplished the 

 vengeance. 



Well, Widdicombe and its tower must be seen. 

 So we set out in the hard gray morning, leaving Ash- 



