INTERESTING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2003, 4 February 1890, Page 3

INTERESTING.

An interesting “discovery” regarding the presence of llio Phoenicians in the south west counties has (says the London correspondent-of the Manchester Guardian) been made by Mr W. B. Thorpe, P.S.A. In the village of Ipplepen, three miles from Newton Abbot, Devon, there has for many centuries resided u family named Ballhatehefc. the surviving male representative of which is Mr Thomas Ballhatchet, This man is now seventy-four years of age, and the facial type is quite distinct from that of the natives of Core wall and Devon, and distinctly of a Levantine character The farm, which has been from time immemorial in the possession of the family, is caded Ballfcrd, or Baal’s Ford, and in the centre of the group of bui dings is a large square tank ot ancient artificial construction. The farm evidently stands upon the site of an old Baal temple of which the Ballhatchets whose ancient nama was evidently Baak-Akhed, corrupted into Baal-Achef, &c.—held the office ot BaalKamar, or Baa ’s priest. Immediately above the farm rises a bill, which is known as Baal-town—the rock or hill ef Baal. The discovery of this curious survival is very interesting, and is in harmony with the survival of those ancient names in the yeoman classes of the south-western counties. One of these families was the Purkises, the charcoal-burners who carried the Red King’s body in their cart from the Rufus Stone to Wiuton Cathedral, the last of whom died only thirty years ago, and who bad held their land from father to son from the days of King Alfred. Many other traces of these Phoenician colonists may (so Mr Thorpe thinks) be found if searched for in Cornwall and Devon. The Queen has accepted a copy of Mr, Thorpe’s hisloyy of this Devon village and its ancient family.