Chapter III: Part 3

From the mouth of the Dart to Hope's Nose there are many outlying rocks; but from that headland to the Dorsetshire border the coast is comparatively "clean," that is to say, free from obstructions. All the rivers east of Plymouth Sound are more or less blocked by bars, with the exception of the Dart, whose entrance, however, is strewn with rocks.

To warn the sailor against these and other dangers, buoys, bells, beacons, fog-horns or sirens, guns or explosive signals, and lighthouses have been provided at many points along the Devonshire coasts. There are also numerous storm-signalling stations, and there are no fewer than thirteen lifeboats, of which eight are on the south coast. The men of the thirty-three Devonshire Coastguard stations have been the means of saving many lives.

On the two coasts, including Lundy, there are in all fifty-one lights of various sorts and sizes, from the eight first-class lighthouses with massive stone towers, of which the most famous although not the most powerful is the Eddystone, down to the small but useful lights of a hundred candle-power or less, most of which are connected with quays and harbours; while others, like that at Clovelly, lighted only in the fishing-season, are temporary, a number of them consisting merely of a lantern on the top of a post. A hut that carries the red and white lights at the mouth of the Barnstaple river is on wheels, and is moved as the bar shifts its position.

The first Eddystone lighthouse, a fantastic structure of wood, with six stages, begun in 1690 by Winstanley--who, while engaged in building it, was carried off by a French privateer, but promptly released by command of Louis XIV--was swept away, with its builder and three other men, in the historic storm of 1703. The second lighthouse, also of wood, built by Rudyerd in 1706, was destroyed by fire in 1755. The third, which was the first real lighthouse ever erected, was constructed by Smeaton of stones dovetailed together, with a shaft eighty-seven feet high, shaped like the trunk of an oak-tree for the sake of strength, and with the idea that it would offer greater resistance to the waves. It was finished in 1759, but its woodwork having been burnt in 1770 was then replaced by stone. The foundations of this tower having been undermined by the sea, a fourth lighthouse, whose top is 133 feet above high-water mark, was built by Douglas, between 1878 and 1882, on a rock forty yards south-south-east of the original site, which is nine miles and a quarter from the nearest land. Part of the old tower was taken down, and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe, in memory of Smeaton. Like most of the Devonshire lights the Eddystone lantern is of the group-flashing order, giving a light equal to that of nearly 300,000 candles, with two quick flashes every half-minute, and visible in clear weather for seventeen miles. A minor fixed light, in the same tower, shines on the Hand Deeps, a bank to the north-west; and the lighthouse is also provided with an explosive fog-signal, giving two reports every five minutes.

Other very powerful lights, visible for from seventeen to twenty-one miles, are--giving them in ascending order--those at Hartland, Bull Point, Countisbury Foreland, North Lundy, the Start, and South Lundy, the last named being the most brilliant of all, of 374,225 candle-power. All these lighthouses have fog-sirens or explosive fog-signals.

Most of the English lighthouses are under the charge of the Trinity House, a corporation founded in 1512, and now having a yearly revenue of £300,000, derived from "light-dues" levied on shipping. The expense of keeping up the lighthouses of the United Kingdom in 1909 amounted, however, to £464,540. The early beacon-lights were simply fires of coal, and one of these was in use at St Bees Head as recently as 1812. There are now round the coasts of Britain more than a thousand lighthouses and lights of various degrees of importance, from those at the Lizard and at St Catherine's Point, which are the most brilliant in the world, and may be reckoned in millions of candles, down to insignificant little structures, of which there are many, like the 100-candle-power "Jack-in-the-Box" on the river Tees.

11. Climate and Rainfall.

The climate of any country, or in other words, its average weather, by which, again, we mean its temperature, rainfall, and hours of sunshine, as well as the dryness or otherwise of its air, depends upon various circumstances and conditions, but especially upon geographical position, that is to say, upon the nearness of the country to the equator, upon its distance from the sea and its height above sea-level; partly also upon its soil and vegetation. Speaking generally, the nearer we approach the equator the hotter will be the climate, and the nearer to the sea-coast the milder and more equable it will be. The highest temperature in the shade ever yet recorded, however--127° Fahr.--was in the Algerian Sahara, at a spot not even within the tropics; and the greatest cold ever experienced, 90° below zero, Fahr., was at a place in Siberia only just within the arctic circle.

The climate of the British Isles is very greatly influenced by the great ocean current, often called the Gulf Stream, from its supposed source in the Gulf of Mexico, which, impelled by steady winds, carries a constant stream of warm water from the equatorial regions towards the north pole. This current washes the shores of these islands, and it is this circumstance which makes our winters so much milder than those of Labrador, which is no nearer to the pole than we are. Were it not for the Gulf Stream our weather would probably be more severe than that of Newfoundland.

The highest shade temperature ever experienced in Britain was 101° Fahr., at Alton in Hampshire, in July, 1881; and the lowest was 10° below zero, Fahr., at Buxton in Derbyshire, in February, 1895. A temperature of 23° below zero is said to have been measured in Berwickshire, in 1879, but the correctness of the record has been questioned. What is, however, of more importance, is the average temperature for the year, which, for the whole of England, is 48° Fahr.

The sunniest part of England lies, as might be expected, along the south coast, although the south-east and south-west coasts also get more sunshine than inland districts in the same latitude. The sun is above the horizon in this country for more than 4450 hours in the year; but, owing to the frequent presence of clouds, he is not visible for even half that time in any part of the British Isles and the average for the country as a whole is only 1355 hours. The southern coasts sometimes enjoy 2000 hours of bright sunshine in a year, but their average is probably not more than 1700 or 1800 hours, or about five hours a day all the year round. The amount decreases as we go north; while the manufacturing districts of the midland counties, owing to the smoke which so often obscures the sky, get 1200 hours or less. At Manchester in 1907 only 894 hours of sunshine were recorded for the year's total. The sunniest months throughout the country generally are May and June, and the gloomiest month is December.

The climate of a country, however, depends not only upon the sunshine, but upon the rainfall. The amount of rain that falls in any place varies according to the height of that place above the sea, its distance from the coast, and the configuration of the ground, that is to say, upon its position with respect to valleys, up which moisture-laden air may be driven by the wind, to be compressed and cooled until its moisture falls in rain.

The rainfall varies very much in different parts of England, but the average amount for the whole country is about 33 inches in a year. When we speak of an inch of rain we mean that it would lie an inch deep on a perfectly level piece of ground. Thus, if all the rain that fell in a year stayed on the ground, and did not evaporate, or run away, or sink into the earth, the water would be 33 inches deep all over England at the end of the twelve months. An inch of rain all over an acre of ground weighs rather more than 100 tons. Not only does the rainfall vary in different parts of the country, but it varies in different years. The wettest year on record was 1903, when the rainfall averaged 50 inches for the whole of England; and the driest year was 1887, when it amounted to no more than 24 inches.

The heaviest rainfall in Great Britain is in the mountains round Ben Nevis and Snowdon, in the English Lake District, and in the uplands of Cornwall and Devon. And it may fairly accurately be said that, as we cross England from west to east, the amount of the annual fall steadily decreases, as is shown in the accompanying map. The moisture-laden clouds, driven across the Atlantic by the prevalent S.W. winds, discharge their contents on meeting the cold high lands of western England, which thus act as a sort of umbrella, the driest parts of the country being on the east coast. While the average fall over a considerable part of the west side of it is from 40 to 60 inches, that on the east is no more than from 25 to 30; and round the Wash and in parts of Suffolk and Essex it is under 25 inches. Thus it sometimes happens that when the west of England has rain enough and to spare, the eastern districts are suffering from the want of it. The effect of this difference is shown in a marked degree in the character of the crops. The farms of the rainier west are to a great extent laid down in grass. The drier districts of the east grow more corn, which needs dry weather to ripen it.

The driest month in England generally is March, whose rainfall averages 1·46 inches; and the wettest is October, in which the average amount is 2·81 inches.

The pleasant climate of Devonshire, which is highly conducive to health and to extreme longevity, and which, especially in the south, favours luxuriant and even sub-tropical vegetation, owes its character to five main causes;--the fact that the county is bounded on two sides by the sea; the influence of the Gulf Stream or warm ocean current, which directly affects both coasts; the warmth and moisture of the prevailing winds; the shelter afforded to the southern districts by the high ground of Dartmoor; and the large amount of bright sunshine which the county, and especially the south of it, is favoured.

It is owing to the Gulf Stream that the temperature of the sea in the English Channel is many degrees higher in winter, even as far east as the Goodwins, than that in the North Sea. Thus, the east wind, blowing over 200 miles of warmed water, has, by the time it reaches Devonshire, lost much of its proverbial bitterness. On the other hand it is mainly owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream that the climate of Ilfracombe is more equable than that of any other town in England except Falmouth, and is, in fact, from half a degree to a degree warmer in winter and cooler in summer than Torquay itself.

It is largely the shelter given to it by Dartmoor and the Blackdown Hills that makes the south and south-east of Devonshire so famous for its warm and pleasant climate. The south-west also benefits from the protection afforded by the spurs of Dartmoor, but the rainfall of that district is heavier and the air more relaxing.

The prevailing winds in Devonshire are the west and south-west, which, blowing across the open Atlantic, are also the chief rain-carrying winds. Both are comparatively warm, the latter following the course of the Gulf Stream. But they are often violent, and vegetation fully exposed to them does not flourish.

The peninsula of which Devonshire forms a part contains the warmest districts in Great Britain. The annual average temperature of the whole county is 49-1/2° Fahr., which is a degree and a half higher than that of the whole of England; while the average for Torquay is 51°. In the three winter months, January, February, and March, in which the average temperature for London is 39·7°, that for Torquay is 41·3°.

The annual amount of bright sunshine in Devonshire naturally varies in different years. In 1906 it was nearly 2000 hours on the south coast, and not less than 1800 on the north. The average amount appears, however, to be about 1700 in the south, and 1500 on the north coast, or between three and four hours a day. The actual amount would, of course, be much more than this in summer, and much less in the winter.

The amount of rain in Devonshire in 1907, which was an average year throughout the country, was (taking the mean of the 169 stations named in Dr H. R. Mill's _British Rainfall_) 41·24 inches, falling on 210 days, or about 7-1/2 inches and 7 days above the average for the whole of England and Wales. In the same year 196.16 inches of rain were registered at the Llyn Llydaw Copper Mine near Snowdon, and only 16·6 inches at Clacton-on-Sea. The wettest part of the county is Dartmoor, which catches the moisture-laden clouds coming up from the Atlantic. In 1907 some 81 inches of rain fell at Princetown, at a spot 1390 feet above the sea. This amount was, however, much exceeded in 1903, when the rainfall at the same station was 102·32 inches, and in Cowsic Valley, a little lower down, it was half an inch more. The driest part of Devonshire is the south-east coast. In 1907 only 26·27 inches of rain fell at Exmouth, for example. Heavy as the rainfall is, the slopes of the land are so steep and the soil in general so porous that the water soon runs away, with the result that both the earth and the air are drier than might be expected.

A feature of Dartmoor even more striking and characteristic than its heavy rainfall is the fog which so frequently covers it, and which is sometimes so dense as to cause the most experienced moor-men to lose their way.

Speaking generally, the climate of Devonshire may be described as warm and moist and remarkably equable. The winters are very mild, and snow is rare, except on Dartmoor. On the south coast of the county many plants which in less favoured parts of England need protection in the winter, such, for instance, as geraniums, hydrangeas, heliotropes, and camellias, are left out-of-doors all the year. Magnolias reach to the tops of the houses, myrtles grow to a height of thirty feet or more, palms and eucalyptus flourish, and oranges, lemons, and citrons do well in the open air.

Devonshire seems peculiarly liable to seismic disturbances, and many slight shocks of earthquake have been recorded.

12. People--Race. Dialects. Settlements. Population.

The earliest inhabitants of Devonshire, the people of the Palaeolithic or Early Stone Age, have left few traces beyond their weapons and implements of flint. They lived in caves or on the banks of rivers. They were hunters, and appear to have practised no craft but that of hunting, while their arts seem to have been almost if not entirely limited to the use of fire and to the making of rude instruments of stone.

But during the Neolithic Period, as the Later Stone Age is called, the district, it is believed, was invaded by an Iberian or Ivernian race from south-western Europe, a race possessing flocks and herds, with a knowledge of many arts and crafts, such as spinning and weaving, the making of pottery and of dug-out canoes, but having at first no acquaintance with the use of metal. They were of the same stock as the Silures of South Wales, and were probably dark-haired and black-eyed, round-headed and short of stature. Their descendants may, perhaps, still be seen in the county, especially on the skirts of Exmoor, and it is quite possible that their breeds of domestic animals may be represented upon Devonshire farms to-day.

The Iberians were, it is thought, conquered and driven westward by the very different Goidels or Gaels, a powerful Celtic race, tall, fair, long-headed, much further advanced in arts and crafts, and to some extent users of bronze for tools and ornaments. It is thought by some authorities that it was they who set up the stone circles, avenues, and menhirs, and who built the rude stone huts which still remain on Dartmoor. Many of the people of Scotland and Ireland are their descendants, and their language is still spoken in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, in parts of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man.

The Gaels were, it is believed, succeeded and conquered in the fourth century before Christ by the Brythons, another Celtic race, who gave their name to our island. They took possession of Wales, and of Scotland as far as the Highlands, but they do not appear to have crossed into Ireland. They were, to a great extent, users of bronze, but they also worked in iron, and were the first of the Iron Age in this country. It is probable that they built most of the hill-forts of Devonshire, and that they made many of the roads, some of which were afterwards adapted and improved by the Romans.

Shortly before the landing of Julius Caesar, Britain was invaded by still another Celtic race, the Belgae from Gaul, a tall, dark-haired people, as may be gathered from the appearance of their descendants, the Walloons of Liège and the Ardennes.

The Roman tenure of Devonshire was of a very limited character, and can have had little effect upon the inhabitants. The Saxon occupation of the district was more of the nature of colonisation than of conquest. By the time they had crossed Somerset the Saxons were, at least nominally, Christians; and although their treatment of the original occupants was none too gentle, as, for instance, in the expulsion of the Britons from Exeter by Athelstan, it seems likely that the two races settled quietly down together, the Saxons probably becoming the land-owners, and the Celts the peasantry. It is thought that the main population of the county is Celtic, of one or other of the three waves of Celtic invasion. There are in Devonshire many Celtic place-names, especially of hills and rivers; and some of the latter, with the addition of Saxon endings, such as _ham_, _ton_, and _stock_, survive also in the names of towns. In some cases, curious English-looking names can be traced to Celtic words of quite another meaning. Thus, Bowerman's Nose, the name of a famous crag on Dartmoor, is probably a corruption of _Veor maen_, "the great stone."

The dialect of Devonshire, like the very similar speech of west Somerset, is Saxon, with strong traces of Celtic influence in its pronunciation. One of many peculiarities is the sound of the diphthongs _oo_ and _ou_, which are pronounced like the French _u_ or the German _ü_. Another peculiarity is the great variety of the vowel sounds, and the indistinctness or modification of some of the consonants. Again, _th_ and even _v_ are often sounded like _dh_. It is also very characteristic to put _d_ for _th_ as, for instance, _datch_ for _thatch_, or _dishle_ for _thistle_.

There are many words in common use in Devonshire which are almost or entirely unknown elsewhere, and which may be regarded as survivals of ancient Saxon or, in some cases, British speech. Such, for example, are:--

_whisht_, weird, uncanny, lonely, "overlooked."
_cloam_, earthenware.
_clam_, a foot-bridge.
_yark_, lively.
_stivery_, disordered.
_clunk_, to swallow.
_giglets_, young men or women seeking new situations.
_havage_, character.
_zamzoaky_, tepid.
_coochey_, clumsy.
_mawn_, a basket.
_frickety_, heavy, sodden.
_pluff_, not well.
_spraggetty_, spotted.
_dimpety_, dusk.
_chicket_, cheerful.
_spilsky_, lean.
_fess_, smart.
_plum_, soft.
_scamlin_, irregular.
_thurdle_, miserable.
_sklum_, to grasp roughly.
_yaw_, to bite.
_shugg_, shy.
_ippet_, a lizard.

It should be remembered that some of the forms of Devonshire dialect which strike the educated ear as ungrammatical are really survivals of pure Saxon speech, such as was in use at the courts of Alfred the Great and Athelstan. English in other parts of England has undergone great changes. In the West Country it has in some respects kept closer to the original forms.

The Norman Conquest left its mark in many places. Double names, such as Berry Pomeroy, Sampford Courtenay, and Wear Gifford, suggest the addition of a Norman family title to the existing Saxon name of a manor. It is quite possible that the common Devonshire word _fay_, as in _Yes, fay_ and _No, fay_, is a survival of the Old French _fay_ (for _foi_), "faith."

Huguenots and other French refugees have also at various times settled in the county, as, for instance, at Exeter, where they introduced the art of weaving tapestry, at Barnstaple, where they taught new and better methods of making cloth, and at Plymouth, where many took refuge after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. And it seems likely that Bratton Fleming and Stoke Fleming were named after Flemish immigrants, many of whom settled in Devonshire.

The population of the Geographical County of Devonshire, according to the census of 1901, is 661,314, and there are in the county 123,608 inhabited houses. A hundred years ago the population was 340,308; it has, therefore, not quite doubled during the century. In the busier county of Kent the population has in the same time increased from 268,097 to 1,348,841. In common with all except five of the counties of England, there are in Devonshire more women than men; the excess of the female over the male population being 37,096.

The chief occupation is agriculture, which provides employment for 42,000 people, or about one-nineteenth of the inhabitants--a considerably lower proportion than in the adjoining county of Somerset. Less than 3000 men are engaged in mines and quarries; 2000 are fishermen, and lace-making occupies 350 men and 1500 women.

In common with many other parts of England the small country parishes of Devonshire are much less populous than they were. In the last fifty years there has been a decline of 17,000 in the rural population.

Devonshire is a somewhat thinly-inhabited county. There are in it a little more than 2-1/2 acres to every man, woman, and child, or 254 persons to the square mile, compared with 558 to the square mile for the whole of England and Wales. Westmorland, the most sparsely-populated county, has only 82 people to the square mile, or eight acres to each inhabitant. Lancashire, on the other hand, contains more than 2300 people to the square mile, or four people to every acre; and in the county of Middlesex there are 12,669 to the square mile, which gives about twenty inhabitants to every acre of ground.

13. Agriculture--Main Cultivations. Woodlands. Stock.

The area of all the land in England is, in round numbers, 32-1/2 millions of acres, of which 24-1/2 millions are under cultivation; 10-3/4 million acres being arable, and the greater part of the rest being devoted to permanent grass. For some years past the area of cultivation in the British Islands has been gradually growing less; and in 1908 the decrease in England alone was more than 25,000 acres, chiefly in the amount of land given up to barley and oats, but extending to almost all crops except wheat, potatoes, and lucerne, which showed a slight advance. The cultivation of fruit, especially of small fruit, continues to increase, but the total space devoted to it is not quite 300,000 acres.

With regard to live stock, the Government returns show that the total number of horses in England (about a million) was 10,000 less in 1908 than in 1907; but that the number of cattle (about five millions), of sheep (about sixteen millions), and of pigs (about two and a half millions) had increased, especially in the case of sheep and pigs.

Devonshire is eminently an agricultural county, having few industrial or manufacturing centres, and still fewer mining interests, although in the past it has been famous for weaving, and for tin and copper mining. There is in the county a great variety of soil, from almost barren sand to the rich alluvial earth of the many river valleys, such as the vales of Honiton and Exeter, for example, and that not very clearly defined tract of country called the South Hams, lying south of Dartmoor, including the district between the Tamar and the Teign, and containing some of the most fertile land in England. The climate, as has been shown, is mild and equable, but the rainfall is heavy; and the farms of Devonshire, like those in the adjacent counties, are mainly devoted to pasturage, although fruit-growing is an important industry. Red Devon cattle are well known and highly valued; and the sturdy little ponies of Exmoor and Dartmoor have been famous since Saxon times.

According to the latest returns of the Ordnance Survey, Devonshire contains, exclusive of water, more than a million and a half (1,667,154) acres, of which nearly a million and a quarter (1,211,648) are under cultivation, including rather more than 500,000 acres of arable land, and nearly 700,000 acres of permanent grass. The latter, which as will be seen is more than half the cultivated area, is more than twice that in Dorset or Cornwall, rather more than that in Somerset, and is only exceeded in the much larger county of Yorkshire. It may be added that the arable land was 11,000 acres less and the permanent grass 11,000 acres more in 1908 than in 1907.

Corn crops--which in the returns are made to include not only wheat, barley, oats, and rye, but peas and beans--occupy altogether about 200,000 acres, or one-sixth of the cultivated area. In this respect Devonshire surpasses the three adjoining counties, and is excelled by only six English shires; Essex and Lincoln, where corn crops occupy one-third of the area, Norfolk, where they are two-fifths, Cambridge and Suffolk, where they take up nearly one-half, and Yorkshire, where more than half the cultivated area is thus occupied. With regard to wheat alone, the average yield per acre in Devonshire, for the last ten years, is only 26-1/4 bushels, which is lower than that of any other county in England except Monmouth.

Green crops other than permanent grass, and roots, occupy altogether about 300,000 acres, an amount exceeded only in Norfolk and Yorkshire.

Devonshire ranks very high as a fruit-growing county, and the area of its apple-orchards, about 27,000 acres, was, in 1908, greater than that of any other county in England. Apples are grown in many districts, but especially in the Vale of Exeter, in the South Hams, and in the Valley of the Dart. Much of the fruit is, however, grown only for making cider, and is of little value for the table. Plympton is said to have had the first cider-orchard in England. When pears, plums, and cherries are included in the fruit returns, Devonshire takes third place, being surpassed by Kent and Hereford. Vines are grown against many cottage walls, as is the case in other southern counties; but it is remarkable, considering the mildness of the climate, that no Devonshire vineyard is mentioned in Domesday Book, although several are included in the survey for Somerset.

The space devoted to small fruits--strawberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries--although showing a large comparative increase over 1907, amounted in 1908 to no more than 1252 acres. In this respect Devonshire is fourteenth among the English counties, producing little more than one-twentieth as much small fruit as Kent, for instance.

Devonshire has no true forests. Dartmoor and Exmoor were so called in the sense of being unenclosed and uncultivated. But except on the moors, the county is well-timbered, and its fine trees add greatly to its beauty. Its woods, plantations, and coppices amount altogether to nearly 90,000 acres, or about one-eighteenth of its whole area; and it here ranks fifth among the shires of England. Sussex has the greatest proportion of woodland, about one-seventh of its total area; and Cambridgeshire, with only one-ninety-second, has the least. There are considerable woods in some of the many beautiful parks; but probably the most famous is the Wistman's Wood, near Two Bridges, the ancestors of whose stunted and fantastic-looking oak-trees are mentioned in Domesday Book.

The total number of agricultural holdings in Devonshire, in 1908, was nearly 15,000, or about one-twentieth of those in all England. This is greater than that of any other county except Lancashire, Lincoln, and Yorkshire. Nearly 3000 holdings are of five acres or less, and there are only six other counties which have more of these small farms.

The numbers of the various kinds of live stock in Devonshire are large, and the county ranks very high under the four main heads. In cattle (295,000, or 2000 less than in 1907) it stands second in all England, being surpassed only by Yorkshire; in horses (59,000, or 1500 less than the previous year) it is fourth; in sheep (900,000, or 29,000 more) it is fifth; and in pigs (106,000, or 5000 more) it is sixth. The average price per stone of fat Devon cattle was higher in 1908 than that of any other breed in England, and the value per head of three-year-old Devon store cattle was only exceeded by that of Herefords.

There is no cheese made in Devonshire to compare with the famous "Cheddar" of the neighbouring county; but Devonshire cream, although closely rivalled by that of both Cornwall and Somerset, is known all over the kingdom.

14. Industries and Manufactures.

Devonshire, although in former ages famous even on the continent of Europe for its cloth-weaving, no longer ranks as a manufacturing county. Apart from agriculture and fishing, its industries are now mainly confined to the making of lace and cider, to ship-building, and to the manufacture of earthenware.

The prevalence in the county of the names of Webber and Tucker is some evidence of the extent and antiquity of the woollen trade, which, from very early times, flourished all over Devonshire until the closing years of the eighteenth century, when it was greatly checked by the introduction of cotton fabrics. One of the most important seats of the manufacture was Tiverton, where the industry was established in the fourteenth century, and reached perhaps its greatest height in the sixteenth. It was his success as a cloth-merchant which enabled Peter Blundell to found here his famous school. The chief woollen market of the county was originally at Crediton, but it was removed in the sixteenth century to Exeter, which long ranked second only to Leeds, and in its palmy days exported annually more than 300,000 pieces of cloth. Other important centres of the trade were Barnstaple, where towards the end of the sixteenth century improved methods of weaving were introduced by French refugees; Tavistock, whose kerseymeres had a European reputation; Honiton, Cullompton, and Totnes. Now Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, where there are some manufactures of blankets and serges, are the only towns where the industry survives.

Lace-making, which has been a characteristic Devonshire industry for nearly three hundred years, is said to have been introduced at Honiton by Flemish refugees at the close of the sixteenth century, and to have been well established by 1630. The lace was a most costly product, chiefly because the special thread used in making it had to be imported from the Low Countries. In old days the price of Devonshire lace is said to have been reckoned by the number of shillings which would cover it. But the change of fashion in men's dress lessened the demand for lace; and the introduction of machinery in 1808 greatly diminished its cost. The piece of lace which in the eighteenth century would have cost £15, could be purchased a few years later for 15_s._, and can now be obtained, machine-made, for 15_d._ There was some revival of the trade after the making, at Beer, of Queen Victoria's wedding-dress, at a cost of a thousand pounds. Schools were established for the training of lace-workers; and by 1870 the industry provided employment for 8000 people. The manufacture has, however, again greatly declined, and although there is a lace-factory at Tiverton, and although hand-made or pillow-lace is still worked in many cottages in the south-east, especially at Beer, Colyton, and Seaton, the total number of lace-workers in the whole county, at the last census, was less than 2000.

Carpets in imitation of those of Turkey were first made at Axminster in 1755, but in 1835 the looms were removed to Wilton, near Salisbury.

There are valuable deposits of various kinds of potter's clay in Devonshire, and although much of this is exported, a good deal is used in the county. There were formerly many small, scattered potteries in North Devon, but the chief seats of the industry now are at Bideford, where a good deal of rough pottery is made; at Annery, noted for its glazed bricks and tiles; and at Barnstaple, where are extensive and long-established potteries of what is called Barum ware, which has been compared to the Italian _sgraffito_. The potteries of Bovey Tracy, which use both local and imported clay, employ from 250 to 350 hands. The fine red clay of Watcombe is used to make terra-cotta; and at Lee Moor, near Plympton, whence much kaolin or fine china clay is exported, the silicious refuse is made up into bricks of high quality for use in metallurgical furnaces. The kaolin deposits of Devonshire were discovered by Cookworthy, who made porcelain at Plymouth from 1772 to 1774, after which date the works were removed to Bristol.

Devonshire is one of the chief cider-producing counties, and its apple-orchards are the most extensive in our island. Some of the best varieties of apples for cider-making--an industry which is carried on throughout a very large part of the county though Totnes, Whimple, Crediton, Exeter and Tiverton are perhaps the best known centres--are Kingston Black, both the sweet and the sour Woodbines (known locally as Slack-me-girdles), Sweet Alford and Fair Maid of Devon.

It is interesting to note that printing was early introduced into Devonshire. In 1525 the fifth printing-press in England was set up in Tavistock. There are paper-mills at Cullompton, iron-works near Kingsbridge, glove-factories at Torrington, umber-works at Ashburton, tanneries and shoe-factories at Crediton, and agricultural implement works at Exeter.

In addition to the very important Government works at Devonport and Keyham dockyards, there is a considerable amount of ship and boat-building, especially on the Dart and at Brixham, and the industry employs altogether about 3500 men.

15. Mines and Minerals.

There was a time when mining, especially tin-mining, was the most important industry of Devonshire. Traces left all over Dartmoor show that at a very early period tin was obtained there by the process called "streaming," that is to say by the washing of grains of the metal out of the disintegrated and crumbling granite. Vast numbers of abandoned shafts sunk in search of tin, copper, iron, manganese, and even silver, remain, together with their too often ugly buildings, as evidence of the former magnitude of the industry. At the present day, however, only twenty-four mines are in active operation, providing employment for no more than 700 men, who, in 1907, raised less than 1700 tons of metal of all descriptions.

The tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall were early formed into a corporate body whose affairs were managed by a Stannary parliament that met on Hingston Down. At a later period, probably at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Devonshire men held their own parliament, which assembled on Crockern Tor. They were governed by a Warden--Sir Walter Ralegh held the office for some years--appointed by the Duchy of Cornwall, who collected the Duchy dues or royalties, and having ascertained the purity of each block of tin by "coinage," that is, by cutting off for analysis a "coin" or corner, stamped it with the Duchy arms. A miner convicted of selling impure tin was punished by having some of the melted metal poured down his throat. Lydford, Tavistock, Chagford, and Ashburton were called Stannary Towns, since at each of those places blocks of tin might be tested; and the arbitrary nature of the Stannary Court is hinted at in the proverbial expression: "Lydford Law; hang first and try afterwards."

The chief mining district of Devonshire begins at the Tamar and extends across Dartmoor and along its borders. The most important centre was Tavistock, but there were rich mines at North Molton, where several kinds of metal were worked, near Ashburton, and elsewhere.

The principal ores are those of copper and tin; some iron is worked, and there are rich veins, believed to be not yet exhausted although not now worked, of galena or silver-lead.

The Devonshire mines formerly produced more tin than those of Cornwall; but since the fourteenth century the output of the latter county has been the greater. The quantity now raised in Devonshire is inconsiderable, and in 1907 amounted to only 94 tons. Tin is very largely used in making what is called tin-plate, which is really sheet-iron dipped into the melted metal. It is also mixed with copper to make bronze or machine-brass, and it was for the manufacture of bronze that it was so much sought after by the ancient inhabitants of the country.

Copper-mining in Devonshire is believed to be a comparatively modern industry. It is not known whether the ancient Britons made their own bronze from native tin and copper, or whether they imported it from abroad. The Devon Great Consols Mine, four miles from Tavistock, once by far the richest mine in England, and one of the richest in the world, has shipped as much as 1200 tons of copper in a single month, and has produced altogether 3-1/2 million pounds' worth of ore; but it now yields little but arsenic. In 1907 only 652 tons were raised in the whole county. The ore is not exhausted, but the cost of raising it from deep mines is too great to withstand foreign competition.

Ores of iron and zinc are widely distributed, but are little worked; and the annual yield, both of these metals and of manganese, of which this county was once a chief source of supply, is inconsiderable. Very rich silver-lead ore was formerly worked at Bere Alston and at Combe Martin, but the mines in both places have been abandoned. A very massive cup, made of Combe Martin silver, given to the Corporation of London by Queen Elizabeth, is still used at the inauguration of each Lord Mayor. Arsenic and arsenical pyrites, ochre, and umber are obtained, especially from some mines whose more valuable ore is exhausted. Cobalt, tungsten, and uranium also occur, and gold has been found in small quantities, generally in streams, as, for instance, in the West Webburn and below Lethitor.

Although the metal mines of Devonshire have lost their old importance, there are other minerals of great commercial value, of which altogether more than a million tons are obtained in the course of a year. China clay, or kaolin, a product of the natural decomposition of granite, is worked at Lee Moor, and more than 75,000 tons--which, however, is only one-tenth of that obtained from Cornwall--are annually exported, especially to Staffordshire, for the making of fine earthenware. Other kinds of potter's clay, white at Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracy, and red at Watcombe, are dug in still larger quantities.

There are many quarries in Devonshire, the most important of them being of limestone, of which more than half a million tons are worked every year. Heytor granite was used in London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, and Lundy granite in the Thames Embankment. But the stone is not considered equal to that from Cornwall. The same remark applies to the slate, of which only 5000 tons are now raised annually. There are old quarries of it near Kingsbridge, and also at Tavistock and other places. Colyton slate is used for billiard-tables. Marble is worked at Chudleigh, and a finer quality at Ipplepen, Torquay, and Plymouth. There are large quarries at Beer. The material for whetstones has long been dug in the Blackdown Hills, where the refuse from the workings, like lines of railway embankment, is a feature in the landscape.

There is no coal in Devonshire, but there is much lignite at Bovey Tracy, where, in the bed of an ancient lake, a deposit of layers of it occurs, alternating with clay and sand, to a depth of 100 feet. On account of its disagreeable smell while burning and its low heating-power it is not used for fuel except for firing bricks, and to some extent in the pottery-kilns. There are also extensive beds of anthracite or culm near Bideford; but this, again, is not of a quality to serve as fuel, except for lime-burning, and the product of the one solitary working is ground up to make a paint called Bideford Black. There are vast and valuable deposits of peat on Dartmoor, in some places as much as thirty feet deep.

16. Fisheries and Fishing Stations.

The fisheries of the British Islands form one of our most important industries, providing regular or occasional employment for nearly 100,000 men and boys in the catching of the fish; for a very great number of persons engaged in secondary occupations connected with the industry, who probably far outnumber the actual fishermen; and for innumerable people of all grades engaged in distributing the eight million pounds' worth of fish brought into the ports of England and Wales each year by British ships alone. The fisheries also furnish an immense quantity of cheap and wholesome food, which, by rapid methods of transit, is available in all parts of the country.

By far the most productive of our fishing-grounds, although not as predominant as it was some years ago, is the North Sea--an area of more than 150,000 square miles, in which are taken more than half of all the British-caught fish, not including shell-fish, which are annually landed on the coasts of England and Wales. More fish are brought, every year, into Grimsby, Hull, Lowestoft, and Yarmouth than into all the other fishing-ports of England put together. It is interesting to note that, while according to the latest returns there were 1731 British steam-trawlers and drifters, exclusive of ordinary fishing-boats, engaged in the North Sea fisheries, there were only 451 similar craft belonging to the ports of Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France put together. In other words there are four British steam-trawlers in the North Sea to every foreigner. Much fishing is also done by English trawlers off the shores of Iceland, Norway, and the Faroës, and the boats now go as far even as the White Sea and the coast of Morocco.

About half the fish are taken by trawling, which consists in dragging a beam of wood, with a net attached to it, along the bottom of the sea, in comparatively shallow water. Very many different species are caught in this way, but haddock, plaice, and cod are by far the most numerous, and make up between them nearly half the total amount of all the fish landed in England and Wales in a year. Much fishing is also done with seine nets, or with drift nets, both of which are long nets, attached to floats of cork or to air-bladders and let down into the sea without regard to the depth, and sometimes at a considerable distance from the shore. Stake nets, fastened to poles fixed in shallow water near the land, are also much used. Herrings are the chief fish caught in drift nets and seines, and more of them are landed than of any other kind of fish. The latest return gives the total quantity of herrings annually brought into English ports as rather more than 200,000 tons, of cod as about 100,000 tons, and of plaice as about 50,000 tons. Pilchards, which are full-grown sardines, and much resemble herrings in appearance, are caught in large quantities--which, however, seem trifling in comparison with those of the three fish named above--in seine nets off the coasts of Cornwall and Devon, and nowhere else in the British Isles. Many fish, especially halibut, cod, and ling are taken with hook and line, sometimes at great depths. Crabs and lobsters are caught in wicker traps or baskets called pots, and oysters are usually taken by dredging.

In spite of its two long stretches of seaboard, the fisheries of Devonshire are not equal in productiveness to those of Cornwall, and are insignificant in comparison with those of the east coast; and the total value of the fish landed at all its ports taken together amounted, according to the latest return, to no more than £150,000, or one-nineteenth of what is landed at Grimsby alone. It was far exceeded at five other east-coast fishing stations.

The fish of the English Channel differ considerably from those of the North Sea. Haddock, the most abundant species on the east coast, is very rare in the south, and practically none are caught at any of the Devonshire fishing stations. The cod, again, is a northern species, and is almost entirely absent from both the Bristol and the English Channels. Whiting is one of the most abundant of English Channel fish; and in this species, as well as in soles and turbot, the south coast is of all the British fishing-grounds second only in productiveness to the east coast. More conger-eels are caught in the English Channel than anywhere else off our islands, and there is also a great abundance of gurnards, skates, and dogfish.

The Devonshire fishermen catch great quantities of whiting, herring, mackerel, sprats, and pilchards, together with considerable numbers of soles, turbot, plaice, pollack, skates, congers, crabs, lobsters, and prawns. Herrings were formerly very abundant off Lynmouth. The last great shoals appeared in 1823. A skate caught off the south coast of Devonshire measured nine feet by six and a half feet, and weighed 560 pounds. The quantity of sprats annually caught in Devonshire waters is very great, but, as in other districts, varies very much in different years. Thus the amount brought into Torquay in 1905 was more than 500 tons, or more than were landed at any other port in the kingdom; but in 1906 the quantity was only 100 tons. Pilchards, as has been already observed, are confined to Cornwall and to the south coast of Devon; but by far the greater quantity are taken at the fishing stations of the former county. Almost all the pilchards caught in Devonshire waters are landed at Plymouth. None are taken further east than Dawlish. These fish, which are particularly oily, are mostly salted and exported to the Mediterranean. Dogfish, which are very abundant and formerly thrown away as worthless, are finding an increasing market, especially in London, where they are filleted and sold as "flake."

The most important fishing stations are Plymouth, Brixham, and Torquay, the annual value of whose fisheries according to the latest return is about £66,000, £60,000 and £8,000 respectively. There is also a good deal of fishing off Exmouth, Teignmouth, Dartmouth, Torcross, and Budleigh Salterton, where the annual values vary from £4000 to £750 a year. It is interesting to compare these figures with the annual value of the fish brought into Grimsby, which, by the last return, amounted to nearly three millions sterling.

There are valuable salmon fisheries at Exmouth, Teignmouth, and Babbacombe; and most of the Devonshire streams abound with trout, although the fish as a rule run small. Thirteen Devonshire fisheries are named in Domesday Book. The most valuable was that at Dartington, for which two fishermen paid a yearly rent of eighty salmon.

17. Shipping and Trade.

The ports of Devonshire once ranked among the first in England, and her sailors have for many centuries been famous for their enterprise and daring. It was from this county that the first English trading-expeditions sailed to Africa, Brazil, and North America. They were Devonshire men, who, by taking possession of Newfoundland, established the first English colony--in which most of the old families are of Devonshire descent. Devonshire ships were long the terror of the Spanish Main. Devonshire men were among the very foremost in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. A Devonshire captain was the first Englishman to sail round the world; and although we remember with regret that his friend and comrade was the first Englishman to engage in the iniquitous traffic of the slave-trade, we are proud to think that few men did more than he to improve our ships and the condition of our seamen.

In their palmy days, in the century or more following the flight of the Armada, Bideford and Topsham had each of them more trade with the young colonies of North America than any other English town except London. Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Dartmouth, Brixham, and Appledore were once important seaports. At the present day not one of the whole seven has sufficient trade to be honoured with a separate entry in the Government Shipping Returns. Plymouth is now the only maritime town of commercial importance. Even its traffic, large as it seems, is small in comparison with that of London or Liverpool, and as far as trading statistics go, it stands no higher than thirtieth among the ports of the United Kingdom.

Several causes have contributed to the decay of the Devonshire ports. Most of them are situated on river-estuaries which, in the lapse of ages, have become silted up by mud and sand brought down by the rivers, or obstructed by shingle washed up by the waves. The harbour of Sidmouth was destroyed by the encroachment of the sea and the fall of the cliffs which formerly protected it. Again, the tonnage of ships, and consequently the amount of water they draw, have very greatly increased since Tudor and Stuart times, when these ports were in their prime; and it would be impossible for the large vessels of to-day to navigate the shallow and danger-strewn waters of our estuaries, even if they could cross the bars by which they are obstructed. Nor is it worth while to improve the navigation by dredging, as is done to so great an extent on the Thames, the Mersey, and the Clyde. The industries of Devonshire are now of small importance, and the county has no great manufacturing centres to supply freights. Plymouth Sound is the only busy waterway, and Plymouth is the one populous town requiring large quantities of imports.

The only harbour in North Devon given in the shipping returns is Barnstaple, with which are associated Ilfracombe, Bideford, and Appledore. Ilfracombe, the only port in the long stretch of coast between Bridgwater and Padstow, had formerly a good deal of traffic with Wales and Ireland, but its tidal harbour is now visited only by excursion steamers and small coasting-vessels.

The other three towns are river-ports. Barnstaple is eight miles from the mouth of the Torridge, Appledore is just inside the entrance of the Taw, and Bideford is five miles up the same river, whose estuary is obstructed by a dangerous bar, only to be crossed at high tide. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries all three towns had an active trade with North America; and even in comparatively recent times ships of 1000 tons have been moored at Barnstaple quay. But at the present day only 37 cargo-carrying vessels sail to and from the whole group in a year, and the trade (chiefly in timber and dye-stuffs) of all four together, principally with home ports, but also with Sweden and Norway and some other European countries, amounts to little more than £18,000 in twelve months.

Dartmouth, Brixham, and Salcombe form another group of ports, all of which have played a part in history. Their total trade, the import of timber and the export of ships and boats, amounts to nearly £19,000 a year, and such foreign intercourse as they have is chiefly with Sweden, Norway, and Russia.

Exeter and Exmouth, with which is associated Lyme Regis in the adjoining county of Dorsetshire, rank next in importance, Topsham, the ancient port of Exeter, having gone entirely to decay. Their annual trade, about half of which consists of wood, cured fish, and sugar, and which, as regards foreign intercourse, is mainly with France, Germany, and Sweden, is nearly £100,000.

The trade of Teignmouth and Torquay together, in the importation of paper-making materials and timber, and in the export of China-clay, chiefly with English ports, but also with France, Germany, Belgium, and Norway, amounts to £110,000 in the twelve-month.