A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
Cranmere Pool, though but a puddle, deserves a visit. The intense
desolation of the spot is impressive. On such solitary stretches,
where not a sound of life, not the cry of a curlew, nor the hum of
an insect is heard, I have known a horse stand still and tremble and
sweat with fear. Here a few plants becoming rare elsewhere may still
be found.
There is a story told in Okehampton of a certain Benjamin Gayer,
who was mayor there in 1673 and 1678, and died in 1701, that he is
condemned nightly to go from Okehampton to Cranmere to bale out the
pond with a thimble that has a hole in it.
Tavy Cleave may be visited from Okehampton or from Tavistock. There
is but one way in which it ought to be visited to see it in its
glory. Take the train to Bridestowe and walk thence to the "Dartmoor
Inn." Strike thence due east, cross the brawling Lyd by steps to
Doe Tor Farm, and thence aim for Hare Tor: keep to the right of
the head of the tor and strike for some prongs of rock that appear
south-east, and when you reach these you have beneath you 1000 feet,
the ravine of the Tavy as it comes brawling down from the moor and
plunges over a bar of red granite into a dark pool below. Far away
to the north comes the Rattle Brook, dancing down trout-laden from
Amicombe Hill and Lynx Tor, and to the east in like desolation rises
Fur Tor, set in almost impassable bogs.
Between the Cleave rocks and Ger Tor is a settlement with hut
circles well preserved, but one in a far better condition lies
beyond the Tavy on Standon.
Tavy Cleave is fine from below, but incomparably finer when seen
from above.
In June it is a veritable pixy fruit garden for luxuriance and
abundance of purple whortleberries.
All the veins of water forming depressions have been at some remote
period laboriously streamed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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