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Cornish Characters and Strange Events

THE BOTATHAN GHOST

Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
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The Rev. P. T. Pulman, vicar of South Petherwin, writes to me: "In December, 1896, a labourer died here, aged seventy-two. For upwards of forty years he had worked at Botathan. He told me that one of the fields was called the Higher Brown Park (he did not know the name of Quartells) until the field was ploughed up. He told me there was a little path in it which they called old Dorothy Dinglet's [sic] path, and that they used to frighten the farm apprentices with stories about her, but he had never met her himself. The farm has been sold of recent years. There is a part of the old house left used for a cider cellar. They call it Dorothy Dingley's chamber."
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The Rev. James Dingley was vicar of South Petherwin from 1682 until 1695. He was born 1655, just ten years before the apparition was seen by young Bligh.
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Authorities: A. Robbins, "A Cornish Ghost Story," in the Cornish Magazine, 1898; A. Robbins, Launceston Past and Present, 1889. The portrait of the Rev. John Ruddle is in my possession. The descendants of Parson Ruddle or Rudall are still on the land, but are in a humble condition.

Source attribution

Cornish Characters and Strange Events, Project Gutenberg eBook #41775

HENRY TRENGROUSE, INVENTOR JOHN COUCH ADAMS, ASTRONOMER