A Book of Dartmoor

by Sabine Baring-Gould

For works with similar titles, see Dartmoor.

Yes Tor

A
BOOK OF DARTMOOR

BY S. BARING-GOULD

WITH SIXTY ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK : NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK CO.

LONDON: METHUEN & CO.

1900

TO THE MEMORY OF

MY UNCLE

THE LATE

THOMAS GEORGE BOND

ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF
DARTMOOR EXPLORATION

TO THE MEMORY OF

MY UNCLE

THE LATE

THOMAS GEORGE BOND

ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF
DARTMOOR EXPLORATION

PREFACE

AT the request of my publishers I have written A Book of Dartmoor. I had already dealt with this upland district in two chapters in my Book of the West, vol. i., "Devon." But in their opinion this wild and wondrous region deserved more particular treatment than I had been able to accord to it in the limited space at my disposal in the above-mentioned book.

I have now entered with some fulness, but by no means exhaustively, into the subject; and for those who desire a closer acquaintance with, and a more precise guide to the several points of interest on "the moor," I would indicate three works that have preceded this.

1. Mr. J. Brooking Rowe in 1896 republished the Perambulation of Dartmoor, first issued by his great-uncle, Mr. Samuel Rowe, in 1848.

The original work was written by a man whose mind was steeped in the crude archaeological theories of his period. The new editor could not dispense with this matter, which pervaded the work, without a complete recasting of the book, and this he was reluctant to attempt. He limited himself to cautioning the reader to put no trust in these exploded theories. The result is that the reader is tripping over uncertain ground, never knowing what is to be accepted and what rejected.

2. Mr. J. H. W. Page's Exploration of Dartmoor, 1889, is admirable as a guide. The author, however, was unhappily ignorant of prehistoric archæology, and allowed himself to be led astray by the false antiquarianism that had marked the early writers. Consequently, his book is capital as a guide to what is to be seen, but eminently unreliable in its explanation of the character and age of the antiquities.

3. A capital book is Mr. W. Crossing's Amid Devonia's Alps, 1888, which is wholly free from pseudo-antiquarianism. It is brief, it is small and cheap, and an admirable handbook for pedestrians.

In no way do I desire to supersede these works. I have taken pains rather to supplement them than to step into the places occupied by their writers.

The plan I have adopted in this gossiping volume is to give a general idea of the moor and of its antiquities—the latter as interpreted by up-to-date archæologists—and then to suggest rambles made from certain stations on the fringe, or in the heart of the region.

Here and there it has been inevitable that I should twice mention the same object of interest, once in the introductory portion, and again when I have to refer to it as coming within the radius of a proposed ramble.

As a boy I had an uncle, T. G. Bond, who lived near Moreton Hampstead, and who was passionately devoted to Dartmoor. He inspired me with the same love. In 1848 he presented me, as a birthday present, with Rowe's Perambulation of Dartmoor. It arrested my attention, engaged my imagination, and was to me almost as a Bible. When I obtained a holiday from my books, I mounted my pony and made for the moor. I rode over it, round it, put up at little inns, talked with the moormen, listened to their tales and songs in the evenings, and during the day sketched and planned the relics that I then fondly supposed were Druidical.

The child is father to the man. Years have rolled away. I have wandered over Europe, have rambled to Iceland, climbed the Alps, been for some years lodged among the marshes of Essex—yet nothing that I have seen has quenched in me the longing after the fresh air, and love of the wild scenery of Dartmoor. There is far finer mountain scenery elsewhere, but there can be no more bracing air, and the lone upland region possesses a something of its own —a charm hard to describe, but very real—which engages for once and for ever the affections of those who have made its acquaintance. "After all said," observed my uncle to me one day, when my father had dilated on the glories of the Pyrenees, "Dartmoor is to itself, and to me—a passion." And to his memory I dedicate this volume.

My grateful thanks are due to Messrs. R, Burnard, P. F. S. Amery, J. Shortridge, and C. E. Robinson for permission to employ photographs taken by them.

S. BARING-GOULD

Lew Trenchard, Devon

CONTENTS
CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	Bogs	1
II.	Tors	14
III.	The Ancient Inhabitants	29
IV.	The Antiquities	52
V.	The Freaks	74
VI.	Dead Men's Dust	82
VII.	The Camps	97
VIII.	Tin-streaming	108
IX.	Lydford	124
X.	Belstone	144
XI.	Chagford	157
XII.	Manaton	171
XIII.	Holne	193
XIV.	Ivybridge	209
XV.	Yelverton	220
XVI.	Post Bridge	241
XVII.	Princetown	259

ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE

Yes Tor From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	Frontispiece
A Tor, showing Granite Weathering From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq.	To face page 14
Vixen Tor From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq.	"⁠18
Rocks by Hey Tor From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq.	"⁠24
The Pedigree of a Tomb From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould.	"⁠56
Stone Rows, Drizzlecombe From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould.	"⁠60
The Pedigree of a Headstone From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould.	"⁠64
Bowerman's Nose From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠74
Whit Tor Camp Planned by Rev. J. K. Anderson, drawn by S. Baring-Gould.	"⁠97
Brent Tor From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠102
Blowing-house under Black Tor From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠108
On the Lyd From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠124
Hare Tor From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠141
North Wyke Gate House From a drawing by Mrs. C. L. Weekes.	"⁠152
Grimspound From a photograph by C. E. Robinson, Esq.	"⁠165
Near Manaton From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠171
Hound Tor From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠175
Hey Tor Rocks From a drawing by E.A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠176
Lower Tar From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq.	"⁠190
The Cleft Rock From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq.	"⁠196
Yar Tor From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠199
The Dewerstone From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq.	"⁠220
Sheeps Tor From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠225
Portion of Screen, Sheeps Tor Drawn by F. Bligh Bond, Esq.	"⁠228
On the Meavy Drawn by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠231
Lake-head Kistvaen From a photograph by R. Burnard, Esq.	"⁠244
Staple Tor From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq.	"⁠269
Blowing-house on the Meavy Drawn by A. B. Collier, Esq.	"⁠270
IN THE TEXT
page
Flint Arrow-heads	37
Flint Scrapers	45
A Cooking-pot	46
Flint Scrapers	49
Fragment of Cooking-pot	50
Cross, Whitchurch Down	65
Plan of H ut, Shapley Common	67
Hut Circle, Grimspound	69
Logan Rock. The Rugglestone, Widdecombe	77
Roos Tor Logans	79
Covered Chamber, Whit Tor	100
Construction of Stone and Timber Wall	101
Tin-workings, Nillacombe	109
Mortar-stone, Okeford	111
Slag-pounding Hollows, Gobbetts	13
Smelting in 1556	14
Plan of Blowing-House, Deep Swincombe	115
Tin-mould, Deep Swincombe	117
Smelting Tin in Japan	119
A Primitive Hinge	133
Inscription on Sourton Cross	142
Inscribed Stone, Sticklepath	150
Plan of Stone Rows near Caistor Rock	161
⁠"⁠"⁠Grimspound	166
⁠"⁠"⁠Hut at Grimspound	169
Fragment of Potter	177
Ornamented Pottery	179
Tom Pearce'S Ghostly Mare	191
Crazing-Mill Stone, Upper Gobbettsv204
Method of using The Mill-Stones	205
Chancel Capital, Meavy	237
Blowing-House below Black Tor	271