Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/390

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Of Dartmoor and its Borderland. 27 Although what remains of Spurrell's Cross is but a fragment, it is sufficient to show that it possessed a certain amount of roughly executed ornamentation. It appears to have been cylindrical in shape, and across the upper and under surfaces of the arm there are projections about an inch and a half high, and about two and a half inches wide. The same are also to be observed on each side of the top of the shaft, the only part of this which is now remaining. These must have given the cross a very interesting appearance, when in its complete state. There is no other example of a Dartmoor cross in which this rude kind of ornamentation occurs, nor is there anything of the sort to be observed on those which are pourtrayed in Blight's Ancient Crosses and Antiquities of Cornwall. The portion that is left to us of this interesting relic measures from the top of the shaft to the fracture, which is immediately below the arms, one foot eleven inches. One arm is completely gone, and the end of the other is also broken. From the present extremity of this arm to the further side of the shaft from where the other has been broken oflf, the measurement is one foot five inches. From the upper surface of the arm to the top of the shaft it is nine and a half inches, and the diameter of the arm is about one foot. It presents a very weather-beaten appearance, and, though ornamented in the manner described, is rougher on its surface than most of the crosses that are found on the moor. This, however, may have arisen from the wearing away of the granite. Turning our faces towards the direction from which we have come, a very pleasing view is presented. The little market town of South Brent is seen, with the lofty eminence which we have noticed, rising conspicuously above it. The vale of the Avon towards A von wick, with the woods which cover the steep bank of the river, is plainly visible, and, as far as the eye can reach, are fields, with here and there a farmstead nestling amid the trees. On our right are the rocks on the summit of the Eastern Beacon, and near us on each hand several low, delapidated cairns. Proceeding once more in a westerly direction, we shall observe at a short distance from the cross, a row of single upright stones intersecting the path nearly at right angles;