Excerpt from Widecombe Fair A modest comedy Of Dartmoor, planned more than twenty years ago, is now finished, and it may be permitted to address those few fellow-artists and amateurs who have honoured me with their interest to the end. They are invited to judge the work as a whole and from no fragment; they are asked to consider it as a frieze, carved largely and roughly, whereon victors, vanquished, and spectators of the ceaseless struggle play their parts in the great hypaethral theatre Of the Western Moors. The workmanship is archaic, yet I venture to claim form and an economy of means so austere that the difficulties have often conquered me. But in the temples of art every servant shall find his or her place and while the greatest alone can fill the niche, wreathe the column, and adorn the holy Of holies, the least may bring something to make fair each nook and corner, may add a minor fresco, or piece of patient carving, that shall not shrink from the sunbeam. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.