Page "Robert Stephen Hawker" Paragraph 9

" Parson Hawker ", as he was known to his parishioners, was something of an eccentric, both in his clothes and his habits.

He loved bright colours and it seems the only black things he wore were his socks.

He built a small hut, that became known as Hawker's Hut, from driftwood on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, He spent many hours there writing his poems and letters.

This driftwood hut is now the smallest property in the National Trust portfolio.

Many of the more fantastic stories told about Hawker are based on an unreliable biography published by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould in 1876, only a few months after Hawker's death.

Other eccentricities attributed to him include dressing up as a mermaid and excommunicating his cat for mousing on Sundays.

He dressed in claret-coloured coat, blue fisherman's jersey, long sea-boots, a pink brimless hat and a poncho made from a yellow horse blanket, which he claimed was the ancient habit of St Padarn.

He talked to birds, invited his nine cats into church and kept a pig as a pet.