Grant Allen, a science writer, a novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution, authored "Blood Royal." A piece from the first chapter of the book read thus "Chiddingwick High Street is one of the quaintest and most picturesque bits of old town architecture to be found in England. Narrow at either end, it broadens suddenly near the middle, by a sweeping curve outward, just opposite the White Horse, where the weekly cattle market is held, and where the timbered gable-ends cluster thickest round the ancient stone cross, now reduced as usual to a mere stump or relic..."