“In the depths of the moor, the peat may be seen riven like floes of ice, and the rifts are sometimes twelve to fourteen feet deep, cut through black vegetable matter, the product of decay of plants through countless generations.”

English Anglican priest and writer

Sabine Baring-Gould was an English Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk-song collector, and scholar from Devon, England. He is known for his wide-ranging work across religious writing, local history, fiction, and the study of traditional song. He wrote as an antiquarian and scholar with unusually broad interests, and his work touched on saints’ lives, regional history, and folklore. As a collector of folk songs, he helped preserve traditional material that might otherwise have been lost, while his writing also reflected his role as a priest and his interest in English cultural life.