AN ECCENTRIC MAN.

Ashburton Herald, Volume I, Issue 238, 4 January 1879, Page 3

AN ECCENTRIC MAN.

A great number of persons have been visiting Dulford House, Collumpton, the residence of the late Mr. Bethel Walrond, whose strange and eccentric life has caused much talk in the neighborhood. These premises were opened to the public in consequence of.the sale necessary to meet ■the order of the Probate Court for the payment of legacies to Lady Janet Walrond and her daughter. The house and grounds are encircled by a brick wall a mile in circumference and twelve feet in height. The lawn was converted into a rabbit warren, the deceased keeping thousands of rabbits. His chief companions were his rabbits and his dogs. He held the belief that, on the death of human beings, their souls passed into the bodies of dogs. As these animals died he gave them a ffmeral, and on the lawn there are ten graves, each having a headstone bearing an inscription setting out the name of the animal, the place and date of birth, and the date which he died. Until the day of his death Mr. Walrond kept in his house the embalmed body of a daughter whose soul he believed had found a resting-place in the body of one of the dogs. No one was admitted by the deceased to the premises without special permission for each visit, and the entrance as well as the front of the house was guarded by a number of cannon. The body of the deceased daughter was kept in his dresaing-room, and his own bedroom was fitted up with a view to familiarising him with death. He slept in a massive canopied Devonshire oak bedstead, on the footboard of which there were skulls of females fixed. Over each of the bed there was a black feather plume. In the bed so decorated he died. The bed, the drapery of which was crimson and gold, is now to be sold with the other things. The oak furniture is very massive, but most of the fittings show signs of neglect consequent upon the deceased’s retirement. He spent the greater portion of the last 15 years of his life in the study of the law suit 3 in which he was involved, and in the pursuit of which he seemed to find enjoyment. It is remarked in the neighborhood that he did not mind who he went to lfl,w with or on what subject he fought, and he was regardless of the amount of money - spent if he could only beat his antagoniai. At one time and another he employed over 48 solicitors, and lie requested that in every document his full title as a grandee of Spain and as a member of various orders should be set out. The extent of the deceased’s estate in Devonshire was 3,000 acres.