the name of John
Wilkins, who was minister from 1647 to 1660 when, as a Nonconformist,
he was deprived of the living.

The vicarage was originally built in 1529 by Canon Brerewood, who
erected the stone screen of the Pole chapel. It has been altered and
partly rebuilt, but the porch retains the original inscription placed
there by the Canon--" _Meditatio totum; Peditatio totum_."

Colcombe Castle, half a mile from the town, is now Colcombe Farm. It
was once the seat of the Courtenays and the headquarters of Prince
Maurice during the Civil War. In 1680 the Duke of Monmouth stayed
either here or at the Great House near by, now a farm, but once
occupied by the Yonges. An old stone arch in a field above the castle
covers a spring of clear cold water.

Seaton Hole, the western extremity of Seaton Bay, lies under White
Head, which is not white but brownish grey. Up the steps from the
beach, a path leads from the "Hole" for a mile of steep up and down
walking and then the explorer reaches Beer, famous for its "free
trade" and its memories of a prince of smugglers--Jack Rattenbury;
the 'Arrypay of Seaton Bay. His adventures, though not on the grand
scale of the hero of Poole, were exciting enough, from his capture by
the French, while ship's-boy on a local coaster, to his attempted
arrest by a posse of soldiers in a Beer inn, where his escape was
effected by the women of the village raising the cry "A wreck! a
wreck!" and diverting his captors' attention. Rattenbury died in 1833
after receiving the princely sum of one shilling per week pension
during the last years of his life from Lord Rolle. During this period
he dictated his memoirs for publication in Sidmouth, to an editor who
unconsciously gave the book a delicious touch of humour by putting
into the mouth of this son of a Devon shoemaker the grandiloquent
phrases of an early Victorian divine.

[Illustration: BEER.]

The picturesque and unspoilt little beach and the village street
leading down to the sea are in great contrast to the new houses built
on the hill behind, and the fine new church erected at the instance of
the Lord of the Manor, one of the Rolle family. This replaced an
ancient chapel dedicated to St. Michael, from which two old memorial
tablets were transferred; one is to "Edward Good, late an Industrious
fisherman," who left twenty pounds in trust for the poor of Beer and
Seaton in 1804, and the other to "John, the fifth sonn of William
Starr of Bere,