On a hill above Buckfastleigh in Devon, beside a burnt-out church, stands a small barred building over a chest tomb. Local tradition says it holds Richard Cabell, a squire who sold his soul, and says it was built to keep him in. Very little of that is documented.
The Horror
Richard Cabell was lord of the manor of Brook, near Buckfastleigh, and built the manor house there in 1656. He died on 5 July 1677 and was buried in a sepulchre at Holy Trinity. That is the documented part.
The rest is legend and is mostly unsourced. He is said to have been nicknamed “Dirty Dick”, to have had a reputation for immorality, and to have sold his soul to the Devil. A rumour that he murdered his wife has no evidence behind it, and she was alive when his will was dated 1671. After his burial, the legend goes, a phantom pack of black hounds howled at his tomb and then ran across Dartmoor with him on the anniversary of his death. The villagers are said to have put a heavy slab over the tomb and built a structure over it to keep his spirit down.
Even the tomb itself is uncertain. The names inscribed inside the mausoleum are Richard (died 1612), Susanna (died 1597) and Richard (died 1655). Cabell, who died in 1677, is only reputed to be buried there.
The Modern Relic
The structure is a Grade II* listed building, known locally as the Sepulchre. It has recently been restored, including its grille and coving. The church beside it was burnt out by arson in 1992, and the congregation moved to St Luke’s in the town. The church advises against entering the ruin because of loose stones. The tomb’s custodians say the legends around it are mostly of very doubtful truth.
The legend reached a much wider audience through Arthur Conan Doyle. In June 1901 he explored Dartmoor with the journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson, and The Hound of the Baskervilles ran in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902. Its Hugo Baskerville is a cruel squire killed by a spectral hound, and Cabell is generally named as the main inspiration. Doyle never confirmed that. When he was asked in 1907, he said the story rested on a remark by Fletcher Robinson about a dog legend on the moor connected with an old family. He did not name Cabell.
