The mistery and even fear generated by that serrated skyline to sinister associations. According to one narrative, the devil came from Ireland with a leather apron full of stones either to block Hell Gutter, a ravine on the side of the hill, or to dam the River Severn. He sat down to rest on what became the Devil’s Chair but when he got up his apron strings broke. The great stones were scattered all round, and can still be seen.

Whenever he can the devil flops into the chair so that his weight can help to push the Stiperstones down, since he believes that if they sink into the earth, England, a country which he supremely hates, will perish. If anyone else sits in the chair a thunderstorm will immediately erupt.

Mary Webb wrote this atmos-pheric passage in The Golden Arrow:

Nothing ever altered its look…. It remained inviolable, taciturn, evil. It glowered darkly on the dawn; it came through the snow like jagged bones through flesh; before its hardness even the venturesome cranberries were discouraged. For miles around, in the plains, the valleys, the mountain dwellings it was feared. It drew the thunder, people said. Storms broke round it suddenly out of a clear sky; it seemed almost as if it created a storm. No one cared to cross the range near it after dark—when the black grouse laughed sardonically and the cry of a passing curlew shivered like broken glass.

Devils Chair with the Devil Seated

Playing a Violin waiting for me to make a mistake