Chapter I: Front Matter

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Transcriber's note:

In this text superscript is represented with '^' and a macron with [=o]

DEVON

ITS MOORLANDS, STREAMS, & COASTS

by

LADY ROSALIND NORTHCOTE

With Illustrations in Colour after Frederick J. Widgery

London Exeter Chatto & Windus James G. Commin M CM VIII

Deep-wooded combes, clear-mounded hills of morn,
Red sunset tides against a red sea-wall,
High lonely barrows where the curlews call,
Far moors that echo to the ringing horn,--
Devon! thou spirit of all these beauties born,
All these are thine, but thou art more than all:
Speech can but tell thy name, praise can but fall
Beneath the cold white sea-mist of thy scorn.

Yet, yet, O noble land, forbid us not
Even now to join our faint memorial chime
To the fierce chant wherewith their hearts were hot
Who took the tide in thy Imperial prime;
Whose glory's thine till Glory sleeps forgot
With her ancestral phantoms, Pride and Time.

HENRY NEWBOLT

Preface

The first and one of the greatest difficulties to confront a writer who attempts any sort of description of a place or people is almost sure to be the answer to the question, How much must be left out? In the present case the problem has reappeared in every chapter, for Devon is 'a fair province,' as Prince says in his 'Worthies of Devon,' and 'the happy parent of ... a noble offspring.'

My position is that of a person who has been bidden to take from a great heap of precious stones as many as are needed to make one chain; for however grasping that person may be, and however long the chain may be made, when all the stones have been chosen, the heap will look almost as great and delightful as before: only a few of the largest and brightest jewels will be gone.

The fact that I have been able to take only a small handful from the vast hoard that constitutes the history of Devon will explain, I hope, the many omissions that must strike every reader who has any knowledge of the county--omissions of which no one can be more conscious than myself. A separate volume might very well be written about the bit of country touched on in each chapter.

This book does not pretend to include every district. I have merely passed through a great part of the county, stopping here at an old church with interesting monuments, there at a small town whose share in local history--in some instances, in the country's history--is apt to be forgotten, or at a manor-house which should be remembered for its association with one of the many 'worthies' who, as Prince says--with the true impartiality of a West-countryman in regard to his own county--form 'an illustrious troop of heroes, as no other county in the kingdom, no other kingdom (in so small a tract) in Europe, in all respects, is able to match, much less excel.'

From the 'Tale of Two Swannes,' a view of the banks of the River Lea, published in 1590, I have ventured to borrow the verses that close an address 'To the Reader':

'To tell a Tale, and tell the Trueth withall,
To write of waters, and with them of land,
To tell of Rivers, where they rise and fall,
To tell where Cities, Townes, and Castles stand,
To tell their names, both old and newe,
With other things that be most true,

'Argues a Tale that tendeth to some good,
Argues a Tale that hath in it some reason,
Argues a Tale, if it be understood,
As looke the like, and you shall find it geason.
If, when you reade, you find it so,
Commend the worke and let it goe.'

Contents

Sonnet by Henry Newbolt _page_ v

Preface vii

_Chap._ I. Exeter 1

II. The Exe 13

III. The Otter and the Axe 47

IV. Dartmoor 71

V. The Teign 89

VI. Torbay 106

VII. The Dart 119

VIII. Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and the South Hams 141

IX. The Three Towns 155

X. The Tamar and the Tavy 179

XI. The Taw and the Torridge 201

XII. Lundy, Lynmouth, and the Borders of Exmoor 244

XIII. Castles and Country-Houses 272

List of authorities consulted 315

Index 317

Illustrations

The Guildhall, Exeter _Frontispiece_

Exeter from Exwick _To face page_ 2

Exeter Cathedral 5

The Exe: Tiverton 13

Topsham 41

Exmouth from Cockwood 45

Ottery St. Mary 47

Sidmouth 51

Branscombe 61

Beer Beach 65

Seaton Headland 67

The Windypost, or Beckamoor Cross 71

Yes Tor: Dartmoor 73

Lustleigh Cleave 75

Wistman's Wood 77

Widdecombe-in-the-Moor 81

Sheepstor 83

Lydford Bridge 84

Hey Tor 89

Fingle Bridge 91

Chudleigh Glen 101

Teignmouth and Shaldon 103

Torquay from the Bay 106

Berry Head 113

Brixham Trawlers 115

Postbridge 119

Dartmeet Bridge 121

Holne Bridge 123

Fore Street, Totnes 129

Sharpham Woods: River Dart 133

Dartmouth Castle 139

Salcombe 141

Bolt Head 146

Slapton Lea 151

The Tamar, near Saltash 155

Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound 171

Brent Tor. From Lvdford Moors 179

Tavy Cleave 185

Brent Tor 198

Bideford 201

Appledore 211

Clovelly 215

Morthoe 221

Bull Point: Morthoe 223

Barnstaple Bridge 227

Torrington 230

Lantern Rock: Ilfracombe 244

Countisbury Foreland 255

Lynmouth 259

Malmsmead 263

Lorna's Bower 265

Waterslide: Doone Valley 267

Doone Valley 269

Powderham Castle 272

Berry Pomeroy Castle 285

Compton Castle 295

Okehampton Castle 297

Sydenham House 299

Bradfield 306

Pynes, near Exeter 308

Devon