DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES
Geological structure of Dartmoor--Granite--"Clitters"--Building
with granite--The bogs--The rivers--Rock
basins--Logan stones--Kaoline deposits--Hut
circles--Cooking-stones--Pottery--Pounds--Grimspound--Position
of women in early times--Approximate period to which the relics
belong--The cromlech--The kistvaen--The stone circle--The
stone row--The menhir--Cairns--Modes of interment among the
pagan Irish--Stone crosses--Tinners' burrows and stream
works--Blowing-houses.
The great irregular tableland of Dartmoor, an upheaval of granite
over a thousand feet above the sea, and in places attaining to above
two thousand, occupies two hundred and twenty-five square miles of
country. Of that, however, less than one half is the "Forest" and
belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. Around the forest are the commons
belonging to the parishes contiguous to the moor.
The moor is almost throughout of granite. At the outskirts, indeed,
gabbro and trap exist, that have been forced up at the points where
the granite has burst through the slate, and these later uprushes of
molten matter have greatly altered the granite in contact with them,
and have produced an elvan.
The most extraordinary difference in kinds and composition exists
throughout the granitic area. Some granite is very coarse, full of
what are locally called "horse-teeth," crystals of felspar, other
is finely grained. Some is black with schorl, some, as that of Mill
Tor, white as statuary marble. Granite was not well stirred before
it was protruded to the surface. The constituents of granite are
quartz, felspar, and mica; the latter sometimes white, at others
usually black and glistering. The felspar may be recognised as being
a dead white. The black shining matter found near where are veins of
tin, is schorl.
It is the opinion of modern geologists that the granite never saw
daylight till cold and consolidated, and that granite when in fusion
and erupted to the surface resolves itself into trap. The pressure
of superincumbent beds prevented perfect fusion. In its altered
condition when perfectly fused it may be seen in Whit Tor, near Mary
Tavy.
But, it may be asked, what has become of the beds that overlay the
granite? They have been washed away. In Exmoor we do not meet with
the granite. It had heaved the slates, but not sufficiently to so
dislocate them as to enable the rains and floods to carry them away
and reveal the granite below. If Dartmoor granite could but have
retained its covering matter, the region would have been indeed
mountainous. In Shavercombe, a lateral valley of the upper Plym, may
be seen traces of the original coverlet of slate, much altered by
heat.
The granite looks as though stratified, but this is deceptive. It is
so unequally mixed that some flakes or layers are harder and more
resistant to atmospheric forces than are others, and where the
granite is soft it gives way, presenting a laminated appearance.
Moreover, the granite is full of joints. Where these joints are
vertical and numerous, there the rocky masses break into fragments.
Bellever Tor is a good instance. This imposing mass looks as though,
when rising out of the Flood, it had shaken itself, like a poodle,
to dry itself, and in so doing had shaken itself to bits. Lustleigh
Cleave is another instance. Every tor is surrounded by a "clitter"
(Welsh _clechir_), and these clitters are due to the disintegration
of the granite in horizontal beds, and then on account of their
joints horizontal and diagonal, falling into confused heaps. Where
the joints are not numerous and not close together, there the
rocks cohere and form tors. In many, as Vixen Tor and Mis Tor, the
pseudo-bedding lines are very distinct. Where the soft beds are
infrequent, there the granite forms great cake-like blocks as in
Hey Tor. The tors are, in fact, the more solid cores as yet not
overthrown by natural agencies. Such a core is Bowerman's Nose, and
around it is the "clitter" of rock that once encased it.
Granite is very pervious to water, as everyone knows who lives in a
house built of it by modern architect and masons.
The ancients were not such fools as we take them to have been. They
did condescend to consider the capabilities and the disadvantages
of their building material before employing it. The "old men,"
when they constructed a wall of granite, always gave it two faces,
and filled in with rubble between. By this means the rain did
not drive through, although they did not employ mortar; and the
ancient tenement houses on the moor are dry as snuff. But the modern
architect insists on having the walls built throughout with lime,
in courses, and the rain enters by these as by aqueducts. Then,
to remedy the evil, the whole face of the house is tarred over or
cemented, with what result to the prospect may well be conceived.
The granite, though pervious, is so to a very limited extent when
compared with limestone, and through a granite country there are
no springs that issue from subterranean reservoirs. All the rain
that falls on the surface runs off superficially, but not all at
once, for on the granite lie enormous beds of peat, the growth and
decomposition of moor plants through vast ages. These beds of peat
are like sponges; they absorb the rain, retain it, and slowly give
it up during the summer. In limestone districts the making of a
river goes on within the bowels of the mountain, but in a granite
district it takes place on its outside. Remove the beds of turf
and peat, and there will be torrents after a shower, and then dry
torrent beds.
To north and south of the equator of the moor lie vast tracts of bog
in which the rivers are nursed, and without which they could not be.
No visitor can realise what Dartmoor really is in the economy of
nature as the mother of the Devonshire rivers till he has visited
either Cranmere Pool, or the ridge on the south, where are the meres
from which spring the Avon, the Erme, the Yealm, and the Plym.
The granite being of unequal hardness, its constituent crystals
become separated by the action of the weather into an incoherent
gravel, which in Cornwall is called growan. The process may be seen
in full activity on any tor. Sometimes water lodges on a slab, and
finding a soft spot begins to decompose it; then, when this is the
case, the wind swirls the water about, and with it the grit is spun
round and round, and this continues the work of disintegration, and
finally a rock basin is produced.
Of these rock basins some fine samples exist: that on Caistor Rock
has had to be railed round, to prevent sheep from falling in and
being drowned. Mis Tor has another, the Devil's Frying-pan. There
are plenty of them to be seen in all conditions, from the rude
beginning to the complete bowl.
At one time it was supposed that they were Druidical vessels
employed for lustration, and archæologists talked long and learnedly
concerning them. But what is quite certain is that they were
produced by Nature unassisted.
When a hard bed of granite lies on one that is very soft, the latter
becomes disintegrated and eaten completely away. The hard bed is
left either balanced on one point or more, or else has its centre
of gravity so placed as to precipitate it from its position. Plenty
of rocks may be seen in all these conditions. If it should chance
that a rock remains poised on one point, then possibly a little
pressure at one end of the slab will set it in motion. This, then,
is known as a logan, or rocking stone, which antiquaries of old
pronounced to have been employed by the Druids as oracles, or for
purpose of divination. All this was bred out of the phantasy of the
antiquaries. There is absolutely not a particle of evidence to show
that they were supposed to be mysterious, or were employed in any
rites, and it is also absolutely certain that they were formed by
the hand of Nature alone.
There are many logan rocks on Dartmoor. One is on Black Tor, near
Princetown. It is instructive, as it not only shows the process of
weathering which made it what it is, but it has on top of it a rock
basin that decants by a lip over the edge of the stone when the
latter is made to vibrate.
The "Nutcracker" stone near Amicombe Hill above the West Ockment
rolls in a high wind like a boat that is anchored. There were two
very fine logans on Staple Tor above Merivale Bridge, but quarrymen
wantonly destroyed the whole of one of the steeples, together with
the finest logan on Dartmoor that was on it. The other remains. On
Rippon Tor is one, another in Lustleigh Cleave.
The felspar dissolved by the rain was carried away, and has been
deposited in many places, filling up an ancient lake-bed and forming
Bovey Heathfield, coating plains and hills with a deposit white
as snow; this is kaolin, and is worked as china clay at Lee Moor
and in Shaugh. The water flowing from the works is like milk, and,
curiously enough, cows relish it.
Having got rid of the rock basins and logan stones as
pseudo-antiques, we will now address ourselves to those which are
genuine.
[Illustration: RIPPON TOR, LOGAN STONE]
Such are the menhir, the kistvaen, the so-called "sacred" circle,
the stone rows, the hut circles, barrows, and cairns. All these
abound on Dartmoor. Nowhere else in England can be seen such an
extent of land undisturbed by cultivation, and carrying on its
surface so many hoary monuments of a prehistoric population. It
may be premised that all kinds of theories have been floated as to
their purport and as to the period to which these relics belong,
and the loudest and most positive have always been those who had no
experience with spade and pick, which can alone solve the problem
of their object and age. Systematic and persistent investigation
into these monumental remains has been carried on for six years by a
committee acting under the authority of the Devonshire Association
for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, and five
reports of their proceedings have been already published in the
_Transactions_ of the Association.
It may be said that, at all events with regard to the hut circles,
their position in the order of civilisation has been made out almost
to a certainty, for something like a hundred and fifty of these have
been carefully examined. With these accordingly we will begin.
They are strewn in thousands over the surface of the moor, and
such as remain are but the merest fraction of those that must have
existed formerly, for incalculable numbers have been destroyed by
those who have made enclosures.
The hut circle is all that remains of the primitive dwelling of
a people that were pastoral, and were clothed mainly, though not
exclusively, in skins.
The foundations of the circular dwellings are formed of blocks of
granite, sometimes set vertically and sometimes placed in horizontal
layers, enclosing a space from eight to thirty feet in diameter. The
roof rested on the circular wall, which was never over four feet
high, and was doubtless of wood covered with rushes, heather, or
skins; a low doorway facing south or south-west gave access to the
interior; and a hole in the apex of the roof served as chimney. The
thorough exploration of the floors of these huts has resulted in
the discovery of fireplaces, cooking-holes, and raised platforms of
stones forming seats by day and beds at night, not so uncomfortable
as it sounds, when covered with rushes and dry fragrant heather.
That the inmates played games is probable, from the number of small
rounded quartz pebbles found that may have served for a game.
Cooking-pots rudely made by hand of coarse earthenware, imperfectly
baked, have been found, standing in the cooking-holes made in the
floor, with the "cooking-stones" in and around them. These are
river pebbles of dense, hard granite, which were placed in a fire
and heated to such a pitch that dropped into the pot containing
water they brought it to the boiling-point, and maintained it, by
fresh additions, until the cooking operation was complete. These
pots were fragile, and like modern crockery ware got broken; in
one prehistoric cooking-vessel it took the form of a fracture
in the bottom--perhaps due to the careless dropping in of the
cooking-stones by some inexperienced or impatient cook--but
somebody was equal to the occasion, for the bottom was neatly
mended with china clay. These vessels, or as much as stood in view
above the floor of the hut, were usually ornamented with patterns of
the herring-bone type, or merely with dots and lines conveying no
idea of consecutive pattern. Their interiors are much blackened with
cooking, and imprisoned in the shreds there may yet be found, by the
expert analyst, oily globules, remains of prehistoric fat from beef
and mutton. Cooking was performed in holes in the ground as well
as in pots, just as modern savages cook at the present time. Hot
stones in a pit, green grass, meat, more hot stones, and the whole
turfed in, and you have a result which an epicure would relish. Some
patience is necessary, perhaps twenty hours for a whole pig.
There is a curious passage in the life of S. Lugid, of Clonfert, who
died at the beginning of the seventh century. When a youth he served
in the monastery, and as his biographer says, at that time it was
customary to warm water by dropping into the vessel a ball of iron
that had previously been heated in the fire. Lugid had to put such
a ball into the drinking-vessel of the abbot, S. Coemgall, and he
took it out of the fire with a pair of tongs, but Coemgall for some
reason drew his hand back, and the ball fell on the table instead
of into his cup, and it was so hot that it burnt a hole through the
board.
Most of the cooking-pots found in the Dartmoor hut circles have
rounded bottoms, and are of too poor a paste to resist the direct
action of the fire. An example of one such, removed from the hole
in which it was, is preserved in the Plymouth Municipal Museum.
One cooking-pot was found with a cross at the bottom of thicker
clay, the object being to strengthen it, as experience showed that
these pots always yielded first at the bottom. Some of the largest
hut circles, those presumedly used in summer, had their kitchens
separate from them, smaller huts, where the floors have been found
thick with charcoal and fragments of this wretched fragile pottery.
The larger huts had their roofs supported by a central pole, and
the socket-hole in which it stood has been found in some of them.
In many huts also a flat, smooth stone bedded in the floor has been
noticed, presumedly employed as a block on which to chop wood or
fashion bone implements.
It is remarkable that one specimen only of a spindle-whorl has been
discovered. No metal objects have so far been found in the Dartmoor
hut circles. Implements of flint, sandstone, and granite abound;
they are mostly scrapers, borers, knives, and rubbing or smoothing
tools; a few arrow-heads have turned up, but these are mostly
outside the huts, probably shot away in hunting.
The examination of the graves discloses the same kind of pottery,
but with better finish and more elaborate ornamentation. Implements
of stone and some bronze objects were yielded by the graves, and
the evidence of the exploration of the Dartmoor remains has thus
far connected them with the period of culture known as the late
Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, which means that the folk were
still using stone for their tools and weapons, but were just
beginning to employ bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. It is not
surprising that bronze has not hitherto been found in the dwellings;
it was far too valuable to be left about in such a manner as to be
lost, and no surprise need be expressed that it has been discovered
in sepulchral monuments appertaining to the same people, for nothing
was too good as an offering for the use of the dead in the happy
hunting-grounds above.
[Illustration: BROADUN POUNDS]
That at least some of these huts belonged to "medicine men" is
probable, from the finding in them of large, clear quartz crystals,
such as are employed by several savage races as mediums for
conjuring spirits.
Some of the hut circles are enclosed within "pounds." Many examples
exist. The most noteworthy is Grimspound. The circumference of the
wall measures 1500 feet, and it includes within it twenty-four hut
circles. The wall is double, with small openings as doors into the
space between, two of which are perfect; but for what purpose the
interspace between the walls was left is most uncertain. It can
hardly have been filled in with earth or rubble, as no traces of
such filling remain. The entrance to the pound is in a very perfect
condition. There is a hut circle outside the enclosing wall, just as
in the prehistoric forts of Ireland.
A curious passage may be quoted from the gloss to the Law of
Adamnan, which shows how women were treated among the early races.
In the hovels, very similar to our hut circles, a hole was dug in
the floor from the door to the hearth about three feet deep. In
this, in a condition of stark nudity, the women spent the day, and
the object of the hole was partly decency and partly to keep the
women in their places, so that--without joking--they were not on
the same level as man. They did all the cooking, turning the spits.
They made candles of fat, four hands'-breadth long. These they were
required to hold aloft whilst the men ate and drank. At night the
women were put to sleep in bothies like dog-kennels, _outside_ the
enclosure, so as to keep guard over their lords and masters, like
watch-dogs.
In Wales, Iltyd the knight sent his wife out stark naked in a bitter
wind to collect the horses and drive them into pound, whilst he lay
cuddled up in the blankets.
Verily men had the upper hand then. _Nous avons changé tout cela._
Near Post Bridge were numerous pounds containing hut circles; most
have been destroyed--one only remains intact, at Broadun. Adjoining
it was another, much larger; there the enclosing wall has been
destroyed, but not all the hut circles. At Archerton a plantation of
firs has been made within one of these enclosures, of course to the
destruction of the monuments it contained.
What we learn from the hut circles on Dartmoor is that they were
built and occupied by a people who, though they knew bronze, held it
in high value, as we do gold.
[Illustration:
PLAN OF KIST
SHEWING POSITION OF URN
SCALE 2 FEET TO 1 INCH
COVER STONE
SECTION
SECTION OF BARROW
SCALE 4 F^T to 1 I^N
PLAN OF BARROW
SCALE 8 F^T to 1 I^N ]
II. Of the characteristic dolmen, which we in England call cromlech,
we have but a single good example, that at Drewsteignton. Cornwall
possesses numerous and fine specimens; they abound in Wales and in
Ireland. But although we have one only remaining, it can hardly
be doubted that formerly there were others, wherever the name of
Shillstone (Shelfstone) remains, as near Modbury, and in Bridestowe.
The dolmen belonged to the period before bodies were burnt; it was
the family or tribal ossuary. As it became crowded with skeletons,
the earliest were unceremoniously thrust back to the rear, to make
room for the last comers. The _allée couverte_ in France, and the
chambered barrows of Denmark, North Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and
England, are but extensions of the dolmen to hold a larger number of
the dead. The dolmens usually have a hole at one end, or a footstone
that is removable at will, to allow for food to be passed in to the
dead, and for the introduction of fresh applicants for house-room in
the mansion of the departed.
Some of these holed dolmens have the stone plugs for closing the
holes still extant. On Dartmoor in the kistvaens a small stone at
foot or side was placed, to be removed at pleasure.
III. The kistvaen, or stone chest, is a modification of the dolmen,
and is usually of a later date; when incineration was become
customary, the need for such enormous mortuary chapels, or tombs,
as the dolmens and _allées couvertes_ ceased. The dead could be
packed into a much smaller space when reduced to a handful of ash.
Nevertheless, it is probable that some kistvaens belong to the
period of carnal interment, and were erected for the reception of
single bodies, which for some reason or other could not be conveyed
to the family mausoleum. In Derbyshire carnal interment is found in
cists, which are miniature dolmens, or kistvaens, sometimes standing
alone, sometimes congregated together like cells of a honeycomb,
each containing its crouched skeleton. On Dartmoor we have hundreds
of kistvaens. Most have been rifled, but such as have been explored
show that they belonged to the same people and period as those who
occupied the hut circles.
In the fine kistvaen at Merivale Bridge, plundered and mutilated
though it had been, a flint knife and a polishing stone were found;
and flint flakes have been picked out of the ploughed soil round
the Drewsteignton cromlech. At King's Oven is a ruined circle
surrounding a demolished kistvaen, of which, however, some of the
stones remain. A flint scraper was found wedged between two of the
encircling stones. Some fine specimens are to be seen near Post
Bridge.
IV. The stone circle is called by the French a cromlech. The purport
of this is conjectural. Undoubtedly interments have been found
within them, but none, so far, in those on Dartmoor. In the great
circle on Penmaen-mawr there were interments at the foot of several
of the monoliths, and, indeed, one of these served as the backstone
of a kistvaen. Stone uprights surround many cairns, in the midst of
which is a kistvaen; but such circles as the Grey Wethers,
Scaur Hill, and that on Langstone Moor, never enclosed cairns
or kistvaens, and must have had some other purpose. Among
semi-barbarous tribes it is customary that the tribe and the clan
shall have their places of assembly and consultation, and these are
marked round by either stones or posts set up in the ground. Among
some of these tribes, if one of the constituent clans fails to send
its representative, the stone set up where he should sit is thrown
down. It is possible that the circles of upright stones on Dartmoor,
not connected with cairns, may have served such a purpose. They are
usually placed on the neck of land between two rivers. There are on
Dartmoor about a dozen.
[Illustration: LAKEHEAD, KISTVAEN]
V. The stone row is almost invariably associated with cairns and
kistvaens, and clearly had some relation to funeral rites. The
stone settings are often single, sometimes double, or are as many
as eight. They do not always run parallel; they start from a cairn
and end with a blocking-stone set across the line. In Scotland
they are confined to Caithness. The finest known are at Carnac
in Brittany. It is probable that just as a Bedouin now erects a
stone near a fakir's tomb as a token of respect, so each of these
rude blocks was set up by a member of a tribe, or a household, in
honour of the chief buried in the cairn at the head of the row. It
is remarkable how greatly the set stones vary in size; some are
quite insignificant, and could be planted by a boy, while others
require the united efforts of three or four men, with modern
appliances of three legs and block to lift and place them. Usually
the largest stones are planted near the cairn, and they dwindle
to the blocking-stone, which is of respectable size. There is no
known district so rich as Dartmoor in stone rows. The number of
these still remaining in a more or less dilapidated condition is
surprising. Some five-and-twenty have been counted, and quantities
must have been destroyed, and these the very finest examples, as
the big upright stones lent themselves readily to be converted into
gate-posts. Indeed of those that have been allowed to remain many
have lost their largest stones.
The most important stone row is that on Stall Moor, a single range,
that can be discerned even from Cornwood Station, and looks like a
number of cricketers in flannels stalking over the brow of the hill.
A fine one is on Down Tor; here the largest stones had been thrown
down for the sake of removing them for gate-posts, and the marks of
the levers were visible. Happily the Dartmoor Preservation Society
interfered and re-erected the stones which had been cast down. At
Drizzlecombe are three sets of stone rows leading from tall menhirs.
The stone avenue that led from the Longstone, near Caistor Rock for
over a mile, was wantonly destroyed by a farmer a few years ago,
when building a new-take wall hard by. A good example is on the
brow of the hill opposite Grimspound, but the stones are not large.
The Merivale Bridge remains consist of two sets of double rows,
the stones very small, but the rows fairly intact. But the most
remarkable row of all is that near the Erme Valley, which, starting
from a great circle of upright stones, extends for two miles and
a quarter, descending a dip and crossing a stream to mount the
opposite hill.
VI. The menhir, or tall stone, is a rude, unwrought obelisk. In some
cases it is nothing other than the blocking-stone of a row which has
been destroyed. But such is not always the case. There were no rows
in connection with the menhir at Devil's Tor and the Whitmoor Stone.
That the upright stone is a memorial to the dead can hardly be
doubted; it was continued to be erected, with an inscription,
in Brito-Roman days, and its modern representative is in every
churchyard. The menhirs, locally termed longstones, or langstones,
must at one time have been numerous. Those round the moor have been
carried away to serve as window-sills, door-jambs, even church
pillars. Several places and moors, by their names, assure us that at
one time these monuments were there.
Menhirs are still erected by the dolmen builders on the
Brama-pootra, the Khassias, and always in commemoration of the
dead. The Chinese hold that the spirits of the deceased inhabit
the memorials set up in their honour; and the carved monoliths in
Abyssinia, erected by the same race when it passed from Arabia to
Africa, have carved in their faces little doors for the ingress and
egress of the spirits. Holed menhirs are found in many places.
There are several menhirs on Dartmoor, as the Beardown Man (_Maen_,
stone), near Devil Tor, in a wild and desolate spot far from the
haunts of man; the highest is at Drizzlecombe, height eighteen
feet, and weighing six tons.
It may well be doubted whether in any part of England such a
complete series of remains of a vanished population exists as on
Dartmoor, where we have their houses and their tombs. But the
monuments are not of great size.
VII. Cairns on Dartmoor are numerous, but all the large ones have
been opened and robbed at some unknown period. They would not
have been dug into at the cost of time and labour unless they had
rendered results of value. One ruined cairn with a kistvaen in it
is still called "The Crock of Gold," but probably bronze was the
metal chiefly found. A cairn opened on Hameldon yielded a bronze
knife with an amber handle with pins of gold. A cairn at Fernworthy
gave up an urn with a button of Kimmeridge coal, and a small bronze
knife, together with another of flint. But the cairns were not
always raised over the bodies of the dead. Sometimes, perhaps, only
over the head, which has long since disappeared; sometimes over the
place where the body was burnt, and sometimes as mere memorials.
What makes ancient Irish usage so valuable is that there we have
traditional pagan customs recorded, and after Christianity was
adopted the ancient usages were but slightly modified. I will quote
a passage from Professor Sulivan that explains the various methods
of interment. And it must be borne in mind that in Ireland the Celt
was superposed on the Ivernian just as in Devon and Cornwall, and
that in both the dominant race largely adopted the religious views
and customs of the subjugated people.
[Illustration: URN FROM KISTVAEN]
"From the ancient laws and other sources we have direct evidence
that the ritual of the dead varied with the rank, sex, and
occupation of the deceased, and that it was more splendid and
elaborate in the case of great men."[19]
[19] Introduction to O'CURRY, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Irish_, 1873, i., p. cccxxix.
The various kinds of monument were the _Derc_, the _Fert_, the
_Leacht_, the _Duma_, the _Cnoc_, and the _Carn_.
The _Derc_ was a hollow, a pit, or hole, dug in the ground; in fact,
a simple grave.
The _Fert_ was a rectangular chamber, composed of stones set
upright, and covered horizontally with flags; in a word, a kistvaen.
The _Leacht_ seems to have been a larger-sized kistvaen, a cromlech
or dolmen, but a single upright stone was also called a leacht. When
a number of persons were buried in a single mound, then a stone was
set up in commemoration of each round the tumulus or cairn. A good
specimen may be seen beside the road to Widecombe from Post Bridge.
The cairn has been almost levelled, but the ring of stones remains.
The _Cnoc_ was a rounded, sugar-loaf mound of earth, and the _Duma_
was a similar mound raised over a kistvaen.
The _Cairn_ or _Carn_ was a mere pile of stones, generally made over
a grave, but sometimes having no immediate connection with one. Here
is a curious passage which will explain why some cairns contain no
interments:--
"The plunderers started from the coast, and each man took with
him a stone to make a carn, for such was the custom of the Fians
when going to plunder or war. It was a pillar-stone they planted
when going to give a general battle; and it was a cairn they
made this time, because it was a plundering expedition.... Every
man who survived used to remove his stone from the cairn, and
the stones of those who were slain remained in place, and thus
they were able to ascertain their losses."--_The Book of the Dun
Cow._
Sometimes, after a battle, when it was not possible to carry away a
body, the head of the man who had fallen was buried by his friends
under a cairn, because the ancient Irish were wont to carry off
heads as trophies; but to violate a cairn, even when raised by a
foe, was regarded as sacrilege.
On Dartmoor, in addition to prehistoric antiquities, numerous rude
stone crosses remain; some of these, if not all, indicate ways, and
were employed as landmarks. Only one bears an inscription, "Crux
Siwardi."
The whole of the moor, in the stream bottoms, is seamed with
streamers' "burrows" and deep workings. It is not possible to fix
their date. Throughout the Middle Ages stream tin was extracted from
Dartmoor. Fresh activity was shown in the reign of Elizabeth. Beside
the mounds may be seen the ruins of the old "blow-house," where the
tin was smelted, and very probably among the ruins will be found the
moulds into which the tin was run. I postpone what I have to say on
the tin-working to a chapter on that topic in the ensuing portion of
my book, on Cornwall.
Books on Dartmoor:--
ROWE (S.), _Perambulation of Dartmoor_ (new ed.). Exeter, 1896.
A caution must be given that the original work was written in
1848, when archæology was a matter of theorising, and when
Druids and Phœnicians cut great figures. In reading Rowe's book
the reader must pass over all this.
CROSSING (W.), _Amid Devonia's Alps_. London and Plymouth, 1888.
A pleasantly written little book, and free from the arrant
nonsense of pseudo-antiquarians of fifty years ago, cooked up
afresh.
PAGE (J. L. W.), _An Exploration of Dartmoor_. London, 1889. All
the archæologic lore in this book must be rejected. Otherwise it
is good.
CRESSWELL (B. F.), _Dartmoor and its Surroundings_. London,
1898. A handy 6d. guide, very useful, and commendably free from
false theorising on antiquarian topics.
SPENCER (E.), _Dartmoor_. Plymouth, 1894. A fresh and pleasant
book, trustworthy as to the geology, but wildly erroneous as to
the antiquities.
For the Archæology:--
Reports of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee of the Devonshire
Association, 1894-9.
For the History of the moor:--
Reports and publications of the Dartmoor Preservation Society.
For the Crosses:--
CROSSING (W.), _The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor_. Exeter, 1887.
CROSSING (W.), _The Old Stone Crosses of the Dartmoor Border_.
Exeter, 1892.
For the Churches on the borders of Dartmoor:--
Chapter xix. of ROWE'S _Perambulation_, new edition.
For the Flora and Fauna of the moor:--
Chapters xiv.-xvii. of the same.
For the Geology of Dartmoor:--
USSHER (W. A. G.), "The Granite of Dartmoor," in _Transactions
of the Devonshire Association_, 1888.