Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/402

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Of Dartmoor and its Borderland. 37 known of them. It is said, but we know not with what truth, that its last representative died in prison. Leaving Cholwich Town, we shall make our way to Tolcb Moor Gate at the summit of the hill, and thence descend to the little bridge over the Torry near by. Crossing this we proceed towards Lee Moor House, with the evidences of the great china clay industry carried on in this part of the moor immediately around us. Passing the house, and the en- closures surrounding it, we shall shortly perceive another relic of the days when the road we are pursuing was probably little other than a green path, for beside the highway, on our right, we find an old stone cross. Near at hand a path leads across the common to the village of Shaugh, and we may not unreasonably suppose that its situation here was chosen not only for the purpose of marking the forerunner of the present road, but also of indicating the point where this branch diverged. Rowe, in his Perambulation of Dartmoor, has a passing notice of this cross, " the shaft of which," he says, " appears to have been broken off, as there is only enough now left to raise the cross slightly above the large block in which a socket has been formed to receive it." Since this was written, however, it has been placed upon a shaft, and properly fixed in the socket, and now stands erect. Through having been misinformed, I was led to attribute this praiseworthy act to- a nobleman who we can well believe would have undertaken it had the matter been brought to his notice. But I have since found that the restoration of this cross was effected by one with whom my father was many years ago associated in religious work on this part of Dartmoor — Mr. Phillips, formerly of Lee Moor. The stone now forming the shaft was originally cut for a window-sill, which accounts for one of its corners only being bevelled. The cross is five feet ten inches in height, and two feet across the arms ; the block in which the socket is cut is about fourteen inches in thickness, and is circular in shape, its diameter being about three and a half feet. In my first notice of this cross I stated that it had been suggested to me that the name by which it was known in the neighbourhood — Roman's Cross — had become attached to it in consequence of its being usually referred to as the Roman