rs, but took another office out of the hands of the clergy. No
marriage might take place without the registrar's certificate that he
had called the banns. The couple then took the certificate to the
nearest magistrate, who, after hearing each of them repeat a brief
formula, was authorized to declare them legally married.

Mr Snell's exclamation of distress appears under a notice which
'certyfyed John Calder (?) of the parish of Thurelston to bee Register
of the sayde Parish,' and was signed by 'Will Bastard,' and dated
'September 20th, 1653.' Above and below the date is written:

'Monstrum horrendum informe.
[This is y^e Houre and Y^e]
Anno Dom. 1653.
[Power of darkness.]'

On Mr Snell's tombstone is a long Latin epitaph, from an English version
of which the following lines are taken:

'He was the silent storehouse of the poor,
The dear delight of those who needed nought,
To all the pattern of a holy life.'

The Thurlestone chronicle records a certain number of beliefs and
charms, and on one of them the present rector makes a note of peculiar
interest: 'The Bishop of Malborough [Dr Earle, then Vicar of West
Alvington and Malborough] tells me that his curate, the Rev. Robert
Hole, South Huish, saw this charm used successfully to stop blood on a
man called James Pierie.

'A CURE FOR STAUNCHING BLOOD.

'Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
The water was wild in the wood,
He spake the word and it stood,
And so will (--'s --'s) blood,'

'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. 'Used by Betty Edgecombe, white witch of Malborough and West
Alvington.'

Not far from Thurlestone was another parson who worked hard to embarrass
the besiegers of the Royalists in Salcombe Castle, and who had his share
of thrilling adventures. Mr Lane was the rector of Aveton Giffard, a
parish at the head of the estuary of the Avon, which opens into Bigbury
Bay. When the war broke out he took an active part, in conjunction with
several gentlemen in the neighbourhood, in 'raising Succours for his
Majesty.' And at the same time he began to make a 'Fort on a Hill' (part
of the Glebe), which commanded the bridge over the Avon, crossed by
Parliamentary troops marching to the siege of the Castle. Meanwhile,
soldiers from Plymouth came up in boats, plundered the house, and took,
says Mr Lane's youngest son, 'Two of my brethren, _Richard_ and _John_,