In Winston Churchill's The Second World War, when describing the scientific report of the German beams to direct Luftwaffe bombing, given by R. V. Jones of Scientific Intelligence, he quotes from "The Dead Drummer": "now one Mr Jones comes forth and depones …" Richard Barham died following a long illness on June 17, 1845. A memorial bronze was unveiled in his honour by the Dean of St Paul's at the Guildhall, Canterbury, on September 25, 1930.

One evening as Sir Robert quaffed ale and devoured a plate of Faversham oysters he became aware of a commotion. Villagers had discovered the body of a sailor washed up on the beach and were pleading with the priest to bury it. Barham is a character in George MacDonald Fraser's historical novel Flashman's Lady, he meets the main character, Harry Flashman, while watching a public execution. That said, Barham definitely did shape the first two series of the Legends as coherent collections. (The third series, assembled posthumously from his remaining writings, is far less successful). The first series particularly fair romps along (including some brilliantly funny footnotes), and probably can be read through in its entirety before the sensation begins to pall a bit. The Ingoldsby Legends (full title: The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth and Marvels) is a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poems written supposedly by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of an English clergyman named Richard Harris Barham. And bolted to the parapets of the neighbouring Abbey Gatehouse museum you will find, glinting in the sun, a wind vane in the shape of Grey Dolphin looking down on the rest of the Island.

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Dorothy L. Sayers has characters quote from The Ingoldsby Legends in her novels Whose Body?, Five Red Herrings, The Nine Tailors, and Gaudy Night.

She suggested he begin by putting Kent's own stories and folklore to paper. She seemed to have a good influence on authors - she was grandmother of Thomas Hughes who went on to write Tom Brown's School Days. His father, also called Richard Harris, was a magistrate and known to have been rather rotund, reputedly over 20 stones. Nevertheless, he managed a relationship with his housekeeper and the outcome was Richard Junior." Barham's great facility was in impeccable if convoluted rhyming, and his writing is explicitly conceived of as diversionary entertainment. I don't really recommend trying to read this through cover to cover, because it's not that sort of writing, but if you're in the right mood it's a cheerfully distracting collection to dip into. I suspect one reason he's invoked only vaguely as having something to do with Kent legends & folklore is that readers these days probably don't get very far into the book before realising it's not what they'd hoped it might be in that regard. In 1813 after a bad bout of illness, coupled with the death of his mother, Richard made up his mind to totally re-evaluate his life and as a result gave up law and turned to the ministry. He was ordained in 1817 and became the curate of Warehorne on Romney Marsh. Barham was a political Tory, yet a lifelong friend of the liberal Sydney Smith and of Theodore Hook. Barham, a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, the Literary Gazette and John Gorton's Biographical Dictionary, also wrote a novel, My Cousin Nicholas (1834). He died in London on 17 June 1845, after a long and painful illness.Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Dog Hervey" (1914), collected in A Diversity of Creatures (1917), references the dog Little Byngo from "A Lay of St Gengulphus". [11] Ngaio Marsh refers to The Ingoldsby Legends in Death in a White Tie. Troy tells about coming across Lord Tomnoddy and the hanging and the "extraordinary impression" it had on her. She also makes references in Surfeit of Lampreys, the second time (Chapter 19 Part 4) with reference to The Hand of Glory. She also makes brief mention of the work in Death and the Dancing Footman. Yet still, as I told you, he smiled on all present, And did all that lay in his power to look pleasant. The old woman, too, Made a mighty ado, Helping her guest to a deal of the stew; She fish'd up the meat, and she help'd him to that, She help'd him to lean, and she help'd him to fat, And it look'd like Hare—but it might have been Cat. The little garçons too strove to express Their sympathy towards the "Child of distress" With a great deal of juvenile French politesse; But the Bagman bluff Continued to "stuff" Of the fat, and the lean, and the tender and tough, Till they thought he would never cry "Hold, enough!" And the old woman's tones became far less agreeable, Sounding like peste! and sacre! and diable! In J. Meade Falkner's 1903 novel The Nebuly Coat, Lord Blandamar amuses his wife by reading a new edition of the Ingoldsby Legends after dinner.

Mr Betts said: "Sir Robert was as superstitious as everyone else in those days and was aghast. Grey Dolphin was his favourite horse and yet he valued his own life more than the horse. Roger Betts, centre, with volunteers from the Friends of the Minster Abbey Gatehouse Museum Picture: Andy Payton His last poem As I laye a-thynkynge, was set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar, the song published in 1888. And in 1918 the composer Cyril Rootham set the same poem, for voice and piano. In H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain describes himself as non-literary, claiming to have read regularly only the Bible and the Ingoldsby Legends. Later in the novel he quotes a poem that he attributes incorrectly to The Ingoldsby Legends, its actual source being Sir Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion. Popular phrases, the most prosaic sentences, the cramped technicalities of legal diction, and snatches of various languages are worked in with an apparent absence of all art or effort; not a word seems out of place, not an expression forced, whilst syllables the most intractable find the only partners fitted for them throughout the range of our language. These Legends have often been imitated, but never equalled." - Walter Hamilton, Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors

There is a calm, a holy feeling, Vulgar minds can never know, O'er the bosom softly stealing,— Chasten'd grief, delicious woe! Oh! how sweet at eve regaining Yon lone tower's sequester'd shade— Sadly mute and uncomplaining—" McGivering, John (2008). " "The Dog Hervey" Notes on the text". Readers' Guide. The Kipling Society . Retrieved 6 August 2019. Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou own'dst yesterday."

In E. Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), the children consult the Ingoldsby Legends when they want to improvise a magic ritual. But once on dry land the exhausted pair were met by an "ugly old woman" who warned the baron: "Make much of your steed. He has saved your life but he shall yet be the means of you losing it." Harris, Oliver D. (2023). " "Grey Dolphin" and the Horse Church, Minster in Sheppey: the construction of a legend". Archaeologia Cantiana. 144: 97–123. Sadly Richard Senior died when the young Richard was only seven so the boy was sent off to boarding school at St Paul’s Cathedral. St Paul's Cathedral, London. Picture: John Nurden

The pair swam two miles to the king's ship battling strong tides and wind. Thomas Ingoldsby Legends and the Legend of Grey Dolphin Barham introduces the collection with the statement that "The World, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Romney Marsh". [4] In those days Sheppey was covered in woods and was an ideal hunting ground. Indeed, Henry Vlll is recorded as staying at Shurland Hall with Anne Boleyn. Mr Betts said: "As the Barham family wealth was tied up in land, and with gambling debts growing at an alarming rate, Richard turned to family friend Lord Rokebury for assistance.