Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber's Notes ###################

This e-text is based on the 1910 edition. The following errors have been corrected.

# p. 68: "standstone" --> "sandstone"
# p. 71: bad print image; "south of": "of" restored
# p. 131: "exent" --> "extent"

Italic text in the original version has been placed between underscores (_text_); bold passages have been symbolised by hash marks (#text#). The caret symbol (^) indicates a superscript letter; the symbol [oe] represents the respective ligature.

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

PREFACE

In 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._

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. Cathedral, Churches,
Abbeys and Monastic Houses 167

21. Architecture--(_b_) Military. Castles 185

22. Architecture--(_c_) Domestic. Famous Seats, Manor
Houses, Farms, Cottages 192

23. Communications: Past and Present--Roads, Railways,
Canals 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

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

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

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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, 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

6. Geology.

Three main points characterise the geological features of Devonshire; the simplicity of the system in the west, north-centre and south-west of the county; the comparative complexity and variety of the strata in the east and south; and, most remarkable of all, the extraordinary number of outcrops of igneous rock, from the great mass of Dartmoor granite, which has no parallel in England, to the hundreds of small dykes or elvans that are scattered chiefly over the southern region, although some occur to the north and east of Dartmoor.

The oldest rocks in Devonshire are probably not, as was once thought, the granites, but the highly altered or metamorphic formations in the extreme south; that is to say, the mica and quartz schists and the hornblende epidote schists which extend from near Start Point to Bolt Tail, a district which, owing in great measure to distortion by volcanic upheaval, includes some of the most picturesque scenery in Devon.

Next in order of age is the series called Devonian, after the name of the county, in which they were first distinguished from the Old Red Sandstone. They are, however, by no means confined to Devonshire, but are very widely distributed, covering a large part of Cornwall, and occurring on the continent of Europe, especially in Russia, and in Asia and North and South America. The Devonian beds--which are found both in the north and south, occupying two distinct areas separated by widespread deposits of culm or carboniferous measures--were, it is thought, formed in open water, and probably at the same time that the Old Red Sandstone of the adjoining county of Somerset and elsewhere, which is not found in this county at all, was being deposited in estuaries and land-locked seas.

NAMES OF SUBDIVISIONS CHARACTERS OF ROCKS
SYSTEMS

{Metal Age Deposits }
{Recent {Neolithic " } Superficial
{Pleistocene {Palaeolithic " } Deposits
{ {Glacial " }
T{
E{ {Cromer Series }
R{ {Weybourne Crag }
T{Pliocene {Chillesford and Norwich Crags } Sands chiefly
I{ {Red and Walton Crags }
A{ {Coralline Crag }
R{
Y{Miocene Absent from Britain
{
{ {Fluviomarine Beds of Hampshire }
{ {Bagshot Beds }
{Eocene {London Clay } Clays and Sands
{ {Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich and Reading} chiefly
{ {Thanet Sands Groups }

{ {Chalk }
{ {Upper Greensand and Gault } Chalk at top
{Cretaceous {Lower Greensand } Sandstones, Mud
S{ {Weald Clay } and Clays below
E{ {Hastings Sands }
C{
O{ {Purbeck Beds }
N{ {Portland Beds }
D{ {Kimmeridge Clay }
A{ {Corallian Beds }
R{Jurassic {Oxford Clay and Kellaways Rock } Shales, Sandstones
Y{ {Cornbrash } and Oolitic
{ {Forest Marble } Limestones
{ {Great Oolite with Stonesfield Slate}
{ {Inferior Oolite }
{ {Lias--Upper, Middle, and Lower }
{
{ {Rhaetic }
{ {Keuper Marls }
{Triassic {Keuper Sandstone } Red Sandstones and
{ {Upper Bunter Sandstone } Marls, Gypsum and
{ {Bunter Pebble Beds } Salt
{ {Lower Bunter Sandstone }

{ {Magnesian Limestone and Sandstone } Red Sandstones
{Permian {Marl Slate } and Magnesian
{ {Lower Permian Sandstone } Limestone
P{
R{ {Coal Measures } Sandstones, Shales
I{Carboniferous {Millstone Grit } and Coals at top
M{ {Mountain Limestone } Sandstones in
A{ {Basal Carboniferous Rocks } middle Limestone
R{ } and Shales below
Y{
{ {Upper } Devonian and old Red } Red Sandstones,
{Devonian {Mid } Sandstone } Shales, Slates and
{ {Lower } } Limestones
{
{ {Ludlow Beds } Sandstones, Shales
{Silurian {Wenlock Beds } and Thin
{ {Llandovery Beds } Limestones
{
{ {Caradoc Beds } Shales, Slates,
{Ordovician {Llandeilo Beds }Sandstones and
{ {Arenig Beds } Thin Limestones
{
{ {Tremadoc Slates }
{Cambrian {Lingula Flags } Slates and
{ {Menevian Beds } Sandstones
{ {Harlech Grits and Llanberis Slates }
{
{ {Sandstones,
{Pre-Cambrian No definite classification yet made {Slates and
{Volcanic Rocks

This cross section shows what would be seen in a deep cutting nearly E. and W. across England and Wales. It shows also how, in consequence of the folding of the strata and the cutting off of the uplifted parts, old rocks which should be tens of thousands of feet down are found in borings in East Anglia only 1000 feet or so below the surface.]

The North Devonian beds, which extend from the coast as far south as the latitude of Barnstaple, consist of slates, grits, and sandstones which, it is believed, judging from the organic remains in them, were formed in shallow water and near shore. Their lower strata, the Foreland grits, Lynton beds, and Hangman grits, contain some fossils and various kinds of coral. But the Middle beds, the Ilfracombe and Morte slates, are much richer in animal remains; of which perhaps the most remarkable are primitive palaeozoic fish, such as the very curious armoured _pteraspis_; while corals and bivalve shells are abundant and characteristic. The Upper Devonian is less fossiliferous, but contains some large trilobites, various marine shells, and some land-plants.

The South Devonian, which covers nearly all South Devon and a large part of Cornwall, is somewhat different in character, consisting chiefly of slates, with coralline limestones, varied by volcanic outcrops or elvans--a word said to be of Cornish origin, and meaning "white rock." To judge from its fossils, it was deposited in deeper water than the contemporary beds in the north of the county. The Lower and Middle beds are also far richer in animal remains; and the Middle Devonian of the south, which is the most typical of the series and includes the limestones of Plymouth and Torbay, is crowded with shells, trilobites, and corals. Among the shells, bivalves--such as _Stringocephalus_, which occurs only in the Devonian formations--spiral univalves, and corals are very abundant. There are also many crinoids, distinct from those of the carboniferous limestone, while perhaps the most characteristic form is the rare and curious _Caleola sandalina_, differing from all other corals in having an operculum. There are not many varieties of trilobite, but the large _Brontes flabellifer_ is not uncommon.

The Lower beds of this series contain fewer organic remains, although a good many fossils are found, including fragmentary remains of various fishes which have not yet been identified. The Upper Devonian is, on the whole, very poor in fossils.

Between the two Devonian areas, and occupying a large part of the centre of the county, are the carboniferous or coal-bearing measures, containing, however, not true coal but anthracite, which has more carbon in it than is found in ordinary coal; and these beds are perhaps more often known as Culm, from the Welsh _cwlwm_, a knot, in allusion to the fragmentary condition in which the mineral is frequently found. Anthracite, which elsewhere and especially in South Wales is a most valuable fuel, is here clayey and impure, and in thin seams. It is worked to a small extent, to be ground and made into a paint called Bideford Black. The Culm measures consist of grits, shales, and sandstones, with beds of chert and limestone containing fossil plants and other forms of marine life. Fish are few, only two species having been identified. The anthracite occurs in the middle Culm, and there are other remains of plants in both the middle and upper beds. The upper Culm is well seen on the coast near Clovelly and by the river Torridge, where it has been bent by volcanic upheaval into curious and beautiful curves. These measures, in general, are characterised by many outcrops of volcanic rock, some of which were probably contemporary, that is to say, they were poured out while the culm was in process of formation; while others are intrusive, or were forced up through the strata after these had been solidified into rock. These igneous rocks are found in great variety.

By far the most important and striking of these volcanic formations is the great granite mass of Dartmoor, one of the most prominent features of the county, measuring 225 square miles in extent, and constituting the largest granitic area in England. Granite is a volcanic rock, formed, it has been suggested, by fusion at a great depth and under great pressure, and consisting in the main of three minerals, quartz, felspar, and mica. That of Dartmoor is, on the whole, grey and coarse-grained, but it varies a good deal in colour, fineness, and composition. Its real origin is obscure. It has been assigned by various experts to various periods, and it has been called "the sphinx of Devon geology." There can, however, be no doubt about the great disturbance which has been caused in the county by upheaval and by the intrusion of melted rock, which has bent, broken, and twisted previously-existing formations in a most extraordinary manner, the results of which are well seen in the picturesque scenery of the Start, Prawle Point, and Bolt Head. Lundy, which is twelve miles from the nearest point of Devonshire mainland, is all granite, except for a small part of its south end, which is Millstone Grit.

A long interval of time appears to have followed the laying down of the Culm measures, during which so vast an amount of shattered rock was worn away that when the beds that come next in order--the New Red Sandstones--were formed, they were, in places, deposited directly upon the Devonian, the superincumbent carboniferous or Culm strata having entirely disappeared. The New Red Sandstones occur chiefly in the east of the county, where their lower beds fill up old creeks and valleys in the carboniferous system; and they extend northwards from the coast past Exeter as far as Holcombe Regis, forming broad bands on either side of the Exe, characterised by the high fertility of the overlying soil, and with one long spur traversing the heart of the county, past Crediton and Exbourne, with isolated patches round Hatherleigh, and with another and less extended prolongation a few miles west of Tiverton. The Lower New Red consists of clays, conglomerates, red breccias and sands, in which occur many outcrops of trap, the evidence, not only of numerous eruptions, but of eruptions extending over a long period of time. These beds contain no fossils, except in fragments of older rocks. The Middle New Red, in the form of thick beds of red marl and red and white limestones, well seen on the south coast, is covered in turn by the Upper New Red, with beds of pebbles, some of which are derived from the Devonian and even from the Silurian. In this formation, near Sidmouth, have been found the remains of two remarkable reptiles, the _Hyperodapedon_, a strange form allied to the existing tuatera lizard of New Zealand and in England only known elsewhere in the formations of Warwickshire, and the _Labyrinthodon_, so named from the intricate structure of its teeth, and also called _Cheirotherium_, from the hand-like impressions of its feet.

The Rhaetic beds are not well seen in Devonshire. They occur on the coast between Lyme Regis and the mouth of the Axe, and in the estuary of that river, but are much hidden by landslips of cretaceous formations from above. One layer, consisting of black shale, with bivalve shells such as _Cardium_ and _Pecten_, contains also a bone-bed, with remains of fish, such as _Acrodus_ and _Hybodus_. The former is represented by its blunt teeth, and the latter, which was a huge, shark-like creature, by its long and formidable-looking fin-spines.

The Lower Lias is exposed in a narrow strip of coast from the Devonshire border to the mouth of the Axe, and to a greater extent in the valley of the river above Axminster. It has been divided on the coast into four distinct zones, each characterised by its own particular species of ammonite.

The cretaceous formations occupy a much wider area, but they also are confined to the southern part of the county. The Greensands of the Blackdown and Haldon Hills have been divided by geologists into fifteen layers, varying in thickness from a few inches to as much as thirty-five feet, some with few fossils, and some very rich in animal remains. _Trigonia_ and _Inoceramus_ are found in almost all the zones: other forms less widely distributed are _Murex_ and _Turritella_. Chalk occurs on the south coast from the Dorset border to Sidmouth; and in isolated patches it extends inland as far as the Blackdown Hills, and also further west, in the Haldons. The Lower Chalk, well seen on the coast and to the west of Hinton, is made up of calcareous sandstones, with ammonites and pectens. The Middle beds, composed of white chalk with flints, the zone of _Terebratulina gracilis_, is exposed at Beer. The lower and harder layer is characterised by _Rhynconella_. The Upper Chalk also holds many flints, with echini; _Holaster_ in the lower, and _Micraster_ in the upper strata.

Last of all come the tertiary deposits, which, however, occupy only a small area in the south-east, chiefly in the valley of the Teign, from Kingsteignton to Bovey Tracy; and there are a few isolated patches, as for example near Bideford and at Plymouth. These beds consist of clays, some of them of much value, with flints from the chalk, and gravels and beds of sand derived from the wearing away of older rocks. The most interesting feature of this formation is the lignite of Bovey Tracy, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. Lignite, otherwise known as brown coal, consists of the imperfectly fossilised remains of tropical or sub-tropical vegetation, such as the palm, cinnamon, and laurel, amongst which are found lumps of resin. By far the most abundant remains are those of a very large tree allied to the sequoia of California. It is very remarkable that in the Pleistocene clay above the lignite are found stems and twigs of Arctic birch and willow, suggestive of a far colder climate than prevailed in Tertiary times, when the trees that went to form the lignite were growing.