A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
In the valley of the Teign is the so-called tolmen, a natural
formation. In the same slab or stone may be seen the beginnings of a
second hole. But it is curious as showing that the river at one time
rolled at a higher elevation than at present. The scenes on a ramble
up the river from Chagford to Holy Street Mill and the mill itself are
familiar to many, as having furnished subjects for pictures in the
Royal Academy.
The river Teign below Whiddon Park winds in and out among wooded
precipitous hills to where the Exeter road descends in zigzags to
Fingle Bridge, passing on its way Cranbrook Castle, a stone camp.
The _brook_ in the name is a corruption of _burgh_ or _burrh_. On
the opposite side of the valley, frowning across at Cranbrook, is
Prestonbury Camp.
With advantage the river may be followed down for several miles to
Dunsford Bridge, and the opportunity is then obtained of gathering
white heath which grows on the slopes. At Shilstone in Drewsteignton
is the only cromlech in the county. It is a fine monument. A few years
ago it fell, but has been re-erected in its old position. After recent
ploughing flints may be picked up in the field where it stands.
Gidleigh merits a visit, the road to it presenting many delicious
peeps. Gidleigh possesses the ruin of a doll castle that once
belonged to the Prouze family. The church contains a screen in good
preservation. In the parish of Throwleigh is the interesting manor
house Wanson, of which I have told a story in my _Old English Home_.
But perhaps more interesting than manor houses are the old farm
buildings in the neighbourhood of Chagford, rapidly disappearing
or being altered out of recognition to adapt them to serve as
lodging-houses to receive visitors.
One such adaptation may be noticed in Tincombe Lane. An old house
is passed, where the ancient mullioned windows have been heightened
and the floors and ceilings raised, to the lasting injury of the
house itself, considered from a picturesque point of view. A passable
road leads up the South Teign to Fernworthy, a substantial farm in
a singularly lone spot. But there was another farm even more lonely
at Assacombe, where a lateral stream descends to the Teign, but it
has been abandoned, and consists now of ruin only. Near it is a
well-preserved double stone row leading from a cairn and finishing at a
blocking-stone.
At Fernworthy itself is a circle of upright stones and the remains of
several stone rows sorely mutilated for the construction of a newtake
wall. In a tumulus near these monuments was found an urn containing
ashes, with a flint knife, and another, very small, of bronze or
copper, and a large polished button of horn. On Chagford Common, near
Watern Hill, is a double pair of rows leading from a cairn and a small
menhir, to blocking-stones. Although the stones of which they are
composed are small, the rows are remarkably well preserved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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