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Things New and Old Item 19: Two Literary Worthies of Widecombe

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This is the nineteenth item from Robert Dymond’s book: “Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbourhood” (1876)

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TWO LITERARY WORTHIES OF WIDECOMBE.

WHEN the news of the victory of Waterloo penetrated to Widecombe, it found the parishioners mourning the recent loss of their gifted vicar, the Rev. JOHN RENDLE, M.A. He is still well remembered by the older inhabitants, and was the immediate predecessor of the Rev. J. H. Mason, whose memory is yet green amongst them. Mr. Rendle was a native of Tiverton, was educated at Blundell’s Grammar School in that town—Where many a living worthy of Devon Received his early training and afterwards became Mathematical Lecturer at Sid. Suss. Coll, Camb., and Fellow of his College. His chief literary work was a History of the Emperor Tiberius, or rather a vindication of that monarch, written during his incumbency of Widecombe, and published only the year before his death by Gilbert Dyer of Exeter. He died on the 22nd May, 1815, in his 57th year.

GILBERT DYER, the publisher of Mr. Rendle’s History, was a native of Widecombe, having been born in the little hamlet of Dunstone, about half-a-mile below the village. He was the son of Gilbert and Mary Dyer, and was baptised by the Rev. Thomas Granger, vicar of the parish, on the 14th September, 1743. We learn from a notice by the late learned Dr. Oliver, that young Gilbert’s father was a schoolmaster of superior abilities, who exercised his profession chiefly at Moreton. After assisting his father for some time, the young man went to Exeter, and was appointed master of the school at Tucker’s Hall, in June, 1767, with the modest stipend of £10 a-year and the use of the under hall for a school. During the twenty-one years that he held this situation, he conciliated the esteem of the governors and the affection of his pupils, not only by his literary and mathematical acquirements, but by his diligence, probity, and gentle manners. About the year 1788 he entered on business as a bookseller, in Exeter, in a shop opposite the Guildhall, which continued to be devoted to the trade down to a recent period. Here he was very successful; his capital, added to discrimination, a prodigious memory, and knowledge of dates, prices, and sizes, enabled him to make valuable purchases, whilst his candour and liberality won the confidence of his customers. His catalogues are well known to collectors ; and indeed no bookseller in the West of England had ever offered for sale so great a variety of scarce and select publications. Mr. Dyer was also known as an author. In 1796 he published a Tract, which he reprinted in 1814, proving from the Nature of Man the fallacy of Atheism and Deism. In 1805, he produced a work of 295 pages, entitled “A Restoration of the ancient mode of bestowing names on the rivers, hills, valleys, plains, and settlements of Britain.”His Commentary on Richard of Cirencester and Antoninus’ Itineraries of Britain was published in 1814, but its preface and introduction were not completed till 1816. All these treatises display considerable industry and research. The veteran bookseller closed his well-spent life on the 19th of October, 1820, deservedly esteemed and regretted as a man of erudition, strictly independent in his principles, and distinguished by sterling integrity and an obliging deportment. His son inherited, with the business, the estimable qualities of his parent.