Christmas Day, according to the beautiful legend of the county, to bid

'"Each fettered ghost slip to his several grave."

The very oxen at midnight will fall down on their knees before the
manger. The next turn brings us to the Otter rushing along some forty
feet below with angry stream.' Almost at the mouth of the river is the
village of Otterton, and here was a Benedictine Priory, founded in the
reign of King John. The Prior of this little monastery had certain
privileges. Amongst others, ten marks had to be subscribed among the
tenants for 'a palfrey to be presented to a new Prior on his coming to
reside in the midst of his flock, and every plough had to plough one
acre of land for him annually.' He had the 'right of pre-emption of fish
in all his ports, and the choice of the best fish.' Conger-eels were
specially mentioned in a marginal note. Besides this, he claimed every
porpoise caught in the sea or other neighbouring waters, but paid for it
with twelve pence and a loaf of white bread to each sailor, and two to
the master of the boat from which it was caught. Lastly, the Prior
claimed the half of every dolphin. But no Prior is likely to have had
many chances of asserting this right.

The river runs into the sea by the charming little town of Budleigh
Salterton; but it is more interesting to cross the water at Otterton,
and passing through the village of East Budleigh, nearly opposite, to go
towards Hayes Barton, the house where Sir Walter Raleigh was born.

Fardell, near Ivybridge, was the ancestral home of the Raleighs, but Sir
Walter's father settled at Budleigh. In front of the garden a swirling
stream crosses a strip of green; and in the garden, at the right time,
one may see the bees busy among golden-powdered clusters of candytuft,
and dark-red gillyflowers, and a few flame-rose-coloured tulips, proud
and erect. The house is very picturesque; it has cob walls and a
thatched roof, and is built in the shape of the letter E; a wing
projects at either end, and in the middle the porch juts out slightly.
The two wings are gabled; there is a small gable over the porch and two
dormer ones over the windows at each side of it, the windows having
lattice lights and narrow mullions. Dark carved beams above them show up
well against the cream-coloured walls. The heavy door is closely studded
with nails, and over it fall the delicate sprays and lilac 'butterfly'
blossoms of a wistaria. The house has been little