Dictionary.net

An English antiquary and novelist; born in Exeter in 1834. He graduated from Cambridge in 1856, and has been since 1881 rector of Lew-Trenchard in Devon. He is author of "Iceland: Its Scenes and Sagas" (1864); "The Book of Werewolves" (1865); "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages" (series 1 and 2, 1866-67); "Lives of the Saints" (1872-79); "Yorkshire Oddities" (2 vols., 1874); and "Germany Past and Present" (2 vols., 1879). He has written religious books, and of late years novels which have become popular. They include: "Mehalah: a Story of the Salt Marshes" (2 vols., London, 1880); "John Herring" (2 vols., 1883); "Red Spider" (1887); "Grettis the Outlaw" (1890); and "The Broom Squire" (1896).