Swimbridge

For almost half a century from 1833 this attractive village was the home of the Rev John “Jack” Russell, the celebrated hunting parson and breeder of the first Jack Russell terriers. A larger than life character, he was an enthusiastic master of foxhounds and when his bishop censured him for pursuing such an unseemly sport for a man of the cloth, he transferred the pack into his wife’s name and continued his frequent sorties. He was still riding to hounds in his late 70s and when he died in 1880 at the age of 87 hundreds of people attended his funeral. Russell was buried in the churchyard of St James’, the church where he had been a diligent pastor. He was gratefully remembered for his brief sermons, delivered as his groom waited by the porch with his horse saddled and ready.

Mostly 15th century, the Church of St James is one of Devon’s outstanding churches, distinctive from the outside because of its unusual lead-covered spire. Inside, there is a wealth of ecclesiastical treasures: a richly carved rood screen spanning both the nave and the aisles, an extraordinary 18th-century font cover in the shape of an elongated octagonal ‘cupboard’, a fine 15th-century stone pulpit supported by a tall pedestal and carved with the figures of saints and angels, and a wonderful nave roof with protective angels gazing down. Collectors of unusual epitaphs will savour the punning lines inscribed on a monument here to John Rosier, a lawyer who died in 1658:

Lo, with a Warrant sealed by God’s decree
Death his grim Seargant hath arrested me
No bayle was to be given, no law could save
My body from the prison of the grave.

The village itself has some elegant Georgian houses and a pub, which in 1962 was renamed after Swimbridge’s most famous resident. Jack Russell societies from around the world frequently hold their meetings here.