Legend of the Parson and Clerk

The tale revolves around a clergyman, his clerk and their encounter with the Devil, with the setting being near a natural arch located in proximity to the towns of Teignmouth and Dawlish, Devon, England.

The Parson and Clerk are composed of relatively friable sedimentary Teignmouth Breccia of Permian age, as are all the nearby cliffs.

Robert Hunt (in 1881)[3] and Sarah Hewett (1900)[4] relates that a certain Bishop of Exeter fell ill and came to Dawlish to restore his health.

Eager to secure his chance for promotion the priest prepared to leave, together with the clerk and the guide; however the horses refused to move.

After liberal use of his whip and spurs the priest cried Devil take the brutes, upon which the guide exclaimed Thank you, sir and shouted Gee up.

[3] An unidentified elderly and still ambitious clergyman, who had acted as chaplain to a Royal Duke, had a stall at Wells, a prebend at Norwich, and a precentorship in Ireland was promised, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the next vacant See.

After taking eight grains of opium the Parson and Clerk depart for Teignmouth in a direction suggested by the Leech, who promises them, "Safe lodgings and warm, I warrent ye", if they keep the rocks on their right.

Two huge pillars of sandstone are found to have appeared on the shoreline though, with one topped with a rock formation resembling a cauliflower wig.

In the version published in "Popular romances of the west of England; or, The drolls, traditions, and superstitions of old Cornwall" the guests at the feast turn into demons.

[10][11] The rocks are visible in Murray Secretan's 1935 Great Western Railway centenary poster, almost certainly painted from Parson's Tunnel signal box.