SOURCE: "A Devonshire Gentleman," in The North American Review, Vol. 221, No. 2, June-July-August, 1925, pp. 733-7.

In the following excerpt, Powys reviews Baring-Gould's Early Reminiscences, and determines that much of the memories recounted are unrefined and crude.

S. Baring-Gould, parson and squire of Lew in Devonshire, died on January 2, 1924. He was a most prolific writer. In the ninetieth year of his life he was occupied in composing his Early Reminiscences, occupied in carefully setting before us, page by page, an inimitable picture of an old-fashioned English country gentleman of the kind that is at once the admiration and despair of Europe.

Never did anyone write more true to type than Parson Baring-Gould. It is clear that he was completely indifferent as to what any of us might think of him. He just blurted out what came into his head, and if offense was taken, so much the worse. His insular...