Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/302

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Devon Notes and Queries, 223 178. Dartmoor Notes. — In the twenty-ninth volume of the Annals of Agriculture^ 1797, Arthur Young, the well-known agriculturist, presumably the editor, gives an account of what he calls a Farming Tour in the South and West of England in 1796. He was staying with Mr. Treby, of Goodamoor (who, it will be remembered, was one of the Deputy Rangers of the Forest of Dartmoor), and with him and Mr. A. Hawkins, of Alston, Kingsbridge, visited Dartmoor. They went by Chol- "wich Town, Delamore, Hinter Tor, Hexworthy Bridge^ Huccaby and Brimpts — which then belonged to Mr. Sanders, of Exeter — then to Two Bridges, which he calls Prince Town, and to Mr. Justice Buller*s estate, Prince Hall. Wistman's Wood was examined. Young speaks of it as " the remnant of a forest. The old deformed trees, or rather ruins of trees, preserved by the huge rocks and stones, amongst which they grow, are a singular spectacle, as wild as if a hundred miles from a human habitation. The whole of Dartmoor has been probably a forest." Young was very sanguine as to the capabilities of Dart- moor as agricultural land, and refers in very high terms to the work of Mr. Justice BuUer. " It is fortunate for His Royal Highness, the august proprietor of these deserts, that such a farmer should have fixed on such a spot to open the eyes of the country to its value, to try the means of converting it to use, of rendering the moors productive to the community, of animating such wastes with a happy, because industrious, population. These ought to be the results of Mr. BuUer's exertions, and if the Prince's Council will listen to his plan for dividing and enclosing the whole, that immense work will be done with equal facility and effect. Dartmoor at present is a disgrace to the kingdom — it might be, what Prince Town is, a garden." Young was informed by Mr. Justice BuUer that Mr. Leaman, of Dennabridge-in-the-Moor, had a farm of 300 acres to sell with five Newtakes, which would let for ;^ioo a year, the price ;^3,ooo ; there was a house and sufficient offices upon it. Mr. Abraham, attorney, of Ashburton, had the sale of it ; there was but little land on the moor so good, having much of the red soil on it. In the next volume is a note by Mr. Justice Buller as to the diseases of stock, in correction of what was said by Young,