The Devil in Clevely (1956)

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Sir Charles Augustus Shelinadine was an autocrat. He ruled his village with a firm but kindly hand—instructing his tenants on their crops, their children, and their love-affairs. And when he died and the new Squire came, the village stirred uneasily. For the new Squire had strange ideas—and even stranger friends—friends like Mr Mundford who never seemed to grow any older and whose name so rumour had it—was linked with the terrible Hell Fire Club. And Mr Mundford was interested in too many things that should not have concerned him, . . like the ruins of the old Roman temple . . . and what happened in the village on All-Hallows’ night. . . and in the silent, amber-eyed young woman called Damask Greenaway. . . The latter part of the 18th century was a time of conflicting ideas, of rural upheaval and irresponsible whims. And the village of Clevely reflected—completely—the symptoms of the times. For the poor there was the round of village life... of harvest... and birth... and death... and there was the threat of land enclosure ... of economic disaster that could rob them of what little wealth they possessed. And for the rich, for Richard Shelmadine and his long-suffering wife, for the eccentric Miss Amelia, for the sinister Mr Mundford, there were the sometimes cruel, sometimes fantastic indulgencies of extravagant people. And in Clevely, the conflicts of rich and poor, of loved and unloved, of simple and sinister, culminated in a weird and terrible celebration on the Eve of All Hallows