Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/bookofdartmoorOObaririch A BOOK OF DARTMOOR BY THE SAME AUTHOR LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE THE TRAGEDY OF THE C^.SARS THE DESERT OF SOUTHERN FRANCE STRANGE SURVIVALS SONGS OF THE WEST A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG OLD COUNTRY LIFE YORKSHIRE ODDITIES FREAKS OF FANATICISM A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES OLD ENGLISH FAIRY TALES A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AN OLD ENGLISH HOME THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW THE CROCK OF GOLD A BOOK OF THE WEST I. DEVON II. CORNWALL C 9 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 ivii63832 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. I. 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 X PREFACE with this matter, which pervaded the work, without a complete recasting of the book, and this he was re- luctant 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 un- certain 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 archaeology, 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 explana- tion of the character and age of the antiquities. 3. A capital book is Mr. W. Crossing's Amid Devonids 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 archaeologists — and then to suggest rambles made PREFACE xi 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 xli PREFACE Dartmoor. There is far finer mountain scener}^ else- where, 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, " Dart- moor 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. R 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 . i 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 .... Frontispiece From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. A Tor, showing Granite Weathering Tofa< e page 14 From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq. Vixen Tor 18 From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq. ' Rocks by Hey Tor . 24 From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq. The Pedigree of a Tomb . 56 From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould. Stone Rows, Drizzlecombe . 60 From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould. The Pedigree of a Headstone 64 From a drawing by S. Baring-Gould. Bowerman's Nose . 74 From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq. Whit Tor Camp 97 Planned by Rev. J. K. Anderson, drawn by S. Baring-Gould Brent Tor 102 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. Blowing-house under Black Tor 108 From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq. On the Lyd 124 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. Hare Tor .... 141 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. North Wyke Gate House . 152 From a drawing by Mrs. C. L. Weekes. Grimspound 16S From a photograph by C. E. Robinson, Esq. ILLUSTRATIONS XV Near Manaton .... To face page 171 From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq. Hound Tor . ,, i75 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. Hey Tor Rocks . ,, 176 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. Lower Tar . ,, 190 From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq. The Cleft Rock . ,, 196 From a photograph by J. Amery, Esq. Yar Tor . • „ 199 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. The Dewerstone . ... 220 From a drawing by E. A. Tozer, Esq. Sheeps Tor 225 From a drawing by A. B. Collier, Esq. Portion of Screen, Sheeps Tor 228 Drawn by F. Bligh Bond, Esq. On the Meavy 231 Drawn by A. B. Collier, Esq. Lake-head Kistvaen 244 From a photograph by R. Bumard, Esq. Staple Tor 269 From a photograph by J. Shortridge, Esq. Blowing-house on the Meavy 270 Drawn by A. B. Collier, Esq. IN THE TP:XT PAGE Flint Arrow-heads 37 Flint Scrapers 45 A Cooking -POT 46 Flint Scrapers 49 Fragment of Cooking-pot SO Cross, Whitchurch Down 65 Plan of Hut, Shapley Common 67 Hut Circle, Grimspound . 69 Logan Rock. The Rugglestone, Widdecomee n XVI ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Roos Tor Logans . 79 Covered Chamber, Whit Tor 100 Construction of Stone and Timber Wall lOI Tin-workings, Nillacombe 109 Mortar-stone, Okeford III Slag-pounding Hollows, Gobbetts . "3 Smelting in 1556 . 114 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 Pottery 177 Ornamented Pottery 179 Tom Pearce's Ghostly Mare 191 Crazing-mill Stone, Upper Gobbetts 204 Method of using the Mill-stones . 205 Chancel Capital, Meavy . 237 Blowing -house below Black Tor . 271 —A DARTMOOR CHAPTER I. BOGS The rivers that flow from Dartmoor—The bogs are their cradles— tailor lost on the moor—A man in Aune Mire—Some of the worst bogs—Cranmere Pool—How the bogs are formed—Adventure in Redmoor Bog—Bog plants —The buckbean—Sweet gale—Furze Yellow broom—Bee-keeping. DARTMOOR proper consists of that upland region of granite, rising to nearly 2,000 feet above the sea, and actually shooting above that height at a few points, which is the nursery of many of the rivers of Devon. The Exe, indeed, has its source in Exmoor, and it disdains to receive any affluents from Dartmoor ; and the Torridge takes its rise hard by the sea at Well- combe, within a rifleshot of the Bristol Channel, nevertheless it makes a graceful sweep — tenders a salute — to Dartmoor, and in return receives the liberal flow of the Okement. The Otter and the Axe, being in the far east of the county, rise in the range of hills that form the natural frontier between Devon and Somerset.