A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
I had an adventure in Redmoor, and came nearer looking into the world
beyond than has happened to me before or since. Although it occurred
on the Cornish moors, it might have chanced on Dartmoor, in one of its
mires, for the character of both is the same, and I was engaged in the
same autumn on both sets of moors. Having been dissatisfied with the
Ordnance maps of the Devon and Cornish moors, and desiring that certain
omissions should be corrected, I appealed to Sir Charles Wilson, of the
Survey, and he very readily sent me one of his staff, Mr. Thomas, to
go over the ground with me, and fill in the particulars that deserved
to be added. This was in 1891. The summer had been one of excessive
rain, and the bogs were swollen to bursting. Mr. Thomas and I had been
engaged, on November 5th, about Trewartha Marsh, and as the day closed
in we started for the inhabited land and our lodgings at "Five Janes."
But in the rapidly closing day we went out of our course, and when
nearly dark found ourselves completely astray, and worst of all in a
bog. We were forced to separate, and make our way as best we could,
leaping from one patch of rushes or moss to another. All at once I
went in over my waist, and felt myself being sucked down as though an
octopus had hold of me. I cried out, but Thomas could neither see me
nor assist me had he been able to approach. Providentially I had a long
bamboo, like an alpenstock, in my hand, and I laid this horizontally on
the surface and struggled to raise myself by it. After some time, and
with desperate effort, I got myself over the bamboo, and was finally
able to crawl away like a lizard on my face. My watch was stopped in
my waistcoat pocket, one of my gaiters torn off by the suction of the
bog, and I found that for a moment I had been submerged even over one
shoulder, as it was wet, and the moss clung to it.
On another occasion I went with two of my children, on a day when
clouds were sweeping across the moor, over Langstone Moor. I was going
to the collection of hut circles opposite Greenaball, on the shoulder
of Mis Tor. Unhappily, we got into the bog at the head of Peter Tavy
Brook. This is by no means a dangerous morass, but after a rainy season
it is a nasty one to cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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