This volume commences with Q's ghostly 'Lady Mary's Tale' which is based on a traditional story of a headless carriage controlled by a headless driver careering across Dartmoor and accompanied by a wild dog.

It appears that Q based his tale on Sabine Baring-Gould's recounting of Lady Mary's life (also included in this volume) but the facts are rather different to the Cornish and Devonian ghostly tale.

Now surpassed in fame as a writer by his daughter's best
friend, Daphne du Maurier, c Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was
the pre-eminent Cornish writer of Victorian and Edwardian
times and founder of the Cambridge University school of
English Literature. He is of particular interest since his fiction was very often based on factual events long passed from memory.