An exploration of Dartmoor and its antiquities, with some account of its borders ... With a map, plans, etchings, etc

Front matter

AN EXPLORATION OF DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES ' Of rock-crown'd heights on which the cloud For ev°r rests ; and wilds stupendous, swept By mightiest storms ;— pf glen, and gorge, and cliff Terrific, beetling o'er the stone-strew'd vale ; And giant masses, by the midnight Hash Struck from the mountain's hissing brow, and hurl'd Into the foaming torrent ; and oi" forms That ro>e amid the desert, rudely sh.tped By superstitious hands when time was young. Carrington AN EXPLORATION OF DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS BORDERS EY JOHN LLOYD WARDEN PAGE With a Map, Plans, Etchings, and other Illustrations LONDON SEELEY fir* CO., ESSEX STREET, STRAND PAGE 19 CONTENTS.

Preface

xm

Chapter I

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Risdon's Account — Area — Meaning of the Term ' Forest ' — General Description — Tors — Rivers — Bogs — Anecdotes relating to Bogs- Climate — Storms on the Moor — Snow — Mist — The ' Ammil ' — Geology — Rock Basins — The Druids — Minerals I

Chapter II. History, Customs, Mining, Folk-lore

Early History — The Phœnicians — The Saxons — The Danes — Saxon Perambulation — Perambulation of 1240 — Survey of 1609 — Venville — Cattle and Ponies — Nevvtakes— Mining — The Jews — Stannary Towns, Courts, and Laws — Cultivation — Peasantry — Border Farms — Superstitions — 'Overlooking' — Charms — The Wish-Hounds — The Black Dog — Education— The Ten Commandments — Pixies -

Chapter III. Antiquities

List of Antiquities — Hut-Circles — Pounds — Trackways — Tracklines — Barrows and Cairns — Time of their Construction — Cromlechs — Kistvaens — Sacred Circles — Menhirs — Stone Avenues— Ancient Bridges — Crosses Contents. VI PAGE 56 AND

Chapter IV. Dartmoor From Okehampton

Approach to the Moor— Okehampton — St. James's Chapel — The Parish Church— Kingsley's Description— The Castle— Legend of Lady Howard— Her History — Route commenced — Fitz's Well and its Legend— British Camp— Row Tor— Mil Tor— Yes Tor— High Willhays— View from Yes Tor— Blackator— Island of Rocks — Meldon — 'Granulite' — Return to Okehampton— A Visit to Cranmere Pool — Bingie — Old Bridge beneath East Mil Tor -

Chapter V. Cosdon Beacon, Throwleigh, Gidleigh, And Scorhill Circle

Belstone Cleave and Tors — The Nine Stones — Belstone — The Irishman's Wall— Valley of the Taw — Sticklepath— Inscribed Stones — Cosdon Beacon— Antiquities on the . Summit— South Zeal Cross — John Orchard — Oxenham and its Omen — Raybarrow Pool — Throwleigh — Why Shellstone Pound was destroyed — Hut-Circles at Shellstone and Endsworthy — An Ancient Smelting-House — Creaber Pound — Gidleigh— The Castle— The Gidleys of Gidleigh— The Church— Scorhill Circle — The Tolmen in the Teign — Use of Tohnens— ' Clam ' Bridge over the Wallabrook ------ 77

Chapter VI. Across The Moor To Tavy Cleave

: GREAT LINKS TOR, LYDFORD BRENT TOR. The Journey Westward— Watern Tor— The Thirlstone— Cut Hill- Fur Tor — Tavy Cleave — Huts on Stannon Hill — Hare Tor — The Sphinx of Lints Tor — Cross on Brai Tor — Danagoat Tor — Great Links Tor — Amicombe Hill — Sourton — A Wayside Cross — Lydford — A Saxon Burgh — Its Ancient Renown — Piers Gaveston — The Stannary Prison — Lydford Law — Strode and the Stannary Parliament— The Castle— Judge Jeffreys— The Church— The Parson and the Goose— Lydford Bridge— Lydford Cascade— Kitt's Steps- Hut under Doe Tor— Brent Tor— Traces of Volcanic Action— The Church on the Summit — Legend of its Erection - - - Co n tents. VII

Chapter VII. Petertavy, By The Moor, To Tavistock

; TAVISTOCK, BY WHITCHURCH DOWN, TO GREAT MIS TOR. PAGE Cusiliffptown — Petertavy — The Church — White Tor — Its Geology — Roose Tor — The Staple Tors — An Aboriginal Settlement — Dangerous Rocks— Cocks Tor — Its Formation — View from Cocks Tor — Kingston Down and the Danes — Descent to Tavistock — The T.ivy — The Abbey — Ordgar and Ordulph — Ordulph's Dieam — 1 1 is Gigantic Stature and Feats — Abbot Lyfing — Dan Thomas Rychard — Ruins in the Vicarage Garden — Inscribed Stones — The Parish Church — Other Buildings — The Drake Monument — Npeighbourhood of Tavistock — The Moor again — Whitchurch Down and Cros^ — Sampford Spiney — Pew Tor — Vixen Tor — Bcckamoor Cross — Merivale Bridge — Stone Avenues, Circles, Menhir, and other Remains — Great Mis Tor — Mis Tor Pan - - - - 116

Chapter VIII. Princetown And Neighbourhood, Nun's Cross, Bair Down

The Rundlestone— Dartmoor Cottars — Princetown — The Prisons— Their History — Climate — Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt — Destruction of Granite — How Convicts make Hay — North Hisworthy Tor — A Beautiful Line of Railway — Coin of Tiberius Constantinus — Fice's Well — John Fitz and the Pixies — Black Tor — Harter Tor — Stone Avenues on its Slop-', and other Relics — Stanlake — Syward's or Nun's Cross — Conjectures on its History — Tor Royal — The Cowsic — Ancient Bridge — Bair Down— Menhir called Bair Down Man — Two Bridges 139

Chapter IX. Crockern Tor, Wistman's Wood, Dunnabridge, Postbridge, Moreton Hampstead

Two Bridges— Crockern Tor— The Stannary Parliament— Wistman's Wood— Longaford Tor— Row Tor— Great Central Trackway— Dunnabridge Pound -Judge's Chair— Council Table— Bellaford Tor and Bridge— Tom While and the Pixies— Lakehead Circle— Archerton and its Antiquities— Postbridge— Remains under Hartland Tor— The 'Cyclopæan' Bridge— Jonas Coaker— New House— Contents. »AG3 John Roberts— A Traveller's Story— Bennett's Cross— King's Oven Tracklines and Huts— Bector Cross — Moreton Hampstead — The Old Almshouses— The Punchbowl Tree— Mardon Down 157

Chapter X. Chagfopd, Fingle And Its Hill Forts

SFINSTERs' ROCK, SHUFFLE DOWN, METHE1ULL TO FERNWORTHY, AND THE GREY WETHERS. Chagford— Sidney Godolphin— The Church— The Teign Gorge— The Logan Stone — Fingle Bridge — Cranbrook Castle — Wooston Castle —Prestonbury — Drewsteignton and the Druids — Rules for Bell-ringers — The Spinsters' Rock — Who were the 'Spinsters?' — Bradford Pool— Chagford again— The Witch Hare— Holy Street Mill and Cross — The Puggie Stone — Tincombe Common Settlement — The Round Pound — Kestor— A Fine Rock Basin — Avenues on Shuffle Down — The Longstone — Other Relics — Thornworthy Tor — Kistvaens — Antiquities at'Metherill — Fernworthy Farm and Sacred Circle — North Teign Bridge — Sittaford Tor — Logan Stone — The Grey Wethers — A Practical Joke ------- 176

CHAPTER XL THE GREY WETHERS TO GRIMSPOUND

; GRIMSPOUND TO WIDECOMBE ; WIDECOMBE BY HEY TOR TO MANATON ; MANATON TO BOVEY TRACEY ; BOVEY TRACEY TO ASHBURTON. Avenue and Cairn near Loughton Tor — Vitifer Mine — Warren Tor and Hookner — Large Cairns — Dwellings at Bovey Combe Head — Grimspound — Its Object and History — Hameldon Beacon — An Old Cross — Tumuli — Norse Weapons — Widecombe-in-the-Moor — The Church House — The Yew-Tree and the Foxes — The Church — A Loyal Churchwarden — The Great Thunderstorm — North Hall — The Rugglestone — Tor Hill Settlement — Rippon Tor — Recumbent Cross — The 'Nutcrackers' — Hey Tor — Hound Tor Combe — Geology of Hound Tor — A Suicide's Grave — Bowerman's Nose — Becky Fall — Manaton — The Church — Disappearance of a Cross — The Thunderstorm of 1779 — A Pound — Easdon — North Bovey — Lustleigh Cleave — Lustleigh — The Church — An Ancient Inscribed Stone— Satan and the Gambler — Shaptor — Bottor Rock — John Cann — Bovey Tracey — Roundheads and Mammon — Bovey Churches — The Heathfield — Ilsington — Buckland Beacon — View from Buckland Beacon- Ashburton — Fairfax and the Mermaid Inn — The Church — St. Lawrence's Chapel — Hill-Forts ....... Contents. IX

Chapter XII. Ashburton To Henbury Castle And Buckfastleigh, And Thence To Dean

COMBE ; DEAN COMBE TO HOLNE, NEWBRIDGE, AND DARTMEET ; THENCE TO SOUTH BRENT ; SOUTH BRENT TO ERME POUND AKD FOX TOR. PAGE Holne Bridge — Henbury Castle— Buckfastleigh— Buckfast Abbey— The Abbot's Way — The Parish Church — Dean Combe — Legend of the Hound's Pool — Herrick and the Hesperides — Holne — The Church — Newbridge — The Dart under Bench Tor — Antiquities at Rowbrook — A Kistvaen — Yar Tor — Ancient Settlement — The Coffin Stone — Dartmeet — Saddle Bridge — Skir Gut — Crosses on Down Ridge and Horn Hill — Aune Head — Huntingdon Warren and Cross — Brent Moor House — A Modern Inscribed Stone — Lydia Bridge — South Brent — Brent Hill — Coryndon Ball — Stone Rows — A Ruined Crom lech — Ugborough Beacon — Pearl's Cross — Butterdon Stone Row — Three Barrows — Hobajon's Cross — Peter's Cross — Erme Pound — Ancient Enclosures — A Sacred Circle and Long Stone Row — Caters Beam — Fox Tor — Childe the Hunter — Destruction of his Monument — Crosses in the Newtake, and on Terhill - - - 232

Chapter XIII. Fox Tor Over Shell Top To Ivybridge

; IVYBRIDGE TO SHAUGH AND PLYMPTON ; SHAUGH TO SHEEPSTOR ; SHEEPSTOR TO YELVERTON. Stone Row near Plym Head — Grimsgrove — Shell Top — Antiquities on its Slope — Pen Beacon —Old Blowing-House and other Remains on the Yealm — The Wise Women of Wisdom — Harford — Kistvaen and Ancient Settlement — Piles Wood — Stall Moor — Western Beacon — Ivybridge — Fardel — Inscribed Stone — A Hopeless Field — The Lady in Black — Blachford — Cornwood — The Church — Cholwich Town — Lee Moor — Roman's Cross — Roman Camp — Trowlsworthy Tor — A Fortified Pound — Stone Avenues and Circles — A Ruined Cromlech — Trowlsworthy Warren — ■ Cadover Bridge — Wigford Down Cross — Valley of the Cad — The Dewerstone — Shaugh — Crosses — Boringdon Camp — Boringdon and Newnham — Plympton — Shaugh to Sheepstor — Merchant's Cross— Sheepstor — Curious Sundial on Church — Grave of 'Rajah' Brooke — Church House — The Pixies' House — Burrator— Meavy — An Ancient Tree— Yelverton Contents. X

Appendix

. PAGE (A) Dartmoor Names 282 (B) Commission for and Perambulation of 24 Hen. III., and Survey of 6 Jac. I. 288 (C) Lydford Law 291 (D) The Widecombe Thunderstorm 294 (E) Proclamation read on Beati.ng the Bounds of the River Erme 297 Elevations of Principal Dartmoor H. 11s, etc. ------ 298 INDEX - .- - - - 299 ABBREVIATIONS. The references to the principal works quoted in the following peges are abbreviated as follows : Mrs. Bray's ' Borders of the Tamar and Tavy ' ... Bray. Carrington's 'Dartmoor: a Descriptive Poem' ... Carrington. William Crossing's 'Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor' Crossing. R. J. King's ' Dartmoor Forest and its Borders '... R. J. King. Murray's 'Handbook to Devon and Cornwall' ... Murray. G. Wareing Ormerod's 'Archæological Memoirs relating to the East of Dartmoor ' Ormerod.

Rev. S. Rowe's ' Perambulations of the Antient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor, 1848' ... ... Rowe. Tickler's 'Devonshire Sketches : Dartmoor' ... Tickler. ' Transactions of the Devonshire Association ' ... Trans. Dev.Assoc. 'Transactions ofthe Plymouth Institution' ... Trans. Plym. Inst. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. t- PAGE Cranmere Pool - - -" Etching - Frontispiece Bowerman's Nose ....... Cromlech near Drewsteignton - - - - - 48 Okehampton Church and Dartmoor Etching - - 62 Scorhill Circle - - - - - - - 96 Tavy Cleave ..--.... 104 Brent Tor ....-..'. n6 Stone Avenues above Merivale Bridge - - - - 132 Plan of the Avenues - - - - - - 134 Nun's Cross -------- 150 Wistman's Wood ....... i(,0 Ancient Bridge, Postbridge - 168 Fingle Bridge - - - Etching - - 1S2 Plan of Antiquities between North and South Teign - 194 The Grey Wethers ------- 200 Grimspound -------- 204 Widecombe-in-the-Moor ...... 212 Lustleigh Cleave - - - Etching - - 224 The Dart .-...--. 244 Sheepstor from Classenwell Pool - - . - - 280 Map of Dartmoor -------

PREFACE.

. Sixty-two years ago the poet Carrington, writing of Dartmoor, described it as 'a spot almost unknown, untrod.' Although such a description is hardly true to-day, there are still many, even in Devonshire, to whom our great mountain moorland is terra incognita, while to the vast majority of those who reside beyond the limits of the two south-western counties Dartmoor is only a name. The exclamation of a friend when introduced to the Moor from the grassy steppe above Okehampton, ' Why, I expected a great plain, and these are mountains !' will long live in my memory as an expression of the popular conception of Dartmoor. That the waste is a ' plain ' is an idea very general with those who do not know the country between Exe and Tamar, and this in spite of guide-books, newspaper articles, and the contri butions which have from time to time appeared in certain magazines.

But little apology, therefore, is needed for this work. The object of the following pages is to present to the Preface. XIV world a description of one of the most interesting tracts in our islands, and to arouse in the public mind a greater interest than is at present existent in the rude stone monuments which stud its surface, and which, it is greatly to be regretted, have of late years suffered much at the hands of contractors and Moor farmers. It is a matter for sincere congratulation that a Dartmoor Preservation Society has lately been formed, the primary object of which is the protection of these mysterious relics of remote antiquity, and which is deserving of more support than has been up to the present time accorded. However ' unknown ' Dartmoor may have been in Carrington's day, it is accessible enough now.

A short railway, having, I believe, the highest terminus in England, has even penetrated to its metropolis, and such a misfortune as that which befell a worthy Portreeve of Tavistock, who in the last century was snowed up for three weeks at Moreton Hampstead, cannolongeroccur. The useful but unromantic iron horse visits Moreton too, while the other border towns of Okehampton, Tavistock, Plympton, South Brent and Ashburton have each a station on his steel road, so that the granite wilderness may be attacked at all points. Although it is hardly to be expected that a stranger to Dartmoor will regard it with that interest, not to say affection, which an acquaintance of many years has in spired me withal, I feel confident that an exploration of its recesses will not be uninteresting to the traveller, however Preface.

XV far he may have wandered in seach of the picturesque ; and when he has completed his investigation he will, it is hoped, forgive one who owning ' The power Of local sympathy, that o'er the fair Throws moie divine allurement, and o'er all The great more grandeur .... pours Haply a partial lay.' It need scarcely be said that in a work of this nature recourse has not unfrequently been had to the writings of those whose acquaintance with the subject has extended over a period of some duration, and who are, therefore, entitled to speak with authority. In the forefront of these should be placed the ' Perambulation ' of the Rev. S. Rowe, the standard book upon Dartmoor, and a contribution to its literature which has perhaps done more to create a real and abiding interest in the great Devonshire upland than any other work.

The article on Dartmoor in Murray's ' Handbook to Devon and Cornwall,' written by the graceful pen of the lamented Richard John King, has also proved of considerable service, while the numerous papers published in the Reports of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association and Plymouth Institution have been found invaluable. For the unsolicited loan of these latter I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. John Shelly, of Plymouth. I would also express my obli gations to the unknown person who forwarded me a copy of the Leisure Hour for July, 1869, which contains, under Preface. XVI the title ' A Walk through South Devon,' a brief but very entertaining account of the Moor, and is furnished with illustrations of no small merit. Others who deserve recognition are Mr. William Crossing, of South Brent, who kindly perused that part of the manuscript relating to the ' quarter ' adjacent to his home, and whose suggestions and alterations have been of great practical utility, and Mr. W. A. E. Ussher, F.G.S., without whose assistance my remarks upon geology (with which science I plead a theoretical rather than a practical acquaintance) would have been wanting in recent and valuable information. JOHN LL. W. PAGE, Penarth, South Wales. AN EXPLORATION OF DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES

Chapter I

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Risdon's Account — Area — Meaning of the Term ' Forest ' — General Description — Tors — Rivers — Bogs — Anecdotes relating to Bogs — Climate — Storms on the Moor — Snow — Mist — The 'Ammil' — Geology — Rock Basins — The Druids — Minerals. ' Towers up a tract of granite ; the huge hills Bear on their bruad flanks right into the mists Vast sweeps of purple heath and yellow furze. It is the home of rivers, and the haunt Of great cloud armies, borne on ocean blasts Out of the wide Atlantic wilderness — Far stretching squadrons with colossal stride Marching from peak to peak, or lying down Upon the granite beds that crown the heights.'* Lord Coleridge. Every beginning is difficult. Never did this aphorism seem more true than when, after much consideration, I entered upon the attempt to describe the great western moorland.

How to commence — what to say — what to leave unsaid : where is the painter in words of familiar * From 'Rhoda: a Devonshire Eclogue.' I here take the opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to the Lord Chief Justice for special per mission to quote from this fine poem, which is, unfortunately, unpublished. I Risdon s Account. 2 scenery who has not felt this difficulty ? At length, seeking for a text (if the expression may be allowed) whereon to found an opening discourse, I chanced upon the account written by Tristram Risdon, which, although not quite accurate in every respect, and of a date when Dartmoor really was ' unknown, untrod,' is so quaint and concise that I cannot refrain from laying it before the reader : ' Between the North and the South Hams (for that is the ancient name) there lieth a chain of hills consisting of a blackish earth, both rockie and heathy, called, by a borrowed name of its barrenness, Dartmoor : richer in its bowels than in the face thereof, yielding tin and turf, which to save for fuel you would wonder to see how busy the by-dwellers be at some seasons of the year ; whose topps and torrs are in the winter covered with a white cap, but in summer the bordering neighbours bring great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep to pasture there.

From these hills — or, rather, mountains — the mother of manie rivers, the land declineth either way : witness their diverse courses, some of which disburden themselves into the British Ocean ; others by long wandering seek the Severn Sea.' The Forest of Dartmoor, as it is still called, is a wild tableland occupying the centre of Devonshire, and, with common lands, for the most part in no way distinguish able from the forest proper, some 130,000 acres in super ficial area. What forest (in the ordinary acceptation of the term) there may have been has long since vanished ; but the trunks and leaves of trees from time to time dug from its morasses prove that it really was once, at any rate, partially wooded. But ages have rolled away since Dartmoor was clothed with timber, and — ' The scenes are desart now and bare Where flourished once a forest fair, When these waste glens with copse were lined And peopled with the hart and hind.' Meaning of the term ' Forest.' 3 The consensus of opinion, however, is to the effect that the term ' forest,' as applied to Dartmoor, rather signified a chase or hunting-ground — ferarum statio — and did not of necessity imply that it was wooded.

Mr. Pitman Jones, in his article prefacing the historical documents in the appendix to Rowe's ' Perambulation,' sa3*s : ' It is indeed possible that there formerly existed more wood on Dartmoor than is now to be found, and that the tinners, who certainly were allowed to supply themselves with fuel for the fusion of the ore, have laid waste the surface ; but it is more probable that the granitic tableland of the forest was never covered with anything entitled to the name of timber, and that it was reserved as a mere hunting-ground.' It is a vast solitude. Save the convict settlement of Princetown and a few scattered cottages abutting on the roads which cross the central district, scarce a human habitation greets the eye. In the northern quarter, where the great mcrass about mysterious Cranmere lies, a dark blot on the surface of the landscape, nothing but an occasional cart-track, faint and broken, hints at the presence of man ; and the traveller may walk from the outskirts of Princetown to Okehampton — a good fifteen miles — without meeting a soul.

Long ridges rise in dusky sweep against the sky — line beyond line like the waves of ocean, to which, indeed, they have been not inaptly compared, and from these waves — to carry out the simile — rock-strewn crests start forth capped with grotesque piles of granite. These are the ' tors,' a word whose etymology is discussed elsewhere ; * and it is to these rugged peaks that Dartmoor in a great measure owes its fascination. Lions couchant, sphinxes, and other strange monsters are the order of created (and uncreated) being more commonly assumed by the disintegrated granite ; but not unfre- * See Appendix A, ' Dartmonr Names.' 1 — The Tors. 4 quently man himself is represented, carved by the slow but sure hand of time from the grim rock. Down the slopes are scattered in wild confusion huge blocks of splintered granite, locally known as ' clatters ' or ' clitters.' Some of these blocks must weigh scores of tons, and the eye is bewildered by their picturesque disorder ahd varied forms.

Frequently the loveliest ferns fill the interstices, and lichens, gray, white, and orange, contrast with the almost black patches of moss, which, watered plenteously by the mists, cling to their rugged sides. The average height of these tors is about 1,400 feet, but in the northern quarter of the moor they attain a much greater elevation, two, indeed, exceeding 2,000. The principal peaks are High Willhays, 2,039 feet ; Yes Tor, on the same ridge and within half a mile, 2,029 feet; Newlake, 1,984; Fur Tor, 1,877; and Cawsand (or, as it should be written, Cosdon) Beacon, 1,799 feet- All these are situate in the northern portion. In the southern part, Shell Top attains an elevation of 1,546 feet, and Holne Ridge of 1,580. Eastward, Hameldon Beacon is 1,697 feet in altitude, and Rippon Tor 1,564.

And, in the western district, Great Mis Tor looks down upon the Walkham Valley with an elevation of 1,760 feet.* But these are only a few out of many. There are numerous humbler eminences every whit as beautiful as their greater brethren, whose altitudes vary from 1,000 to 1,700 feet. Standing upon one of the loftier hills, the idea of space is the first with which the mind is impressed. Mile after mile the heathery expanse stretches away, the heights blue one moment as cloud-shadows drift slowly across their slopes, waxing gray and spectral the next in the full glare of the sun. In the foreground a medley of rich colours delight the artistic eye — brilliant green bits of * Throughout the text decimal fractions have been discarded in giving the elevations. A list of the exact heights, as supplied by the Ordnance Survey Department, will be found infra, p. 299. bowerman's kose.

The Tors. 5 bog, purple clumps of heather, red and brown rushes and waving cotton-grass, broken here and there by blocks of granite. Below, in the valley, a clear stream ripples over gravelly sand or boils against impassive boulders in its swift descent to the fertile country far away. It is a land of silence — a silence that can be felt. A slight murmur may float up from the torrent hundreds of feet below, a faint rustling as the breeze sighs through the heather may strike upon the ear ; but all else is not. And if the time be evening, the sense of weirdness is intensified ; for against the setting sun looms up the shapeless ruin of some ancient keep, or the form of a great stone monster who has kept watch and ward over this solemn land since the Deluge. 1 How strangely on yon silent slopes the rocks Are piled ! and as I musing stray they take Successive forms deceptive.

Sun, and shower, And breeze, and storm, and haply ancient throes Of this our mother earth have moulded them To shapes of beauty and of grandeur thus ; And Fancy all-creative musters up Apt semblances. Upon the very edge Of yonder cliff seem, frowning o'er the vale, Time hallow'd battlements with rugged chasms Fearfully yawning ; and upon the brow Of yonder dreary hill are towers sublime, Rifted as by the lightning stroke, or struck By war's resistless bolts. The mouldering arch, — The long withdrawing aisle, — the shatter'd shrine, — - The altar gray with age, — the sainted niche, — The choir, breeze-swept, where once the solemn hymn Upswell'd, — the tottering column, — pile on pile Fantastic, the imagination shapes Amid these wrecks enormous.'* ' It is the wide extent of these solitary wastes which makes them so impressive and gives them their influence over the imagination.

Whether seen at mid-day when the gleams of sunlight are chasing one another along the hillside, or at sunset when the long line of dusky moor land lifts itself against the fading light of the western sky, * Carrington. The Rivers. the same character of extent and freedom is impressed on the landscape, which carries the fancy from hill to hill and from valley to valley, and leads it to imagine other scenes of equal wildness which the distant hills conceal ' Beyond their utmost purple rim.'* Let us descend into the valley. Now and then a handful of moorland sheep, as wild and almost as nimble as goats, scamper off among the rocks, or a herd of shaggy Scotch cattle gallop heavily away at the approach. A pony rushes past with frightened snort, and disturbed in his haunt by the river, a peewit utters his plaintive cry as he rises into the clear air.

If the day be warm — and a warm day upon Dartmoor, owing to the lack of shade, is no light matter — you will hear the drowsy hum of insects ; but for any interruption from your fellow-man you are almost as safe as if upon a desert island. To the majority of mankind ' It is a spot almost unknown, untrod.' The great watershed of Devonshire, Dartmoor is a land of rill and river. The principal streams which drain the upland are the Dart, which gives its name to the moor ; the Teign, Tavy, Taw, and West Ockment. All these rise in the great central morass, the latter alone issuing from Cranmere Pool, in spite of the oft-repeated assertion that this dreary spot — pool it cannot be called — is the mother of the Devonshire rivers. The Avon, Erme, Yealm, and Plym, with its tributary the Mew or Meavy, have their birth in the southern part of the moor.

With the exception of the Taw and the two Ockments, whose united streams swell the waters of the Torridge, all fall into the English Channel. Besides these, the main streams, are scores of minor rivulets and brooks, whereof the most important are the Walkham, which joins the Tavy a few miles south of * R. J. King. The Rivers. 7 Tavistock ; the Tolch or Torry, a feeder of the Plym ; and the Webburn, falling into the Dart at Holne Chase; while Wellabrooks, Blackabrooks, Cherrybrooks, and multi tudes of trickling streams too numerous to mention, add their quota to the waters which hurry down from their rugged granite cradle to nourish the lowlands, thus ren dering Dartmoor, itself barren, the author of that fertility for which the county of Devon is so remarkable. A stranger reading such a name as Redlake, Stanlake, or Lakehead would naturally imagine that the moor was adorned with sheets of water.

But of no Grasmere or Rydal can Dartmoor boast, its largest pool, that of Classenwell, being no larger than a Westmoreland tarn. The termination 'lake' is derived, according to Polwhele, from the Celtic lakka, and signifies neither more nor less than a little stream. The hue of these moorland waters depends much upon atmospheric conditions. In fine weather they are very transparent, but when a storm has broken upon the moor they undergo a marked and rapid change, and, becoming discoloured by the drainage from the peat-bogs in which they take their source, assume a dark-brown or reddish tinge, though even then retaining to a great extent their pellucid character. The names above given of Blacka brook, Cherrybrook, and Redlake evidently have reference to the local colouring assumed by these rivulets in time of flood.

The peculiar sound of the Dartmoor rivers, particularly when hemmed in by hills, has been enlarged upon by more than one writer, and at times a certain weirdness in the note is said to betoken, and indeed generally is followed by, bad weather. The moor-men call it the ' cry,' and the superstitious attribute to the sound that suggestion of the uncanny which is expressed in the vernacular by the word ' whisht.' They are all subject to sudden floods, especially the Dart, a rise of several feet in a few Bogs and Quagmires. 8 hours being no uncommon occurrence. This has caused many accidents, and given rise to the rhyme : ' River of Dart, O river of Dart, Every year thou claimest a heart.' I have myself seen the Ockment rise four or five feet in a single morning, and, small stream though it be, rush down the narrow valley, 'tossing its tawny mane,' and sweeping headlong any object that dared resist its progress.