He figures in Corporal Sam and Other Stories, for instance, as
'Doctor Unonius', whose education had been partly paid for by
his father's smuggling expeditions. Q remembered seeing his
grandfather once only but always had the greatest respect and
affection for his memory.

Jonathan Couch married three times, his second wife being Jane
Quiller, whom he married in 1815. The Quillers were said to be of
French origin but had lived at Polperro for five generations at
least and were a seafaring family. One of them is reputed to have
led five hundred smuggling expeditions without incurring a single
casualty among his men.

Q doubtless had both Couches and Quilllers in mind when he
wrote

By Talland Church as I did go
I passed my kindred all in a row,
Straight and silent there by the spade
Each in his narrow chamber laid.

The gravestones of one or two Quillers can certainly be seen in
the precipitous churchyard at Talland and no doubt others lie
there in unnamed graves. Yet there are fewer members of the
family buried at Talland than there should be, for many of them
died at sea--Jane. Quiller's father and all the rest of her male rela-
tions among them. When, therefore, she married Jonathan Couch
she and her husband had no need to look for a house but continued
to live in her old home. It still stands and is known as 'Couch's
house', though no Couch has lived in it since Jonathan died in
1870.

Jonathan and Jane Couch had six children, to four of whom
their mother's family name was given as a second baptismal name.
Five of the six children were boys and three of them became
doctors. One of these, Thomas Quiller Couch, settled down to
practise medicine at the small town of Bodmin, which lies about
ten miles from the south coast of Cornwall and about the same
distance from the north coast. He married Mary Ford, of the
Devonshire village of Abbotskerswell near Newton Abbot, and
lived at 63 Fore Street, Bodmin, until his death in 1884. The house

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