Local newspapers of the 1880s were very different creatures to those we know today.

A glance through the East and South Devon Advertiser of the period reveals that pages one and two were always given over entirely to ads.

Therein next, among the cramped and tiny typeface, would be found four pages or so of national and international news, anything from a millionaire's divorce in New York to the latest position with the Afghans or attacks by natives on a British ship in New Guinea.

The weekly broadsheet was, of course, probably most people's only link with the outside world.

Equally there were snippets of all sorts but as for local news, well that was in fairly short supply, it seems. The wonderfully named Local Intelligence column contained brief stories such as that of Mr Moses Cann who had tripped on a piece of orange peel at Chagford.

Other than that there would be the hunt and market reports, a few births, deaths and marriages and brief accounts of this and that.

When there was a story to be had however, the editor of the day was not shy of publishing the gory detail if available. Murders and mutilations received graphic attention, such as the case of the unfortunate lady killed by a passing train while walking the Moretonhampstead railway. Readers were left in no doubt as to what fate had befallen her internal workings.

Life was generally brutal, too.

One edition carried the tale of a brain-damaged 68-year-old farmer in Ideford who had sold cider without a licence.

On four occasions a constable had disguised himself as a labourer and travelled to the farm where he was served drink on each occasion.

Rather than advising the frail gent he was operating on the wrong side of the law he instead had him brought before the bench.

The defendant's doctor called for leniency but the magistrates, whose number included an admiral and a general, fined him £60.

The average weekly labourer's wage then was just 13 shillings.

The advertisements speak of a different age too. Among those expounding the virtues of essentials such as Rippingille's oil stoves, Dr Bell's Patent Voltaic Belts and even cures for blindness, was one for a show at the Alexandra Hall.

It promised no less than 'the most wonderful illusion of the age' in which Thuama! would present 'half a living lady suspended in space'.

One wonders where her other half was.