21 SEPTEMBER 1912, Page 15

A LINK WITH THE PAST.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]

Sin,—A few days ago I saw at Biddlecombe, a farmhouse about a mile and a half from Widecombe, a farmer's wife whose father went when a boy of seven to Widecombe Fair in order to see the first cart that had ever been taken to Widecombe. He remembered how the farmers and their apprentices flocked to see the new wonder. 17p to that time the sole means of carriage in this neighbourhood had been by pack-horse with " crocks " and " dung-pots." I gave my informant a run in my car, and so, in two generations, they have passed from pack-horses to motor cars in this moorland