A Norman relic of the highest interest is the Exeter Domesday Book, also
preserved in the Chapter Library, describing in greater detail than is
given by the Winchester Survey, especially as regards live stock, the
five counties of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire. Among
many points of difference between the two books is that where the more
general survey gives the letters T.R.E., for _tempore regis Edwardi_,
meaning that such were the facts in the time of Edward the Confessor,
the Exeter Book uses the phrase "eadie q^a rex·E·f·u·&·m·" for _eâ die
qua Rex Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus_, that is to say, "on the day
when King Edward was alive and dead," meaning the day he died, which was
the 6th of January, 1066. It is worthy of note that, with one exception,
the Devonshire Hundreds were the same in 1086, the supposed year of the
completion of the Survey, as they are in our time.
Scattered up and down over Devonshire are many old stone crosses,
some in churchyards or by the wayside, probably intended as preaching
places, and some standing on the open moor as marks of boundary or of
lines of ancient roadway, a few of them bearing brief inscriptions or
traces of decoration. Fine examples are those of Addiscot, Helliton,
Mary Tavy, and South Zeal, the last-named of which has been restored,
and measures, with its steps, eighteen feet in height; the Merchant's
Cross near Meavy, the tallest on Dartmoor; the very ancient Coplestone
Cross, once decorated with interlaced Celtic ornament, standing where
three parishes meet, and named in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 974; and the
Nun's or Siward's Cross, inscribed on one side (SI)WARD, and on
the other BOC LOND, set up in the twelfth century to mark the
boundary between the royal forest and the property of Buckland Abbey.
With these may be mentioned the inscribed stones of Lustleigh, Stowford,
Tiverton, and Fardel--the latter now removed. The last-named, and one of
the three Tiverton examples, bear inscriptions in Ogham or Irish runic
characters.
[Illustration: Cyclopean Bridge, Dartmoor]
Among the features of Dartmoor are the so-called "clapper bridges,"
made of great blocks of unhewn stone. Their date and their builders
are matters of conjecture. If, as has been said, they were meant for
pack-horse traffic, they may be at least as old as the time of the
Norman Conquest, for packhorses are mentioned in the Exeter Domesday.
There are fine examples at Dartmeet, Bellaford, and near Scaurhill
Circle. But the most striking and perhaps the most ancient is that at
Post Bridge, in which two of the stones are fifteen feet long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account