The Project Gutenberg EBook of Devonshire, by Francis A. Knight and Louie M. (Knight) Dutton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Devonshire Cambridge County Geographies Author: Francis A. Knight Louie M. (Knight) Dutton Release Date: January 23, 2014 [EBook #44738] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVONSHIRE *** Produced by Chris Curnow, Reiner Ruf and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES General Editor: F. H. H. GUILLEMARD, M.A., M.D. DEVONSHIRE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER LANE, E.C. C. F. CLAY, Manager Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., ltd. [All rights reserved] Cambridge County Geographies DEVONSHIRE by FRANCIS A. KNIGHT AND LOUIE M. (KNIGHT) DUTTON With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations Cambridge: at the University Press 1910 Cambridge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS [v] I PREFACE N preparing this book much use has been made of the Proceedings of the Devonshire Association and of the first volume of the Victoria History of Devon. The authors also desire to take this opportunity of recording their grateful thanks to Her Gracious Majesty Queen Alexandra for her kindness in providing one of the most interesting illustrations in the volume—the beautiful photograph of the Armada trophy preserved among the Royal plate in Windsor Castle, taken for the purpose of this volume by her command. F. A. K. and L. M. D. March, 1910. [vii] CONTENTS PAGE 1. County and Shire. The Name Devonshire. 1 2. General Characteristics. 4 3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. 8 4. Surface and General Features. 11 5. Watershed. Rivers and the tracing of their courses. Lakes. 20 6. Geology. 30 7. Natural History. 41 8. A Peregrination of the Coast: 1, The Bristol Channel. 55 9. A Peregrination of the Coast: 2, The English Channel. 65 10. Coastal Gains and Losses. Sandbanks. Lighthouses. 79 11. Climate and Rainfall. 88 12. People—Race. Dialects. Settlements. Population. 97 13. Agriculture—Main Cultivations. Woodlands. Stock. 104 14. Industries and Manufactures. 111 15. Mines and Minerals. 119 16. Fisheries and Fishing Stations. 124 17. Shipping and Trade. 129 18. History of Devonshire. 136 19. Antiquities. 152 20. Architecture—(a) Ecclesiastical. 167 21. Architecture—(b) Military. 185 22. Architecture—(c) Domestic. 192 23. Communications: Past and Present. 202 24. Administration and Divisions—Ancient and Modern. 208 25. The Roll of Honour of the County. 213 26. The Chief Towns and Villages of Devonshire. 225 [viii] [ix] ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Devonshire in the Exeter Domesday Book. Phot. Worth& Co 3 King Tor, near Tavistock. Phot. Frith 5 A Typical Devon Stream— Watersmeet, Lynmouth. Phot.Coates & Co. 6 A Devon Valley—Yawl Bottom, Uplyme. Phot. Frith 7 Glen Lyn, near Lynmouth.Phot. Coates & Co. 9 The Upper Dart, from the Moors. Phot. Frith 12 Tavy Cleave, showing disintegrated granite 14 On Lundy 17 The River Exe at Tiverton. Phot. Frith 21 On the Dart; Sharpham Woods. Phot. Frith 24 The Axe at Axminster Bridge. Phot. Frith 26 Bideford and the Torridge Estuary. Phot. Frith 28 Geological Section across England 32 Logan Stone, Dartmoor. Phot. Frith 34 A smoothly-weathered granite Tor, Dartmoor. Phot. Frith 36 Footprints of Cheirotherium. Phot. H. G. Herring 38 A Red Deer. Phot. H. G. Herring 43 Otters. Phot. H. G. Herring 44 Spurge Hawk Moth, with Pupa and Caterpillar. Phot.H. G. Herring 51 The Castle Rock, Lynton. Phot. Coates & Co. 56 Valley of Rocks, Lynton. Phot. Frith 57 Ilfracombe, from Hillsborough. Phot. Coates & Co. 59 Cliffs near Clovelly. Phot. Frith 63 Clovelly Harbour 64 Church Rock, Clovelly. Phot. Frith 65 Pinhay Landslip. Phot. Frith 67 White Cliff, Seaton. Phot. Barrett 68 Parson and Clerk Rocks, Dawlish. Phot. Frith 70 Anstis Cove, near Torquay. Phot. Frith 71 Torquay from Vane Hill. Phot. Frith 72 Brixham. Phot. Frith 74 "Britannia" and "Hindostan" in Dartmouth Harbour.Phot. Frith 75 A Rough Sea at Ilfracombe. Phot.Frith 81 The Eddystone Lighthouse. Phot.Frith 84 The Start Lighthouse. Phot. Frith 87 The Winter Garden at Torquay. Phot. Frith 90 Upcott Lane, Bideford. Phot. Frith 94 A Cockle Woman, River Exe. Phot. Frith 101 A Honiton Lace-Worker. Phot. Frith 102 Old Ford Farm, Bideford. Phot. Frith 105 Exmoor Ponies. Phot. Sport and General Illustrations Co. 106 Red Devon Cow 107 Gathering Cider Apples 109 A Water-mill at Uplyme. Phot. Frith 110 Devonshire Lace 113 Devonshire Pottery from the Watcombe Works 115 Cider-making in the 17th Century 116 A Modern Cider Press 117 Ship-building Yard, Brixham. Phot. Frith 118 Devon Great Consols Mine. Phot. Frith 121 [x] Stone Quarry, Beer. Phot. Frith 123 Fish Market at Brixham. Phot. Lake 126 Brixham Trawlers. Phot. Frith 128 Teignmouth. Phot. Coates & Co., Bristol 133 Drake's Island from Mt. Edgcumbe. Phot. Frith 135 Penny of Ethelred II, struck at Exeter. Phot. Worth & Co. 139 Signatures of Drake and Hawkyns 143 Flagon taken by Drake from the "Capitana" of the Armada. From a photograph taken by the Queen's command 144 Drake's Drum. From a photograph presented by Lady Eliott Drake 145 The "Mayflower" Stone on Plymouth Quay. Phot. Frith 146 Palaeolithic Implement from Kent's Cavern 152 Dolmen near Drewsteignton. Phot. Mr John S. Amery 154 Palstave of the Bronze Age, from Exeter Museum. Phot. Worth & Co 155 Fernworthy Circle, near Chagford. Phot. Frith 156 Hurston Stone Alignment. Phot. Mr John S. Amery 157 Triple Stone Row and Circle near Headlands, Dartmoor. Phot. Mr John S. Amery 158 Bronze Centaur forming the Head of a Roman Standard. Phot. Worth & Co. 162 Saxon Sword-hilt 164 Cyclopean Bridge, Dartmoor. Phot. Frith 166 Norman Doorway, Axminster Church. Phot. Miss E. K. Prideaux 169 Ottery St Mary Church. Phot. Frith 170 Decorated Window, Exeter Cathedral. Phot. Worth & Co. 171 Rood Screen and Pulpit, Harberton Church. Phot. Crossley, Knutsford 174 The Seymour Tomb, Berry Pomeroy Church. Phot. Frith. 177 Exeter Cathedral, West Front. Phot. Worth & Co. 179 The Nave, Exeter Cathedral. Phot. Worth & Co. 181 Buckland Abbey from a photograph presented by Lady Eliott Drake 184 Compton Castle. Phot. E. Kelly 189 An Old Devon Farmhouse Chimney Corner. Phot. Miss E. K. Prideaux 193 Hayes Barton: Sir Walter Ralegh's House. Phot. Miss E. K. Prideaux 196 Mol's Coffee House, Exeter. Phot. S. A. Moore of Exeter 198 Sydenham House 199 Dartmouth: Old Houses in the High Street. Phot. Frith 201 Newton Village. Phot. Frith 202 Teignmouth: the Coast Line and Sea-wall. Phot. Frith 206 The Guildhall, Exeter. Phot. Frith 211 Sir Francis Drake 214 Sir Walter Ralegh. Phot. Emery Walker. Signature. Phot. Worth & Co. 216 Charles Kingsley. Phot. Emery Walker 220 Blundell's School, Tiverton. Phot. Frith 222 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Phot. Emery Walker 223 Clovelly. Phot. Frith 228 Dartmouth, from Warfleet. Phot. Frith 230 Cherry Bridge, near Lynmouth. Phot. Frith 234 Lynmouth Harbour. Phot. Coates & Co. 235 Ogwell Mill, Newton Abbot. Phot. Frith 237 Shute Manor House. Phot. Barrett 240 Tiverton Bridge. Phot. Frith 241 Diagrams 243 [xi] [xii] MAPS Devonshire, Topographical Front Cover Devonshire, Geological Back Cover England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall 92 The authors are indebted to Mr John S. Amery for leave to reproduce the pictures on pp. 154, 157 and 158. [1] 1. County and Shire. The Name Devonshire. The word "shire," which is probably derived, like "shear" and "share," from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning "to cut," was at one time used in a wider sense than it is at present, and was formerly applied to a division of a county or even of a town. Thus, there were once six small "shires" in Cornwall. The word shire was in use at the time of King Ina, and occurs in the code of laws which that monarch drew up about the year 709; but the actual division of England into shires was a gradual process, and was not complete at the Norman Conquest. Lancashire, for example, was not constituted a shire until the twelfth century. Alterations in the extent and limits of some of the counties are, indeed, still being made; and in the case of Devonshire the boundaries have been changed several times within the memory of persons still living. The object of thus dividing up the country was partly military and partly financial. Every shire was bound to provide a certain number of armed men to fight the king's battles, and was also bound to contribute a certain sum of money towards his income and the expenses of the state; and in each district a "shire-reeve"—or sheriff, as we call the officer now—was appointed by the Crown to see that the people did their duty in both respects. The shire was a Saxon institution. County is a Norman word, which came into use after the Conquest, when the government of each shire was entrusted to some powerful noble, often a count, a title which originally meant a companion of the King. It has been suggested that the reason why the names of some counties end or may end in "shire," while in other cases this syllable is never used, is that the former were "shorn off" from some larger district, while the latter represent entire ancient kingdoms or tribal divisions. According to this theory, Yorkshire is a "shire" because it originally formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria; and Kent is not a "shire" because it practically represents the ancient kingdom of the Cantii. The form "Kent-shire" is, however, found in a record of the time of Athelstan. In the case of our own county both forms are in use, and we say either "Devon" or "Devonshire," although the two names are not exactly interchangeable. Thus, while we generally talk of "Red Devon" cattle, we always speak of "Devonshire" cream. "Devon," which is the older form, may be derived either from Dumnonii, the name given by Ptolemy, an Alexandrian geographer of the second century, to the inhabitants of the south-west of Britain, perhaps from a Celtic word Dumnos, "people"—or it may come from the old Welsh word Dyvnaint or Dyfneint, "the land of the deeps," that is to say, of deep valleys or deep seas. To the Saxon settlers the people they found in possession of the district were Defn-saetan or "dwellers in Devon"; and in time these settlers called themselves Defenas, or "men of Devon." In the Exeter Domesday Book—the Norman survey of the five south-western counties, completed probably before 1086—the name of the county is given as Devenesira. It would appear, then, that the Britons called their province "Devon," and that the Saxons called it "Devonshire." It is characteristic of the peaceable nature of the Saxon occupation that the two names, like the two nations, seem to have quietly settled down side by side. Devonshire in the Exeter Domesday Book Devonshire in the Exeter Domesday Book It is believed that it was Alfred the Great who marked out the border-line between Devon and Somerset; and it was undoubtedly Athelstan who, after his victory over the West Welsh, made the Tamar the boundary between Devon and Cornwall. [2] [3] [4] 2. General Characteristics. Devonshire is a county in the extreme south-west of England, occupying the greater part of the peninsula between the English and Bristol Channels, and having a coast-line both on the south and on the north. Situated thus, on two seas, and possessing, especially on its southern sea-board, a remarkable number of bays and estuaries, it has always been noted as a maritime county. And although many of its harbours have, in the lapse of ages, become silted up with sand or shingle, and are now of comparatively slight importance, it has one great sea-port, which, while only thirtieth in rank among British commercial ports, is the greatest naval station in the Empire. The county has in the past been famous for its cloth-weaving and for its tin and copper-mining, but these industries are now greatly decayed, and the main occupation of the people is agriculture, to which both the soil and the climate are particularly favourable. King Tor, near Tavistock A special characteristic of Devonshire is its scenery, which is so striking that it is very generally considered the most beautiful county in England; while there are probably very many who regard its mild and genial, equable and health- giving climate as more noteworthy still. It is a remarkably hilly country, and it also possesses not only many rivers, but a great number of broad river estuaries. Another characteristic with which every visitor to the district is struck is the redness which distinguishes its soil, its southern cliffs, and its famous breed of cattle, which is not less noticeable than the soft and pleasant dialect, with its close sound of the letter "u" so typical both of Devon and of West Somerset. A Typical Devon Stream—Watersmeet, Lynmouth Another characteristic of the people has always been their loyalty to their sovereign, to their county, and to each other. Devon is proverbial, like Cornwall and Yorkshire, for the clannishness of its inhabitants. It is a land, too, where superstition dies hard. Belief in pixies—fairies, as they are called elsewhere—in witches and witch-craft, in whisht- hounds and other weird and uncanny creatures, and in portents and omens, still lingers, especially on Dartmoor. A Devon Valley—Yawl Bottom, Uplyme Dartmoor itself, with its wild and picturesque scenery, its unrivalled wealth of prehistoric antiquities, and its singular geological structure, forms one of the most striking features of the county, and one to which there is no parallel in England. The marine zoology of Devonshire is more interesting than that of any other English county, and nowhere else in the island has there been discovered clearer evidence of the great antiquity of man than was found in Kent's Cavern and other Devonshire caves. Above all things, its position has made Devonshire a native land of heroes. Very few other counties have produced so many men of mark, so many men of enterprise and daring. Certainly no other has played a greater part in the expansion of England. From Devonshire came not only some of the most distinguished seamen of the Golden Age of Elizabeth, some of the most skilful and daring of her naval captains, but some of the earliest and most famous of our explorers; the founder of the first English colony, the first Englishman to sail the polar sea, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. [5] [6] [7] [8] 3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. Devonshire, which occupies rather more than one-twenty-second of the whole area of England and Wales, is one of the largest counties in the British Islands, being exceeded in size only by Yorkshire and Lincoln in England, by Inverness and Argyll in Scotland, and by Cork in Ireland. Its extreme length from east to west, measured along a horizontal line drawn through the middle of the county, starting at the Dorsetshire border half-way between Lyme Cobb and the Seven Rocks Point, passing close to the city of Exeter, and reaching to the point where the river Ottery enters the county, is 67 miles; exactly the same as that of the county of Somerset. Its greatest breadth, from Countisbury Foreland on the north coast to Prawle Point on the south, is 71 miles. It may be added that a longer east and west line can be drawn only in Yorkshire and Sussex, and a longer meridional line only in Yorkshire and Lincoln. The area of the "Ancient" or "Geographical" county of Devonshire, according to the revised return furnished by the Ordnance Department, is 1,667,154 acres, or 2605 square miles. Compared with the counties that adjoin it, it is two-and-a-half times the size of Dorset, it is roughly twice as large as Cornwall, and it is more than half as large again as Somerset. It is fifteen times as large as Rutland, it is about half the size of Yorkshire, and its area is less than that of Lincolnshire by only 48 square miles. Glen Lyn, near Lynmouth Although usually said to be irregular in form, the outline of the county has a certain degree of symmetry, being roughly shaped like a life-guardsman's cuirass, with nearly equal sides, with a small hollow at the top or north coast, and a much larger one at the bottom or south coast. Devonshire, like Kent and Cornwall, is bounded on two sides by the sea, having the Bristol Channel on the north and north-west, and the English Channel on the south. On its western side the river Tamar, with its tributary the Ottery, forms almost the whole of the frontier between it and Cornwall. The eastern and north-eastern border is less definite, but is roughly marked by Exmoor and the Blackdown Hills, which partly separate Devonshire from Somerset. The short length of frontier between Devonshire and Dorsetshire is marked by no natural feature. No part of Devonshire is now, as was formerly the case, wholly surrounded by any other county. Three of its parishes, however, are partly in Dorset, one is partly in Cornwall, and one, a district of Exmoor containing no houses or inhabitants, is partly in Somerset. Culmstock, which before 1842 was considered to belong to Somerset, although completely islanded in Devon, and Stockland and Dalwood, which were reckoned with Dorset, although they were entirely inside the Devonshire border, have now been formally transferred to this county. On the other hand, Thornecombe and Ford Abbey, which belonged to Devonshire although they were situate in the adjoining county, have been handed over to Dorset. Still later alterations were the transfer of Hawkchurch and Churchstanton from Dorset to Devon in 1896. [9] [10] [11] 4. Surface and General Features. Devonshire is characterised by such great irregularity and unevenness of surface that practically the only level land in it is along the shores of its estuaries; with the almost inevitable result that it is one of the most picturesque and beautiful counties in England. Its scenery has been very greatly affected by subterranean movements, which have not only roughly shaped its hills and valleys, partly by upheaval and partly by the shrinkage of the earth's crust, but have been the principal cause of the breadth of the river estuaries which are so marked a feature of its coasts, especially of the south. At many points along the shore of Devonshire there is evidence, in raised sea-beaches, and, near Torquay, in the borings of marine mollusca at a great height above the present tide-line, of upheavals that must have raised the whole coast, even if they did not materially change the contour of the country. On the other hand, the existence of submerged forests at many places near the shore proves that the land has sunk at least forty feet, thus allowing the sea to flow further inland; thereby greatly widening the already existing valleys, which had been formed in part by the shrinkage of the earth's crust, and in part by the action of the rivers. The Upper Dart, from the Moors The chief physical feature of Devonshire, a feature without parallel in any other part of England, is the Forest of Dartmoor, the great upland, some twenty miles long and eighteen miles broad, which occupies so large a part of the southern half of the county. It is all granite, the largest mass of granite in England, and forms part of a chain of outcrops of that formation extending from Devonshire to the Scilly Isles. The word "forest," it should be remembered, should be remembered, originally meant, not a wood, but a hunting-ground. No part of the open moor is now covered with trees, nor is it likely, considering the poorness of the soil, that it ever was so covered, although roots and other remains of trees have been found in various parts of it. In early days it was a royal hunting-ground, and most of it is still Crown property, forming part of the Duchy of Cornwall. The most prominent feature of the moor, which contains the highest ground in England south of Ingleborough in Yorkshire, are the isolated rocky heights called tors, some 170 in number, many of which have been weathered, not only into very rugged and highly picturesque, but even into most strange and fantastic shapes; in many cases having their steep slopes strewn with fallen fragments of rock, some of them tons in weight, forming what are known on the moor as "clitters" or "clatters." The highest points are High Willhays, 2039 feet; Yes Tor, 2029 feet, only half a mile away from its rival, Newlake, 1983 feet; Cuthill, 1980 feet; and Great Lynx Tor, 1908 feet above sea-level; and among the most striking and picturesque are Great Lynx Tor, Staple Tor, Mis Tor, and Vixen Tor, although many others are remarkable for their strange and time-worn outlines. The moor is seamed by many valleys and ravines, not a few of which are, in parts, well-wooded, each with its swiftly- flowing stream or river, and many of them most picturesque and beautiful. Such, in particular, are the Valley of the Dart, especially including Holne Chase and above; of the Teign near Fingle Bridge; of the Tavy at Tavy Cleave; of the Lyd at Lydford, and of the Plym at the Dewerstone. Tavy Cleave, showing disintegrated granite Dartmoor is distinguished in being the coldest and rainiest part of Devonshire, and to these two features of its climate are no doubt largely due the fogs which so frequently envelope it. Its great extent and its heavy rainfall make the moor the main watershed of the county. Most of its rivers have their sources in the bogs, which are a well-known and somewhat dangerous feature of the district, and of which the most remarkable are Fox Tor Mire, Cranmere Bog, and Cuthill Bog. Its varied and peculiar features, its vast expanses of wild and desolate moorland, now aglow with golden gorse, and now still more splendid with the magnificent purple of its broad sheets of heather or with the warm hues of dying bracken, and beautiful, as the seasons change, with the varying tints of grass and sedge, of ferns and rushes, of moss and bog-myrtle and bilberry, of cotton-grass and asphodel; the almost unrivalled beauty of its river-valleys, its multitudinous streams, its wild life, its extraordinary wealth of prehistoric antiquities, its lingering superstitions of pixies, of witch-craft, of night-flying whisht-hounds and ghostly huntsmen, its very solitude and silence, combine to make Dartmoor, to the antiquary and the artist, the naturalist and the angler, one of the most attractive spots in England, and one whose charm poets, painters, and authors have striven from earliest days to immortalise. The greater part of Exmoor, and all its principal heights, are in Somerset, but it extends into the north-eastern corner of Devon, and detached portions of it, which appear to be really parts of the same upland, reach to the hills above Combe Martin. Part of Span Head, whose summit is 1619 feet above the sea, is in our county; and the outlying spurs of Bratton Down, Kentisbury Down, and the Great Hangman are all over 1000 feet high. There is very beautiful scenery on [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] Exmoor, especially on the Somerset side of the border, somewhat resembling that on Dartmoor, although less wild and picturesque, and without any of the tors which are so characteristic of the greater upland. Exmoor is the only part of England where red deer still run wild; and the district is visited every year by stag-hunters from all parts of the island and especially from Ireland. Both it and Dartmoor are famous for a breed of sturdy little ponies, originally, no doubt, of the same stock. In the Badgeworthy Valley, which is in Somerset, although not far from Lynton, may be seen what are said to be the ruined huts of the Doones, a community of freebooters immortalised by Blackmore, who represents them as having been the terror of the country-side towards the close of the seventeenth century. Other Devonshire hills are the Black Downs, along the border of Somerset, in which the highest point is 860 feet above the sea; another Black Down, six miles due south, reaching 930 feet; the Great Haldons, south-west of Exeter, 817 feet high; and Dumpdon Hill, about two miles north by east of Honiton, 856 feet above sea-level. Devonshire is in parts extremely fertile, especially towards the south, and it has been called (in common, it is true, with other counties) the Garden of England. Two very large and specially productive areas are the Vale of Exeter, and the South Hams,—the latter a name somewhat indefinitely applied to the district south of Dartmoor and occupying a large part of the region between the Teign and the Plym, with Kingsbridge as its chief centre. The great fertility of this famous district is due partly to the nature of the soil, partly to the mildness of the climate and the shelter afforded by the heights of Dartmoor, and partly to its nearness to the sea. On Lundy A very remarkable and interesting feature of Devonshire is Lundy—an island three miles long by one mile broad, lying out in the Bristol Channel, opposite Barnstaple Bay, and twelve miles north-north-west of Hartland Point. Its name, it is believed, is derived from two Norse words meaning Puffin Isle. Composed entirely of granite, except for its southern extremity, which is millstone grit, its lofty cliffs are very wild and rugged and picturesque, and for two miles along its eastern side there is a remarkable series of chasms, from three to twenty feet wide and some of them of great depth, known to the islanders as the Earthquakes. The shingle beach at the south-eastern corner, in the shelter of Rat Island, is the only landing-place, but many vessels find good anchorage on the eastern side, well protected from westerly winds. Many ships, however, have been wrecked among the terrible rocks round its base, including the battleship Montagu, lost in 1906, and, according to tradition, one of the galleons of the Spanish Armada. There is a lighthouse at each end of the island, and the southern one is the most powerful in Devonshire. Perhaps the greatest charm of Lundy lies, as will be shown in some detail in a later chapter, in its natural history, especially in the vast numbers of birds which visit it in the breeding season. Among very rare stragglers that have been shot here is the Iceland falcon, a species of which very few examples have been recorded for this country. A few plants and insects are peculiar to the spot. There are now few trees, except those planted not long ago near the owner's house in a cleft at the south-eastern end, but some shrubs, such as fuchsias, hydrangeas, and rhododendrons grow to a great size, and the mesembryanthemums are particularly vigorous and beautiful. Granite for the Thames Embankment was obtained here, but the quarries have long been closed, and farming is the chief industry of the few inhabitants. There are evidences of very ancient occupation, in the shape of kistvaens, tumuli, and the foundations of primitive dwellings; and in times more recent the island has had a stirring history. In the reign of Henry II it was held by the turbulent family of the Montmorencies or Moriscos, and the shell of Morisco Castle, now converted into cottages, still stands on the south-east corner of the island. During the Civil War it was fortified for the king, and only surrendered in 1647. At various times in the seventeenth century it was captured by French, Spaniards, and Algerines; and it was, moreover, several times occupied by pirates, some of whom were Englishmen, who found it a convenient station from which to plunder ships sailing up the Bristol Channel. [17] [18] [19] [20] 5. Watershed. Rivers and the tracing of their courses. Lakes. Devonshire is a well-watered county, a county of many rivers; and although not one of its multitudinous streams is of real commercial importance or of much value as a water-way, by their mere abundance and by the beauty of their scenery, especially of the magnificent ravines which many of them in the lapse of ages have worn deep in the rock, they form one of its most striking features. By far the most important watershed is the great upland of Dartmoor, where, with few exceptions, rise all the principal rivers. The headwaters of the Tamar and the Torridge—which rise close together, but flow in very different directions and reach different seas—are in the high ground in the north-west, on the very border of Cornwall, and the sources of the Exe and of its great twin stream the Barle are on the moor to which the former gives its name, just inside the county of Somerset. But the tributaries of all these are drawn from the bogs of Dartmoor, and especially from the morasses round the now insignificant sheet of water known as Cranmere Pool. The whole eastern border of the county, from Exmoor southward to the Blackdown Hills, is a source of streams. Such are the Lyn, flowing into the Bristol Channel; the Bray, the Yeo, and the Mole, tributaries of the Taw; the Loman, the Culm, and the Clyst, tributaries of the Exe; the Otter, falling into the English Channel; and the Yarty, a tributary of the Axe. It is remarkable that of all the many streams of Devonshire, only two of any consequence reach the estuary of the Severn. Almost all flow into the English Channel. The River Exe at Tiverton The longest of the Devonshire rivers is the Exe, after which are named Exford and Exton in Somerset, and Exeter and Exmouth in our own county—a strong and beautiful stream which rises near Simonsbath on Exmoor, flowing for the first twenty miles through Somerset and crossing the Devonshire border near Dulverton station, where it is met, on the left bank, by its great tributary the Barle. It then runs nearly due south, through well-wooded and fertile country, being joined on its left bank, at Tiverton, "the town of the two fords," by the Loman; and farther down on the same side by the Culm, which gives its name to Culmstock. Near Exeter it receives on the right bank the Creedy, a pretty and winding stream that lends its name to Crediton, and along whose shores in some of the richest land in Devonshire. A little below Exeter, close to the once famous port of Topsham, it is joined on the left bank by the Clyst, a small and unimportant stream, flowing through most fertile country, and giving its name to no fewer than seven villages. Below Topsham the Exe widens out to nearly a mile, forming, at high tide, from this point to the sea, a noble estuary five miles long, with the popular watering-place of Exmouth on the slope of the eastern side of its entrance, which is almost closed by a long sandbank called the Warren, divided into two parts by a stream. Until late in the thirteenth century the Exe was navigable from the sea to Exeter. But in 1290 Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon, having quarrelled with the citizens, blocked the river-bed with stones, at a place still called the Countess Weir, leaving, however, sufficient room for ships to pass. At a later period this space was closed by the Earl of Devon, and the navigation of the river entirely stopped. Vessels now reach Exeter by a canal. The second river in point of length is the Tamar, after which are named North Tamerton in Cornwall and Tamerton Foliott in our own county. Rising in the extreme north-west, in the high ground that parts Devonshire from Cornwall, it forms almost the whole of the dividing line between the two counties, and is characterised throughout the lower portion of its course by some very beautiful scenery. It is joined by many streams, some rising in Devonshire and some in Cornwall; some of which—the Lyd, for example—are renowned for their wildness and beauty. The largest of the western tributaries is the Lynher, entirely a Cornish river, whose estuary joins the Hamoaze. The most important of those on the left bank is the Tavy, a Dartmoor-drawn stream, giving its name to the town of Tavistock and to the villages of Peter Tavy and Mary Tavy, and flowing through some of the most fruitful land in Devonshire. A particularly fertile district is that lying between the Tavy and the Tamar. Although it is a much shorter river than the Exe or the Tamar, the Dart is better known than either, and is perhaps the most familiar by name of all the Devonshire streams. Along its banks, especially near Holne and Buckland-in-the-Moor, and along the wooded shores of its magnificent estuary, is some of the most beautiful river-scenery, not in this county only but in all England. The most important of its many tributaries are the East and the West Dart—both of which rise in the great bog round Cranmere Pool, and join at a picturesque spot called Dartmeet—and the Webburns, East and West. Below Totnes the Dart widens out into a long and most beautiful estuary, winding among finely-wooded hills. On the west side of its entrance is the old port of Dartmouth, named, like Dartington, after the river, and on the opposite shore is the smaller but equally picturesque little town of Kingswear. On the Dart; Sharpham Woods Famous as the Dart is for the wildness and beauty of its scenery, and for the excellence of its trout and salmon fishing, it has an evil name for the dangerous nature of its swiftly-flowing waters, which, after heavy rain on the moor, rise with [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] extraordinary rapidity, changing it in a few hours from a peaceful and easily-forded stream into a raging and resistless torrent. At Hexworthy, in November, 1894, the river rose ten and a half feet above the level of the previous day. Characteristic of this as the other of the moorland streams, is the strange sound it sometimes makes, especially towards nightfall, known as its "cry," and believed by the superstitious to be ominous of flood and danger. To "hear the Broadstones crying"—masses of granite lying in the bed of the stream—is considered by the moor-folk a sure sign of coming rain. The Dartmoor rivers, in the upper part of their courses, are naturally all swift, and are all more or less tinged by the peat of their moorland birth-place—lightly, when the stream is low, and deepening in flood-time into the colour of a rich cairngorm. The Teign, another of the streams that rise in the Cranmere bog, is famous both for the beauty of the scenery along its winding shores and for the many prehistoric antiquities—stone circles and alignments, menhirs and tumuli—which stand near them. Its two main branches, the North and the South Teign, meet about a mile to the west of Chagford. To the east of that moorland village the river flows through beautifully wooded valleys, and is joined on its right bank, below Chudleigh, by another Dartmoor tributary, the Bovey, on which stand Bovey Tracy, famous for its beds of lignite and clay and for its potteries, and North Bovey, near which are the remains of the very remarkable Bronze Age village of Grimspound. Below Newton Abbot the Teign becomes a broad estuary, on or near whose shores are five of the townships that are named after the river, the most important of which is the little port and well-known watering-place of Teignmouth. The river mouth is almost blocked by a low promontory, which, although now built over, was once a mere sand-bank or dune, from which latter word, no doubt, it takes its name of the Den. The Axe at Axminster Bridge Other south-coast rivers are the Axe—one of whose two main branches rises in Somerset and the other in Dorset— which gives its name to Axminster and Axmouth; the Otter, which rises in the Blackdown Hills, and flowing past Honiton, Ottery St Mary, and Otterton, reaches the sea at Budleigh Salterton; the Aune or Avon, especially famous for its salmon, the Erme, and the slopes Yealm, small but beautiful streams rising on the southern slopes of Dartmoor, widening into estuaries as they near the English Channel, and giving names to Aveton, Ermington, and Yealmpton, respectively. The Plym, after which are named Plympton, Plymouth, and Plymstock, is another Dartmoor river, flowing through some very beautiful country, especially in the neighbourhood of Bickleigh, and at length forming a broad and important estuary known first as the Laira, and lower down as the Catwater or Cattewater, which joins Plymouth Sound. The chief rivers on the north coast are the Torridge and the Taw, the former of which, rising in the extreme north-west, on the Cornish border, near the source of the Tamar, flows south-west for nearly half its course, and then sweeps round to run in the opposite direction, giving its name to three several Torringtons, and having as its chief tributaries the Walden, the Lew, and the Okement, all on its right bank. The last-named stream is formed of the East and the West Okements, which meet at Okehampton, their namesake. The lower waters of the Torridge form a long and narrow estuary—its shore only ten miles distant from the original source of the river—half-way down which is the once important port of Bideford, built on both sides of the stream, which is here spanned by a very ancient bridge. Near the entrance of the estuary, but neither of them on the open sea, are Appledore, the port of Barnstaple, and Instow, a small but growing watering-place. The Taw is a Dartmoor-drawn river, rising, like so many streams, in the Cranmere bog, giving its name to Tawstock and to three several Tawtons, and receiving on its right bank the Yeo, the Little Dart, and the Mole. The most considerable town on it is Barnstaple, beyond which it becomes a broad tidal estuary, joining that of the Torridge, and flowing out into what is known both as Barnstaple and Bideford Bay. Bideford and the Torridge Estuary Many small streams fall into the Bristol Channel, among which is the Lyn, renowned for its beautiful scenery and its good trout-fishing. A large proportion of the Celtic words in our language are found in the names of natural features, especially of hills and rivers. This is particularly well seen in Devonshire, where, as has been pointed out, the Saxons came as settlers rather than conquerors, adopting many of the names which they found already in use, and where an unusually large number of towns and villages have been called after the streams on which they stand. The names Exe, Axe, and Okement, from the Celtic uisge; Avon, Aune, and Auney, from afon; Dart, from dwr; and Teign, from tain, are all derived from roots meaning "water." Other names are taken from descriptive adjectives, such as Wrey, from rea, rapid; Lyn, from lleven, smooth; and Tamar, Taw, and Tavy, from tam, spreading or still. [26] [27] [28] [29] The lakes of Devonshire, as is the case in the majority of English counties, are little more than ponds. Cranmere Pool, in the great morass where many Devonshire rivers rise, lying in a dreary spot, as befits the reputed place of punishment of evil spirits, has shrunk of late years in consequence of much peat-cutting in its neighbourhood, and is now an insignificant pond, rarely more than seventy yards across, and in hot summers sometimes quite dry. Bradmere Pool and Classenwell Pool, the sites of old mine-workings, are beautiful little lakes, but they are only a few acres in extent. Burrator Reservoir has been made in order to supply water to Plymouth. The largest of these miniature lakes is Slapton Ley, or Lea, a long and narrow sheet of water, two and a quarter miles in length and measuring about 200 acres, separated from the sea, with which it was no doubt once connected, by a bank of fine shingle. The reeds of its north- eastern end, which are cut and sold for thatching, are the haunt of many water-birds; and the Ley is visited in winter by immense numbers of migratory ducks and waders. [30]