Legend Land, Volume 2 | Page 4

producing a walnut-shell with a hole in it, handed it to
the hound and addressed it.
"Knowles," he began, "this shows me plainly that in life thou tookest
more heed of worldly gain than of immortality, and thou didst bargain
with the powers of evil. There is but one hope of rest for thee. When
thou shalt have dipped out this pool with the shell I have given thee,
thou shalt find peace, but not before. Go, work out thy salvation."
With a mournful howl that was heard as far as Widdicombe in the
Moor, the hound leapt into the pool to begin its hopeless labour, and
there, exactly at midnight or midday, they say, you may still see it at its
task.
Buckfastleigh is on a branch line that runs up from Totnes, skirting
Dartmoor, to Ashburton. All around is some of the most glorious

scenery in Devon. Buckfast Abbey, founded in 1148 and for centuries a
ruin, was purchased by French Benedictines in 1882, and is now a live
and busy monastery once again.
Just beyond Dean Combe is Dean Prior, a place of the greatest literary
interest, for it was the home of the poet Herrick for many years.
The country all about abounds in objects of beauty and interest, yet is
all too often neglected by the holiday-maker at the neighbouring
seaside towns a few miles away, or the scurrying motorist speeding
down along the Plymouth road.
[Illustration: Buckfast Abbey]
[Illustration]

THE DEMON WHO HELPED DRAKE
All the demons of whom the old folks tell in the West Country were not
evil spirits. Some, like that one who helped Sir Francis Drake, worked
good magic for the benefit of those to whom they attached themselves.
To Drake's demon a number of good deeds are attributed. One story
they tell of him is of those days when the news of the fitting out of the
mighty Spanish Armada had caused a thrill of apprehension to sweep
through the country. The danger that threatened was very great, and
Drake, like all of those who were charged with the safeguarding of our
shores, was vastly worried, although he kept his worries to himself.
And one day, as the story goes, the great admiral was sitting, weighed
down with anxiety, making and remaking his plans, on Devil's Point, a
promontory that runs out into Plymouth Sound. As he was thinking,
almost unconsciously he began whittling a stick. How, he wondered,
could he find enough ships to combat the enormous force the King of
Spain was sending against him?
Looking up from his reverie, at length, across the Sound, he started in

happy surprise, for floating quite close to the shore he saw a number of
well-armed gunboats; each chip that he had cut from the stick having
been so transformed by the magic of his friendly demon.
Later, when Drake had achieved his great victory over the Spaniards,
Queen Elizabeth gave him Buckland Abbey. When he took possession,
the legend goes, there was great need for stables and outhouses, and
building work was set in train at once.
After his first night there, one of Drake's servants was amazed to find
how much building had been done, and, feeling that something unusual
must be going on during the hours of darkness, he secreted himself in a
tree at dusk the next evening to see what happened. There he fell asleep,
but towards midnight he was awakened by the tramp of animals and the
creaking of wheels. Looking down, he saw several ox teams
approaching, each dragging a wagon filled with building materials and
led by a weird spectre form.
As the first team passed by, the spectre, urging the weary beasts on,
plucked from the earth the tree in which the servant was hiding, in
order to beat them. The unfortunate servant was cast to the ground, and,
picking himself up, ran in terror to the house.
His violent fall injured him seriously, and they say that the fright made
him half-witted for the rest of his life. Still, he recovered sufficiently to
tell others of what he had seen, and to explain the mystery of the
miraculous speed with which Buckland Abbey's outbuildings were
constructed.
Buckland Abbey lies between Plymouth and Tavistock, close to the
banks of the pretty River Tavy. Drake built his house there on the site
of a thirteenth-century abbey, some remains of which are still to be
found.
Preserved in Buckland Abbey is Drake's Drum, the beating of which in
time of national danger would, so they say, bring the great Elizabethan
sailor back from his ocean grave by the Spanish Main to fight once
more for his country.

Plymouth, the port with which Drake is so closely associated, is a town
brimful of interest, magnificently situated