From the entrance the broad oak staircase, having a handsome balustrade, is ascended. The walls are hung with tapestry. On reaching the minstrels' gallery an excellent view is obtained of the superb roof, "one of the most ornate and tasteful specimens of Perpendicular woodwork to be met with in England. Every portion is carved with the spirit and stroke of the true artist; and the multiplied enrichments seen in detail from our elevated position quite surprise the spectator."[18] [18] ASHWORTH: "The Ancient Manor House of Wear Gifford," in _Trans. of the Exeter Diocesan Architect. Soc._, vol. vi., 1852. Elaborately carved wainscot panelling surrounds the walls, covering about ten feet in height. It is adorned with heraldic shields, and opposite the fireplace are the arms of Henry VII. This small, perfect, and beautiful specimen of an old English mansion was the cradle of one of the best of Devonshire families, the Giffards, a branch of which was at Brightley. The last of the Wear Gifford stock conveyed the estate and mansion with his daughter and heiress to the Fortescues. But the Giffard race is by no means extinct, it is now well represented by the Earl of Halsbury. NOTE.--Book on Bideford:-- GRANVILLE (R.), _History of Bideford_. Bideford, 1883. [Illustration: STAPLE TOR] CHAPTER X. DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES Geological structure of Dartmoor--Granite--"Clitters"--Building with granite--The bogs--The rivers--Rock basins--Logan stones--Kaoline deposits--Hut circles--Cooking-stones--Pottery--Pounds--Grimspound--Position of women in early times--Approximate period to which the relics belong--The cromlech--The kistvaen--The stone circle--The stone row--The menhir--Cairns--Modes of interment among the pagan Irish--Stone crosses--Tinners' burrows and stream works--Blowing-houses. The great irregular tableland of Dartmoor, an upheaval of granite over a thousand feet above the sea, and in places attaining to above two thousand, occupies two hundred and twenty-five square miles of country. Of that, however, less than one half is the "Forest" and belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. Around the forest are the commons belonging to the parishes contiguous to the moor. The moor is almost throughout of granite. At the outskirts, indeed, gabbro and trap exist, that have been forced up at the points where the granite has burst through the slate, and these later uprushes of molten matter have greatly altered the granite in contact with them, and have produced an elvan.