Other interesting houses are Ashe House near Axminster, the home of the Drake family and the birth-place of the great Duke of Marlborough, partly burnt down during the Civil War and repaired with stones from the ruins of Newenham Abbey, and now a farmhouse; Great Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford, about eight miles west of Exeter, owned by a family who have held it since the time of Richard I, stormed by Fairfax in 1645; and the residence in Exeter of the Abbots of Buckfast, a good example of mediaeval architecture. Some very picturesque old half-timbered houses are to be seen in Exeter, especially in High Street, North Street, and South Street; and there are so many in Dartmouth that the town has been called the Chester of Devonshire. Nor should the fine old almshouses of Tiverton and Exeter be forgotten. Devonshire possesses a great variety of building stone; and the materials employed have naturally varied, as a rule, according to the geological formation of the district. Some of the best houses are of Beer stone. Some, as has been shown, are of flint. Brick, which when of good colour and quality is an excellent material, has been largely employed. Many cottages, and even whole villages, such as Otterton and East Budleigh, are built of "cobb," which is a mixture of clay and straw. [Illustration: Dartmouth: Old Houses in the High Street] Thatch, which is still used for roofing, although to a less extent than formerly, has in the past been the cause of many disastrous fires. As recently as 1866 more than 100 houses were burnt down in Ottery St Mary. Nearly the whole of Chudleigh was thus destroyed in 1807. Fires in Crediton, in the eighteenth century, destroyed hundreds of houses. Perhaps the town that has suffered most severely in this way is Tiverton, where there were very destructive fires in the eighteenth century. One in 1612 consumed almost every house, and in another, in 1598, no fewer than 400 houses were burnt down. [Illustration: Newton Village] 23. Communications: Past and Present. In prehistoric times Devonshire was crossed by a network of trackways, some of which are to-day broad and well-kept high roads. Others form those proverbially narrow, awkward, and frequently muddy Devonshire lanes which are so characteristic of the county, having become worn in the lapse of ages so deep below the level of the adjacent country, owing partly to the softness of the ground, and partly to the heavy rainfall, that their high banks, although often very beautiful, completely shut out the view. Others, again, that once served merely to connect one hill-fort with another, have fallen out of use, and are now hardly to be traced.