A Perambulation of the Antient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor ... Third edition, revised and corrected by J. B. Rowe ... Illustrated from drawings by F. J. Widgery

Front matter

A PERAMBULATION OF DARTMOOR SCENE ON THE TAW, STEPPERTON A PERAMBULATION OF the Antient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor AND THE Venville Precincts OR A Topographical Survey of their Antiquities and Scenery BY THE LATE JSamuel jRouue, 2VI.fi. THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED BY J. BROOKING ROWE F.S.A., F.L.S. ILLUSTRATED PROM DRAWINGS BY F. J. WIDQERY EXETER JAMES G. COMMIN, 230, HIGH STREET LONDON GIBBINGS & CO., Limited, 18, Bury Street Dedication of First Edition to HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, ALBERT, PRINCE OF WALES, AND DUKE OF CORNWALL, THIS DESCRIPTION OF THE ANTIQUITIES & TOPOGRAPHY OF HIS FOREST OF DARTMOOR, DEVON. Is humbly dedicated by the gracious permission (Bt Its Kogal Htgbtwss fritttt Qlbttt, MASTER FORESTER, AND LORD WARDEN OF THE STANNARIES, BY HIS LOYAL, FAITHFUL, AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, SAMUEL ROWE.

Vicarage, Crediton, Devon, July lyth, 1848. SAMUEL ROWE, born ii November, 1793 b.a., Jesus College, Cambridge, 1826. Curate St. Andrews, Plymouth. Vicar of St. Budeaux. Minister of St. Paul's, Stonehouse. Minister of St. George's, Stonehouse. m.a., Cambridge, 1833. Vicar of Crediton. Died 15 Sept., 1853. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication to Original Edition. Editor's Preface. Preface to First Edition. Chapter i. Introductory; Extent, Boundaries, etc, of the Moor - page i 2. Early Inhabitants - - ,, 22 3. Monumental Relics - - ,,28 4. Huts, Forts, Roads, etc. - „ 53 5. The Perambulation. Sticklepath to Fingle Bridge - ,, 82 6. The Perambulation continued Fingle Bridge to Ashburton - ,, 124 7. The Perambulation continued Ashburton to Plympton - ,, 159 8. The Perambulation continued Plympton to Tavistock and Okehampton - - „ 183 9.

Geology, Petrology, and Mineralogy of the Moor - „ 231 10. Soil and Agriculture - - ,, 289 11. Historical View of Mining in Dartmoor and the Precincts - ,, 260 12. The Convict Prisons- - ,, 272 13. Historical Documents - - ,, 281 14. Wild Quadrupeds - - ,, 329 15. Birds of the Moor and its Borders ,, 339 16. Fishes „ 347 17. Botany - - - „ 350 18. Miscellaneous - - „ 399 19. Lydford Church and the Churches of the Border - - „ 432 20. Dartmoor Literature - ,, 485 Notes and Corrections - - „ 499 Index ,, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL PAGE PLATES. Scene on the Taw. Stepperton - Frontispiece. Large Sketch Map of Dartmoor - - - page i Logan Stone, Rippon Tor - - - ,, 35 Menhir, near Merivale Bridge - - - .> 51 Leather Tor Bridge - - - - » 64 Wallabrook Clapper Bridge - - - u 9° Cranmere Pool ----- >> 95 Stone Row on the South Teign - - „ 95 Tolmen on the Teign - - - - ». 99 Drewsteignton Dolmen - - - „ no Fingle Bridge - » 122 Bowerman's Nose, Manaton - - - - „ 139 Hound Tor .... - „ 141 Grimspound, showing Main Entrance from the South ,, 146 dewerstone ----- „ 179 Post Bridge ------., 19° Sacred Circle on Langstone Moor - - , .,211 Vixen Tor ------., 212 Tavy Cleave - - - - - ,,219 Okehampton Castle - ' - - - .. 227 Hill Bridge on the Tavy - - - .. 241 Valley of Rocks on the West Okement - - „ 246 Ancient Map of Dartmoor - - - ,> 281 Yes Tor - - - - - „ 399 Portrait of the Rev. Samuel Rowe - - ,, 485 vignettes and woodcuts.

Preface

. The first edition of this work was published in 1848, and it was soon sold out, and the book is now a scarce one. A second edition, a mere reprint of the first, appeared in a smaller form in 1856, a few copies contained the same illustrations as the larger work, the others had the letter-press with two or three plates only. The second edition is now nearly as scarce as the first, and copies with the full number of illustrations are very seldom indeed met with. Although since the publication of the Perambulation many guides to the " wild and wondrous region " have appeared, none have been found so useful, none so full of information as this book, and I am informed that for a considerable time past, enquiries for it have been frequent. To meet the evident want, I have ventured to prepare another edition.

I have made many alterations and some additions, but, although entirely dis-agreeing with them, I did not feel at liberty to eliminate altogether the Druidical theories of the author, with which the first edition of the book was saturated. Nor had I any intention of re-writing the book. I was desirous that the Perambulation should be still Samuel Rowe's Perambulation, and that his name should continue to be connected with the best history of the place he loved so much, and to the surpassing interest of which he was one of the first to direct attention. I could not do all that seemed to be necessary in the way of addition and correction, by means of notes, and I have therefore, in many places, altered and extended the text, and have tried to make the reader acquainted with the most recent ideas of students, and to X Editor's Preface. put before them the results of researches made since 1848, in connection with Dartmoor.

The time has not arrived for writing a proper history of the Moor. Many questions have to be settled before this can be under taken. At the time the work was written there was only one theory as to the origin of the monumental remains of Dartmoor. Since, there have been several. Fifty years ago Pre-historic Archæology was a science unknown, certainly our author was quite ignorant of it. But he tells us that " where history is silent " and monumental evidence is disputable, an ample field is opened " for theory and speculation." And this is so — speculate we may, but it is too soon to dogmatise ; we have not yet sufficient evidence to be positive. There is nothing to support the con clusions of the older antiquaries, that our dolmens, circles and rows were connected with Druidism ; on the other hand, we must know more about them before we can, as Fergusson said, relegate them to the misty haven of pre-historic antiquity.

The latest authority, Mr. A. L. Lewis, adduces a considerable amount of evidence in support of his proposition, that the Stone Circles were intended primarily as places of worship or sacrifice, in which case, as he says, it is most likely that the antiquaries of the last century were not so altogether wrong as has since been thought, in pronouncing them to be the temples of our sun and star worshipping ancestors and their priesthood, although there may be, so far, no absolute proof that such was the case.* And Mr. Arthur J. Evans says, that after all perhaps we may find ourselves in Druid company, but we must arrive there by the methods imposed by modern science.! But at present we are only groping our way. Rays of light sometimes strike across our path, and quickly vanish, but they are enough to show, that we are on she right track, and at the same time, that we have much to do before we can reach our journey's end.

A hundred years ago the Druidical theory was unhesitatingly accepted, and Stukeley had no difficulty in distinguishing the barrow of an arch-druid, and could with confidence assign a precise date for the rearing of the mighty trilothons of Stonehenge. Then the pendulum swung, and the other extreme was reached. Sir Edward Smirke began to talk about " bearded old mistletoe-cutting humbugs, the *A. H. Lewis. Stone Circles of Britain. Arch. Journal, vol xlix., pp. 136-154. fARTHUR J. Evans. Stonehenge. Archæological Review, vol. ii., p. 312. Editor's Preface. XI " Druids," and upon this hint others spoke, and asserted that there never were any Druids, and that therefore the monumental relics of Dartmoor could have had nothing to do with sacrifice or worship. To take Grimspound as an instance. Note the various suggestions that have been advanced as to the ■origin and use of this interesting place.

Polwhele states that it was a seat of judicature for the Cantred of Durius ; Samuel Rowe, that it was a Belgic or Saxon Camp ; Ormerod considered it a cattle pound, pure and simple ; Spence Bate was convinced that it was nothing more than a habitation of tinners, and of no great age ; while now, the work of the Rev. S. Baring-Gould and Mr. Robert Burnard, goes far to show that its construction reaches back into a remote past, and that its antiquity is greater than any former investigator dared to assign to it. This example shows how very necessary it is that we should walk warily, and work on with •caution, hoping to solve in time, the riddle that Dartmoor puts to us, and until we can be sure as to the answer, not to make mere guesses at solutions. I have thought it desirable, as a warning, and to prevent further mistakes, to put this caution clearly, and perhaps strongly.

Having done so, I may say that certain conclusions have been arrived at, very difficult to upset, which go far to prove that the megalithic monuments of Dartmoor are the work of the races of the Neolithic and early Bronze periods, peoples altogether distinct from the Celt and early Briton, and by whom they were conquered. To anticipate criticism in one direction. I have no doubt it will be said that the book is incomplete, and that references to many things and places of interest, are wanting. But I have made no attempt to make the book a perfect one by including in it an account of every relic, thing, and place on Dartmoor. This was not my intention. I have followed the lines of my original, making such additions and alterations as I thought desirable, and which I considered would be of interest to the bulk of my readers.

But although it is by no means exhaustive, I hope I have done some thing to make this new edition, not only a useful guide to the visitor, but that it will not be considered altogether unworthy of the subject by the enthusiast who knows his Dartmoor well. A sketch map is provided, and four other maps to a larger scale, which pedestrians will find useful. For more convenient Editor's Preface. use and reference the book has been divided into chapters; the greater part of the work after chapter VIII. is new; the contents of the chapter " Dartmoor Literature," shows how much has been done since the Perambulation was written. I have to acknowledge very much valuable assistance rendered me by my friends the Rev. S. Baring-Gould and Mr. Robert Burnard; Mr. W. A. E. Ussher, f.g.s., of Her Majesty's Geological Survey, has been good enough to write the chapter on the Geology of the Moor — in the stead of the admirable chapter in the first edition, by the late Dr. Edward Moore, but which the progress of geological knowledge has rendered obsolete — to which Mr. R. N. Worth, f.g.s., has obligingly added some pages on the Petrology, a subject he has made peculiarly his own ; Mr. Francis Brent, f.s.a., most kindly furnished me with the the chapter on the Botany, and Mr. Hine gave me the use of the wood blocks from which the illustrations in Chapter XIX. have been printed.

To these gentlemen, I return my best thanks. Help from other good and willing friends is referred to and acknowledged in the body of the book. J. BROOKING ROWE. Castle Barbican, Plympton, 29 Sept., 1895.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. An essay on the most prominent objects of antiquarian interest, in the Forest of Dartmoor, was originally read before the Plymouth Institution, in the year 1828, as the result of the united researches of a few members* of that Society, who at different times had pursued their investigations in a district which, although within a few miles of their town, was little known to the neighbourhood and the County in general. The paper drawn up at the request of my esteemed coadjutors, was subsequently published in the Transactions of the Society.! Since that time I have endeavoured to prosecute the investigations thus begun, for the most part with the able assistance of my valued friend the President of the Institution, at such intervals as scanty leisure and few opportunities would permit ; hence, abundant materials have been collected for expanding the original essay into the present volume.

The publication has been undertaken with the view of rendering the numerous objects of interest, with which the great moorland district of the west abounds, more generally known and appreciated, in the persuasion that within its limits there is enough to repay, not only the historian and antiquary, but also the scientific investigator, for the task of exploring the mountain wastes of the Devonshire wilderness. The characteristic tors, capping the hills with their massive granite piles, supply an interesting field of study to the geologist — Wistman's Wood, "Henry Woollcombe (President) ; Col. Hamilton Smith, f.r.s. ; John Prideaux ; and the Rev. Samuel Rowe, transactions Plymouth Institution, 1830, p. 179. Preface to the First Edition. primitive and peculiar, affords an unique specimen to the botanist — and the aboriginal circumvallation of Grimspound, one equally singular, to the antiquary.

It is not difficult to imagine that relics so remarkable, if situated in a far distant land, would be sought out, chronicled, and described, for the information of the learned, and gratification of the curious, whilst in our own country, objects as fully calculated to illustrate the most antient periods of British history, as are the extraordinary ruins at Palenque that of Central America, are overlooked and neglected, as it would seem for no other reason than their proximity, and facility of access. The tourist, who ventures to penetrate the Devonshire High lands, will also find himself greeted with a succession of scenes of unexpected loveliness and grandeur, especially along the entire verge of the Moor, many of them rivalling the far-famed scenery of North Wales, but distinguished by characteristic features of peculiar beauty.

Nor have they been thought unworthy of admiration by more than one traveller fresh from the charms of Continental magnificence and sublimity, with whom I have visited the precincts of Dartmoor. My own opinion may be attributed to partiality for my native county, and to untravelled ignorance of " The Alps and Apennine The Pyrenean and the River Po ; " but when it is fortified by the recorded sentiments of strangers, and by such competent and impartial authority as that of William Howitt, I feel justified, in specially referring to Devonshire, the pertinent expostulation which has been made with so much propriety in reference to Great^Britain generally. — " Pilgrims of beauty, ye who far away " Roam where poetic deserts sadly smile, "Oh ! ere ye leave it, view your own fair native Isle." The testimony of a native of Scotland, a writer of some ten years ago, in Blackwood's Magazine,* who is evidently well acquainted with the district he describes, may here be adduced.

"West Devonshire is that large tract of land comprised " between the Dartmoor mountains, the rivers Tamar and Plym, *Vol. xxxiii., 1833, p. 609. Preface to the First Edition. XV " and the Plymouth Sound ; and illustrious for the number, "narrowness, and depth of the larger valleys — whose banks "generally rise into a flat ascent, from the banks of the dividing " streams — and for many down-like swells and many strangely " fractured hills. You may know how dear this district was to us,. "last time we wandered through its delights, when we tell you " that we often forgot where we were wandering, and believed that " we were holidaying it in one of the half lowland, half highland "regions, among the blue bonnets of Auld Scotland. * * * " Dartmoor — we have nothing like it in Scotland. Our moor of " Rannoch is a vast flat. * * But Dartmoor is no flat.

It is " indeed an elevated table land ; but its undulations are endless : " there are no separate single masses, nor can it be called moun " tainous ;* but it is as if a huge mountain had been squeezed " down, 'and in the process had split asunder, till the whole was " one hilly wilderness, showing ever and anon strange half-buried " shapes striving to uplift themselves towards the sky." To the same effect, but in a still more enthusiastic strain, is the panegyric of William Howitt, in his " Rural Life of "England."! " If you want sternness and loneliness, you may pass into " Dartmoor. There are wastes and wilds, crags of granite, views. "into far off districts, and the sound of waters hurrying away over " their rocky beds, enough to satisfy the largest hungering and "thirsting after poetical delight.

I shall never forget the feelings. " of delicious entrancement with which I approached the outskirts " of Dartmoor. I found myself amongst the woods near Haytor " Crags. It was an autumn evening. The sun, near its setting, '•threw its yellow beams among the trees, and lit up the tors on " the opposite side of the valley into a beautiful glow. Below, the. " deep dark river went sounding on its way with a melancholy " music ; and as I wound up the steep road all beneath the "gnarled oaks, I ever and anon caught glimpses of the winding "valley to the left, all beautiful with wild thickets and half " shrouded faces of rock, and still on high those glowing ruddy " tors standing in the blue air in their sublime silence. My road " wound up, and up, the heather and the bilberry on either hand, "Yet he has just called the Dartmoor ridge, " mountains," vide supra. fVol. ii., p. 378, ed. 1838.

Preface to the First Edition. " showing me that cultivation had never disturbed the soil they " grew in ; and one sole woodlark from the far ascending forest on " the right, filled the wild solitude with his wild autumnal note. " At that moment I reached an eminence, and at once saw the " dark crags of Dartmoor high aloft before me." Such is the verdict of a popular author, unbiassed by local partialities, and conversant with the romantic loveliness of the Rhine, and the stupendous magnificence of the Alps. And such is the district for which the author thinks himself justified in venturing to claim a foremost place among the scenes which " England holds " within her world of beauty," in the hope that the charms of our Devonian highlands will be more generally known and appreciated, and the interesting monu ments of antiquity which they shelter, will be more effectually protected against the manifold modes of spoliation and destruction which have arisen from multiplied population, increasing commercial speculations, and economic improvements.

The venerable relics of past ages (like the antient Britons, retreating before overpowering numbers) have been pursued from one asylum to another, until the mountainous districts of the western and south western portions of the island afford them their last and only refuge. But their rocky citadel is no longer secure. Quarries are opened on the heights of Dartmoor — powder-mills are projected in the very heart of its solitudes — cultivation is smiting its corners — steam is marshalling his chariots of iron and coursers of fire, panting to penetrate its fastness — and the most interesting vestiges of antiquity are in hourly danger of destruction. An account of the district which contains them (in a more systematic form than has yet been attempted) may at least preserve their memory, or perhaps more happily, may be the means of rescuing them from the impending assaults of the mason's hammer, and the excavator's pick, and of perpetuating their existence, by pointing out their claims to the protection of all who feel becoming interest in the history of their country and of mankind.

Chapter I. Introductory

EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES, ANTIENT PERAMBULATIONS, AND NATURAL FEATURES OF DARTMOOR. Dartmoor, while it forms in itself the most conspicuous and characteristic feature in the physical geography of the county of Devon, contributes also, in no small degree, to partitioning this important shire into three principal divisions, which, generally speaking, are no less clearly defined by natural boundaries, than distinctly marked by peculiar features. From its extreme northern verge, North Devon* stretches to the Bristol Channel — the Teign sweeps round its eastern extremity within six miles of the Exe, (the well-defined boundary of East Devon) whilst South Devon or the South Hamsf includes the fertile tract stretching from the Southern slope of the Moor to the English Channel, and extending east and west from the Teign "The Devonshire tourist will, however, often find himself perplexed to ascertain whether he has reached North Devon or not; but the North has long been proverbially celebrated for the indefiniteness of its whereabouts, and the vagueness of the term is by no means confined to Devonshire : — Ask where's the North ? at York 'tis on the Tweed : In Scotland at the Orcades : — and there In Greenland, Zembla, — or the Lord knows where.

Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle II. fSouth Devon is sometimes thus designated, but strictly speaking, the term South Hams is appropriated to a smaller district, and a circle, of which Totnes is the centre, with a radius of twelve or fourteen miles, would perhaps more nearly approach to its generally received limits. A ■2 to the Tamar. Thus centrally placed, Dartmoor forms the most prominent and striking feature, not only of the county of Devon {occupying as it does, one-fifth of its entire area) but of the whole Western peninsula. Yet, though contributing so largely to the beauty of the far-famed Devonshire scenery, and ministering so effectually to the fertility of the soil, until of late years it was comparatively little known even to the inhabitants of the very district which benefits so largely from its proximity.

Dartmoor, the antient and Royal Forest or Chase of that name, has its own specific boundaries, but Dartmoor, in the common acceptation of the word, includes numerous outlying tracts, presenting the same physical features as the forest itself, and in the following description it is intended to include the adjacent land and commons surrounding it, and which partake of the same general character. Dartmoor and its adjuncts may be thus estimated, as extending about twenty miles from east to west, and twenty-two miles from north to south, and as containing more than 280,000 acres of land. The area of the granite district, coloured pink in the geological map of the Ordnance Survey, which district corresponds fairly with that popularly known as Dartmoor, extends from north to south, twenty-two miles and a half, and from east to west, eighteen miles.

De la Beche* calculates the distance from Butterton Hill in the south to Cosdon Beacon in the north at twenty-two miles, f and observes that " both geographically and geologically, the " elevated land which extends eastward from Cawsand Beacon to " Cranbrook Castle, Buttern Down and Mardon Down, near •" Moretonhampstead, ranging round thence by Bridford and *" Hennock to High or Hey Tor, forms part of Dartmoor." From Hey Tor, above Ilsington Church-town, in a south-westerly direction, the boundary takes the line of hills which overlook Ashburton, thence skirting the parishes of Holne, Buckfastleigh, and Brent, it proceeds to its southernmost point at the Western Beacon and Three Barrow Tor above Ivybridge. Thence, trending to the north-west, it crosses the rivers Erme and Yealm, passes by Cornwood below Pen Beacon and Shell Top, then takes a westerly course in the line of the Hentor Ridge and Shaugh Moor, approaches its westernmost point at Meavy, and thence runs •Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset, 1839, p. 5. fThe actual measurement is twenty miles and three-quarters, but neither of these summits are in the extreme limits of the moor.

Dartmoor in Domesday. 3 almost from south to north, by Walkhampton, Sampford Spiney, west of the Tavy, to Peter Tavy, Mary Tavy and Sourton, thence to Okehampton and Belstone, where, at its northernmost point, it reaches Cosdon or Cawsand Beacon, and returns eastwards as above described. The whole forest of Dartmoor lies within the parish of Lydford, by far the largest parish in the county. We learn from Domesday, that in Edward the Confessor's time, it was of the king's demesne. The entry in the Exeter book is as follows : — " Rex habet i burgum " qui uocatur hides orda quern tenuit Eduiiardus rex ea die qua ipse "suit uiuus et mortuus. Ibi habet rex xxviii burgenses infra " burgum, et for as xli, et isti reddunt per annum iii libras ad pensum " regi. Et ibi sunt xl domus uastatœ postquam Willelmus rex " habuit Angliam.

Et supra-dicti burgenses ha.bent terram ad ii " carrucas foras ciuitatem. Et si expcditio uadit per terrain uel per "mare reddit tantum de seruitio quantum Totenais reddit uel •" Bamestapla." (Exon Domesday. 87 b.) Risdon gives the following : — " Rex habet burgum de Lidford, "et burgenses ibidem, tenet viginV et octo burgenses infra burgum, "et 41, extra &>c. Inter omnes redditus reddant tres libras ad "pensum et arsuram, et sunt ibi quadraginta domus vastata " prins-quam rex venit in Auglia, et predict, burgenses et manerium " de Lidj "ord se extendit per totam villain et parochiam de Lidford. *" et per totam forrestam de Dartmoor."'' In the Domesday entry there is no reference to Dartmoor as a Forest, and Risdon does not give his authority for the addition " et predict' burgenses, etc., etc." but the quotation comes apparently from Hooker's MS.

Discourses from whence, no doubt Risdon copied it with all its errors, but it is not surprising, as observed by the late Sir Edward Smirke, that nothing but the borough is there noticed. " Until the property was granted to a subject in a " subsequent reign, it was in the king's hands, and can have been " liable to pay none of those taxes, which under the names of •"hidage, carrucage, etc., were chiefly in view when the Survey " was made." Were it otherwise, an uncultivated tract of land like Dartmoor, would not be likely to find its way into Domesday. It is probable that the Forest was occasionally under grant to members of the Royal family during the 12th century, for we find •Risdon. Survey, p. 221, ed. 1811. fDevon Assoc, Trans. Vol. VIII, p. 408. from a charter of John, Earl of Morton, Duke of Cornwall, (and afterwards king) during the life of his brother Richard, that he grants certain immunities to free tenants out of the Regard of the Forest.

The first distinct notice of any transfer of the Castle Manor and Forest by the Crown to a subject, is the grant of Henry III, to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, commonly called King of the Romans, or of Germany. From that date, the property has been from time to time, under grant from the Crown ; and since 1337, the Forest and its belongings have been permanently annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall, as an appanage of the Prince of Wales. When there is no heir apparent, the Forest reverts to the custody of the Crown. Properly therefore, as belonging to a subject, and not to the monarch, Dartmoor is not a Forest but a Chase, but Dartmoor seems to have always had the peculiar privileges of a Forest, and retained such rights, laws and officers as belonged to it when used by the King "for his princely delight "and pleasure," and it is more frequently called Foresta than Chacca.

In 16 Edward III, we find Dertemore Chase mentioned, and in the preceding reigns, both forest and chase are referred to, and still later foresta is used. The explanation probably is to be found in Coke's statement that " a subject may have a forest by " a special grant of the king." When Britain was invaded by the Romans, the country was extensively covered with wood. Cæsar found the people upon the south coast engaged in agricultural pursuits, but inland all appeared to be forest, and he tells us that a town among the Britons is nothing more than a thick wood fortified with a ditch and rampart.* The extensive tracts of land in different parts of the country called Royal Forests, are so antient, says Coke in his Commentaries upon Littleton's Institutes,! as no record or history doth make any mention of their erections or beginnings.

They were appropriated for animals of the chase with ascertained and well-defined limits, and governed by a code of laws, rigidly, and frequently cruelly, enforced. When these districts became subject to the Laws of the Forest is unknown, but they were certainly so from very early times,— probably before the date of Canute's Constitutiones de Foresta. Of such a character was Dartmoor down to the time of the •Cæsar. Commentaries, Book V, chap. 8. Forests of England, Brown. fCOKE, Institutes, IV, 319, quoted by Manwood, Laws Forest, Art. Forests, s.q ed. 1741. J ** Antient Woods. 5 Conquest, not necessarily covered with wood in all parts, but there being enough to afford shelter and cover for beasts of the chase, and to serve as a retreat for man escaping from an enemy. The term Forest, as also pointed out by the antiquary whom we have before quoted, does not necessarily imply that there would be more timber or herbage than might be sufficient for food and shelter for "the wild animals that ranged over it.