‘For me this is the most haunting of all the West Country’s na-gigs, owing largely to the vastness of the exposed vulva and the angle at which the head is set back from the body, being redolent of both decapitation and extreme ecstasy. Such suggestion of ecstasy seems to support the argument that the na-gigs that appeared throughout Europe were not so much a warning against sin as a celebration of the power of the feminine. Not totally dissimilar in theme, and possibly carved at a very similar time, is the once-seen-never-forgotten Bird Lady carving on the font, in which a male figure adopts a supplicatory position below a female possessing some sort of club or staff and a wreath of hair, overlooked by birds and very similar apparent duplicates of herself. These duplicates have been called “sisters” and “ghosts”. In 1988 while walking the north moor I met an old man called Graham who’d grown up in Underhill and told me that as a small child he’d heard the woman/women on the font referred to as both “Sally Free and Easy” and “Old Meg” but had never known why.’

Other articles in the May 1993 issue of Jack In The Green include Jackie Tinsdale on Devon river sprites, Alan Bradford on the argument that some of the old carvings on the stones in the Trembling Hill stone circle are actually breasts, and Bangy Doddsworth’s account of the time he was disorientated by piskies in the mist up on Combe Moor. Adverts included steer the attention of readers to a forthcoming gig by the partially reunited John McCandle’s Dirt Band in Underhill village hall, the Whiddon Tracey Good Food Market and a family (in fact, Simon Bridestow’s) seeking accommodation on the high moor. Though barely remembered now, the magazine sold out of its 800-copy print run and was given pride of place in the post office by Jim Swardesley’s predecessor, Jeff Bryant. When he took over, Swardesley continued the tradition of selling the work of local authors and, to this day, along with various walking guides, a visitor can, should they wish, while paying for their stamps, purchase such works as Lunar Freedom, the new collection by Kathy McGregor, better known as The Nude Poet. The cover features a tasteful shot of McGregor from behind, unclothed, sitting in the centre of the Trembling Hill stone circle, watching the sun rise over my head.