A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
When lighted on, it has the appearance of a handful of emeralds or aqua
marine thrown into a dark hole, and is frequently associated with the
bright green liverwort. Parfitt, in his _Moss Flora of Devon_, gives it
as _osmundacea_, not as _pennata_. It was first discovered in Britain
by a Mr. Newberry, on the road from Zeal to South Tawton; it is,
however, to be found in a good many places, as Hound Tor, Widdecombe,
Leather Tor, and in the Swincombe valley, also in a cave under Lynx
Tor. If found, please to leave alone. Gathered it is invisible; the
hand or knife brings away only mud.
But what all are welcome to go after is that which is abundant on every
moorside--but nowhere finer than on such as have not been subjected
to periodical "swaling" or burning. I refer to the whortleberry. This
delicious fruit, eaten with Devonshire cream, is indeed a delicacy. A
gentleman from London was visiting me one day. As he was fond of good
things, I gave him whortleberry and cream. He ate it in dead silence,
then leaned back in his chair, looked at me with eyes full of feeling,
and said, "I am thankful that I have lived to this day."
The whortleberry is a good deal used in the south of France for the
adulteration and colouring of claret, whole truck-loads being imported
from Germany.
There is an interesting usage in my parish, and I presume the same
exists in others. On one day in summer, when the "whorts" are ripe, the
mothers unite to hire waggons of the farmers, or borrow them, and go
forth with their little ones to the moor. They spend the day gathering
the berries, and light their fires, form their camp, and have their
meals together, returning late in the evening, very sunburnt, with very
purple mouths, very tired maybe, but vastly happy, and with sufficient
fruit to sell to pay all expenses and leave something over.
If the reader would know what minerals are found on Dartmoor he must go
elsewhere.
I have a list before me that begins thus: "Allophane, actinolite,
achroite, andalusite, _apatite_"--but I can copy out no more. I
have often found _appetite_ on Dartmoor, but have not the slightest
suspicion as to what is apatite. The list winds up with wolfram, about
which I can say something. Wolfram is a mineral very generally found
along with tin, and that is just the "cussedness" of it, for it spoils
tin.
When tin ore is melted at a good peat fire, out runs a silver streak
of metal. This is brittle as glass, because of the wolfram in it. To
get rid of the wolfram the whole has to be roasted, and the operation
is delicate, and must have bothered our forefathers considerably. By
means of this second process the wolfram, or tungsten as it is also
called, is got rid of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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