tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897615916165646799.post381499181200160613..comments2023-05-07T21:32:19.154+01:00Comments on Wayland Wordsmith: THE PARSON AND THE CLERK ROCKUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897615916165646799.post-26236092961619951902010-07-21T21:10:39.545+01:002010-07-21T21:10:39.545+01:00PS I just investigated some more and I think I'...PS I just investigated some more and I think I've tracked it to source, a weird little 1848 privately-published anthology called <i>Legends of Devon</i>: see <a href="http://segalbooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/parsons-unknown.html" rel="nofollow">Parsons unknown</a>. I had server trouble and haven't got them at this instant, but there are older references to the rocks having the name: but, as you say, they refer to the physical resemblance, not some complicated backstory.Ray Girvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897615916165646799.post-26255544151110176182010-07-21T21:02:42.461+01:002010-07-21T21:02:42.461+01:00Thanks for pushing the 'legend' back half ...Thanks for pushing the 'legend' back half a century. I first met it in Nummits and Crummits (1900?) but I like the splayed dead bodies at the end of the EJ version much better than 'parsons turned to stone.' I must say that I find the story horribly contrived and annoying, largely because its begetter, and I feel sure it was a sole one, seems to want us to ignore the wonderful fun of the name for the rocks which, especially from the sea, look just like parson and clerk of a Sunday in a double decker pulpit in a Devon church. I shall blog it further one day.Wayland Wordsmithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10886630353709468426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897615916165646799.post-79979279447633842262010-07-21T16:39:28.761+01:002010-07-21T16:39:28.761+01:00now that it is over a hundred years old I suppose ...<i>now that it is over a hundred years old I suppose it must be considered a genuine antique</i><br /><br />Oh, we can take it back further than that ; in <i>Notes & Queries</i> in 1868, someone mentions - <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9UoAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA592&dq=parson+clerk+dawlish+bishop&hl=en&ei=7BBHTMShENvPjAfU9JD1Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=parson%20clerk%20dawlish%20bishop&f=false" rel="nofollow">here</a> - reading it in a book called <i>Legends of Devon</i> they bought in 1853 ... but rightly speculating to what extent these legends were invented by the authors who anthologised them.Ray Girvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.com