Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 51134-h.htm or 51134-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51134/51134-h/51134-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51134/51134-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/bookofdartmoor00bari Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). A BOOK OF DARTMOOR * * * * * * BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE THE TRAGEDY OF THE CÆSARS STRANGE SURVIVALS SONGS OF THE WEST A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG OLD COUNTRY LIFE YORKSHIRE ODDITIES OLD ENGLISH FAIRY TALES A BOOK OF GHOSTS THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME A BOOK OF BRITTANY A BOOK OF CORNWALL A BOOK OF DEVON A BOOK OF NORTH WALES A BOOK OF SOUTH WALES A BOOK OF THE RHINE A BOOK OF THE RIVIERA A BOOK OF THE PYRENEES * * * * * * [Illustration: YES TOR] A BOOK OF DARTMOOR by S. BARING-GOULD With Sixty Illustrations Second Edition Methuen & Co. 36 Essex Street W.C. London First Published July 1900 Second Edition January 1907 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 archæological 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.