The first and one of the greatest difficulties to confront a writer who attempts any sort of description of a place or people is almost sure to be the answer to the question, How much must be left out? In the present case the problem has reappeared in every chapter, for Devon is 'a fair province,' as Prince says in his 'Worthies of Devon,' and 'the happy parent of . a noble offspring.' My position is that of a person who has been bidden to take from a great heap of precious stones as many as are needed to make one chain; for however grasping.
