But the chief object
of interest at Marldon appeared to be a six-barred gate called the
Gallows Gate, which stood near the spot where the three parishes
converged: Kingskerswell, Cockington, and Marldon; near this the
culprits from those three places were formerly hanged. We looked for the
gate in the direction pointed out to us, but failed to find it. Some
people in the village thought its name of the Gallows Gate was derived
from an incident which occurred there many years ago. A sheep-stealer
had killed a sheep, and was carrying it home slung round his shoulders
when he came to this gate. Finding it fastened, he was climbing over,
when in the dark his foot slipped and the cord got across his neck. The
weight of the carcase as it fell backwards, added to his own, caused him
to be choked, so that he was literally hanged upon the gate instead of
the gallows for what was in those days a capital offence.
After passing the Beacon Hill, we had very fine views over land and sea,
extending to Dartmoor and Dartmouth, and with a downward gradient we
soon came to Berry Pomeroy, the past and present owners of which had
been associated with many events recorded in the history of England,
from the time of William the Conqueror, who bestowed the manor, along
with many others, on one of his followers named Ralph de Pomeroy.
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