r
Beardmore, the under-sheriff, being a friend of the Doctor's, permitted
him to stand unconfined on the platform of the pillory, attended by a
servant in livery holding an umbrella over him.' It is lamentable that
the authorities were sufficiently vindictive and small-minded to visit
this act of friendly tolerance on Mr Beardmore with a fine of L50 and
two months' imprisonment. Dr. Shebbeare was also imprisoned; but later
in life the tide turned, and the King was persuaded to pension him with
L200. As Dr Johnson was pensioned about the same time, with the same
sum, the joke ran that the King had shown benevolence to a He Bear and a
She Bear.

It is also impossible to do more than touch on the tragic episode of
1682--the trial of three unhappy women, Susanna Edwards, Temperance
Lloyd, and Mary Trembles, who were accused of having practised
witchcraft. Here are a few fragments of the evidence given at the trial.
A witness said that, while nursing a sick woman, a magpie fluttered once
against the window, and that Temperance admitted that this 'was the
black man in the shape of a bird.' Another time 'a grey or braget cat'
of rather mysterious movements was an object of suspicion, and
Temperance was reported to have confessed that 'she believed it to be
the Devil.' The evidence of a dead woman was brought forward, she having
'deposed that the said Temperance had appeared to her in the shape of a
red pig.' Susanna Edwards, under strict examination, 'confesseth that
the Devil hath appeared to her in the shape of a Lyon, as she supposed.'

Some of the questions put to the wretched 'witches' were simply
grotesque, and reflect, as Watkins caustically observes, on the
intelligence of the examiner. Temperance was asked:

'Temperance, how did you come in to hurt Mrs Grace Thomas? Did you pass
through the key-hole of the door, or was the door open?...

'H. [the examiner]. Did you know any Marriners, that you or your
Associates destroyed, by overturning of ships or boats?

'TEMPERANCE. No! I never hurt any ship, bark, or boat in my life.

'H. You say you never hurt ships nor boats; did you never ride over an
arm of the sea on a Cow?'

To the north of Bideford is a little peninsula formed by the mouth of
the Torridge on the east, the far wider estuary of the Taw on the north,
and the open sea on the west. The whole course of the Torridge is very
capricious. The source is within four miles of the sea, not far south of
Hartland,