Blackslade Down . Dartmoor National Park Devon UK Stock Photo

Blackslade Down, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park According to the Dartmoor expert William Crossing, it was on Blackslade Down 'that the wicked Jan Reynolds once entered into a compact with a stranger, who turned out to be the Prince of Darkness, and failing to keep it became his victim. Seven years after the meeting Jan was discovered indulging in a nap in Widecombe Church on a Sunday afternoon, and it was the appearance of Satan there to claim him that occasioned the great thunder-storm to which we have already referred. Jan was borne away on the fiend's black steed, when some cards that he held in his hand were dropped on the moor, and are now to be seen, in a transformed state, near the old Vitifer Mines'.