o the chancel; and in one of the
windows of the north aisle is a bit of very old, though not very
beautiful, stained glass. A gallery at the west end bears a series of
panels emblazoned with coats of arms. In the chancel is some Jacobean
carving, and behind the altar there stand a double row of carved eagles,
most of them drooping their heads to one side. Close to the church is a
huge tithe barn, the date of which appears to be between 1450 and 1500.
In a little entry-way joining the Rectory lie the old stocks, opposite
carved panels, and the wood of which is so old that it has almost lost
its grain.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the rector of the parish,
the Rev. Charles Brown, collected a large amount of varied information
concerning the parish into a manuscript volume, and from this record the
present rector has most kindly allowed me to make some extracts. Mr
Brown begins by explaining the meaning of the name, derived from the
Celtic _Wad_, a hill or ridge, which became in time _Whit_, and _don_,
land--Whitstone, the hill land. Whitstone certainly deserves the name,
as it is high, looking towards Dartmoor, but the Celtic form is more
correctly kept by a hill in the parish, which is still called Wadaldon,
or more commonly Waddlesdown.

Against the entries of burials in the parish register Mr Brown made
biographical notes, pithy, and quite free from that too flattering note
often sounded in epitaphs. Here are some examples:

'William Speare, D.D., buried 1812.... He formed a Paddock of 120 acres
[of land left him in this parish]. His penuriousness was as remarkable
as his taste. Often I have seen him in Exeter, whither he rode every
day, with one spur only, and that tied to his boot with string.

'1814.--James Hammett, 39, was before he came to reside in Whitstone, a
follower of Joanna Southcott, from whom he purchased for half a crown a
piece of parchment, which was to entitle him to free admission into
Heaven.

'1820.--James Sutton, 82, was for many years Sexton of the Parish, was
buried according to his request near the Rectory Granary. He said that
the Rector had been very kind to him; he would lie as near as possible
to his house.

'1829.--Ann Hexter, School-mistress at home and Mistress of the Sunday
School many years. Was for twenty years occasionally insane, and at last
never free from lunacy.

'1832.--William Earls--poor--humble--honest--was made happy by my
present of what he called