[Illustration: THE DEWERSTONE.]
[Illustration: IN BICKLEIGH VALE.]
[Illustration: OLD DOORWAY, AUGUSTINIAN PRIORY. PLYMPTON.]
Westward of the valley of the Dart is the valley of the Plym, also
flowing out of Dartmoor. Two streams known as the Cad and the Mew join
to form this river, and though they are of about equal importance, the
source of the Cad is generally regarded as the true Plym head, while a
crossing upon it is known as the Plym Steps. Both are rocky, dashing
mountain-streams, and such are also the characteristics of the Plym
after the junction until it enters its estuary. The Plym Head is within
the royal forest of Dartmoor, about twelve hundred feet above the sea,
and in the wild and lonely moorland. The stream flows by the flat summit
of Sheeps Tor, one of the chief peaks on the southern border of the
moor. Here in a hollow formed by overhanging rocks one of the Royalist
Elfords, whose house was under the tor, sought refuge, and amused his
solitude by painting the walls of the cavern, which is known as the
"Pixies' House," and is regarded by the neighbors as a dangerous place
for children, to whom these little fairies sometimes take a fancy. It is
not safe, they say, to go near it without dropping a pin as an offering
between the chinks of the rock--not a very costly way of buying
immunity. In Sheeps Tor churchyard in the valley below lies Sir James
Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, who died near there in 1868. As the streams
course down the hillside they disclose frequent traces of the rude stone
relics left there by an ancient people, the chief being the settlement
at Trowlesworthy, where there is a circular hut enclosure about four
hundred feet in diameter, with stone avenues leading to it and the
entrances defended by portions of walls. The stones are nowhere large,
however, rarely exceeding five feet high. Then we come to Shaugh, where
the rivers struggle through rocky ravines and finally join their waters.
The little Shaugh church crowns the granite rocks on one side, while on
the other is the towering crag of the Dewerstone. This ivy-clad rock,
which lifts its furrowed and wrinkled battlements far above the Plym,
was the "Rock of Tiw," that powerful god of the Saxons from whom comes
the name of Tuesday. Once, we are told, in the deep snow traces of a
human foot and a cloven hoof were found ascending to the highest point
of the rock, which His Satanic Majesty seems to have claimed for his own
domain. From this lofty outpost of the moor, if he stayed there, our
all-time enemy certainly had a wide lookout. On the one hand is a grand
solitude, and on the other a hilly country stretches to the seaboard,
with the river-valley winding through woods and fields, and Plymouth
Sound and its breakwater in the distance. Here, below the junction of
the two streams, are the scant remains of the old house of Grenofen,
whose inmates lived in great state, and were the Slannings who so
ardently supported King Charles. A mossy barn with massive gables is the
prominent feature of the ruins. The river runs down through the very
beautiful vale of Bickleigh, and then under Plym Bridge, where it
becomes broader and more tranquil as it approaches the head of the
estuary. This region belonged to the priory of Plympton, and its
Augustinian owners raised at the end of the bridge a small chapel where
the traveller might pause for prayer before venturing into the solitudes
beyond. The remains of this structure, however, are now slight. At
Plympton St. Mary was the priory, and at Plympton Earl the castle of the
Earls of Devon, a brook flowing between them to the river. Both stand
near the head of the estuary, and are in ruins. The priory was the
wealthiest monastic house in Devon, but the castle was only important as
the head-quarters of Plymouth's Royalist besiegers in the Civil War. The
priory was the nurse of the noted port of Plymouth, and its earlier
beginnings can be traced to the fostering care of the Augustinians, who
developed the fishing-town that subsequently became the powerful
seaport. Plympton, the old rhyme tells us, was "a borough-town" when
Plymouth was little else than a "a furzy down." The priory was founded
in the twelfth century, and was long patronized by the neighboring Earls
of Devon. The Augustinians, legend says, were the first to cultivate the
apple in Devonshire, and the ruins still disclose the moss-grown
"apple-garth." Little remains of the monastery beyond the old refectory
doorway and walls. The town of Plympton Maurice is in the valley near
by, famous as the birthplace of Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1723, but the
house has been swept away, though the grammar-school in which his father
taught remains. Reynolds is said to have made good use of the
recollections of the grand scenery around his birthplace in furnishing
landscape backgrounds for his pictures. The town afterwards elected him
mayor, though he rarely visited his birthplace, but in lieu sent the
corporation his portrait painted by himself. Here begins the broad
estuary known as the Laira, at the mouth of which stands Plymouth, the
town covering the land between the Laira and the Hamoaze, the estuary of
the Tamar, with its adjoining suburbs of Stonehouse and Devonport. Here
are now a population of two hundred thousand, while the station is of
vast importance as a government dockyard and barracks, with a chain of
strong protecting fortifications for defence from attacks both by sea
and land. Along the southern bank of the estuary extend the woods of
Saltram, the seat of the Earl of Morley. Then we come to Catwater Haven,
crowded with merchant-ships, and the older harbor of Sutton Pool. Mount
Batten on one side and Citadel Point on the other guard the entrance to
the haven. It was here that the English fleet awaited the Armada in
1588; that Essex gathered his expedition to conquer Cadiz in 1596; and
from here sailed the _Mayflower_ with the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620.
Plymouth harbor's maritime and naval history is, however, interwoven
with that of England.