'Tis merry in the summer, When furze be flowering sweet; The bees about it humming, In honey bathe their feet. The plover and the peewit, How cheerily they pipe, And underfoot the whortle Is turning blue and ripe. O the merry Dartimoor, etc. 'Tis merry in the autumn, When snipe and cock appear, And never see a keeper To say, No shooting here! We stack the peat for fuel, We ask no better fire, And never pay a farden For all that we require. O the merry Dartimoor, etc. 'Tis merry in the winter, The wind is on the moor, For twenty miles to leeward The people hear it roar. 'Tis merry in the ingle, Beside a moorland lass, As watching turves a-glowing, The brimming bumpers pass. O the merry Dartimoor, O the bonny Dartimoor, I would not be where I'm not free As I am upon the moor. NOTE.--Articles to be consulted:-- COLLIER (W. F.), "Dartmoor," in _Transactions of the Devonshire Association_ for 1876. COLLIER (W. F.), "Venville Rights on Dartmoor," _ibid._, 1887. " "Dartmoor for Devonshire," _ibid._, 1894. " "Sport on Dartmoor," _ibid._, 1895. CHAPTER XII. OKEHAMPTON Origin of Okehampton obscure--The Ockments--Moor seekers--Okehampton Castle--French prisoners--Church--Belstone and Taw Marsh--Cranmere Pool--Tavy Cleave--South Zeal--Prehistoric monuments--An evening at the "Oxenham Arms"--The Oxenham white bird--Mining misadventures--"Old vayther"--Ecclesiological excursions--Early Christian monuments. What brought Okehampton into existence? It is not fathered by the castle, nor mothered by the church. Both have withdrawn to a distance and repudiated responsibility in the stunted bantling. It "growed not of itself," like Topsy, for it did not grow at all; it stuck. Sourton Down on the west, Whiddon Down on the east--where the devil, it is reported, caught cold--Dartmoor on the south, shut Okehampton in. It was open only to the wintry north, where population is sparse. Formerly, once in the day, once only did the mail coach traverse the one long street, ever on the yawn, and this was the one throb of life that ran through it. No passenger descended from the coach, no meals were taken, no lodging for the night was sought. The mails were dropped and the coach passed away. [Illustration: TAW MARSH]