Cat on a hot tin roof

It seems that the devil has taken his centurial holidays once again in Devon. It seems a pensioner woke recently on a winter's morning to find the world covered in a blanket of crisp snow, only to find mysterious footprints in the shape of a cloven hoof forming a trail through her garden. With no obvious signs of an entry point or any suggestion that a wild animal had been in her garden, the pensioner was obviously flummoxed.

However, the footprints could well add to the legend of the Great Devon Mystery - proving that legends can be a part of living history, as well as ancient history. On the morning of February 8, 1885, villagers across a 100-mile swathe of south Devon awoke to find a trail of cloven footprints in the deep lying snow. An escaped pig, or wild boar, you might think, which would be a good guess until the footprints walked up walls and across roofs as if gravity didn't exist. Of course, scientists believe there is a rational explanation for both sets of prints, which there may well be, but until they come up with one - it could well be spring hares, the legend will grow with each re-telling...