IVYBRIDGE
The moors on the south not bold--South Brent--Destruction of
the screen--The Avon--Zeal Plains crowded with prehistoric
remains--The Abbots' Way--Huntingdon's Cross--Petre's
Cross--Hobajohn's Cross--Stone row--Remains upon Erme
Plains--The Staldon stone row--Other rows--Beehive
huts--Harford church--Hall--The Duchess of Kingston--The Yealm
valley--Blowing-houses--Long wall--Hawns and Dendles--The tripper
and ferns--Wisdome--Slade--Fardell--The Fardell Stone.
This not very interesting spot may be chosen as a centre whence
the Avon, Erme, and Yealm river valleys may be explored. The
distances are considerable, but the railway facilitates reaching
starting-points--South Brent for the Avon, and Cornwood for the Yealm.
It is advisable to ascend one river, cross a ridge, and descend another
river.
The moors on this, the south, side are by no means so bold as are those
on the other sides, but the valleys are hardly to be surpassed for
beauty; and they give access to very remarkable groups of antiquities,
the distance to some of which beyond inclosed land, and the absence of
roads on this part of the moor has saved these latter from destruction.
In Ivybridge itself there is absolutely nothing worth seeing, but
the churches of Ugborough and Ermington richly deserve a visit; and
there are some old manor houses, as Fardell, Fillham, Slade, and
Fowelscombe, that may be seen with interest. We will begin with the
valley of the Avon.
South Brent is dominated by Brent Hill, that was formerly crowned with
a chapel dedicated to S. Michael. The parish church, a foundation
of S. Petrock, possessed a fine carved oak screen. The church has,
however, been taken in hand by that iconoclast the "restorer," who has
left it empty, swept and garnished--a thing of nakedness and a woe for
ever. The screen--the one glory of the church--was cast forth into the
graveyard, and there allowed to rot.
The Avon foams down from the moor through a contracted throat,
affording scenes of great beauty in its ravine. It receives the
Glazebrook some way below South Brent, and the Bala about the same
distance above it.
The river has to be ascended for two miles and a half before Shipley
Bridge is reached, and then the moor is in front of one, with Zeal
Plains spread out, strewn with prehistoric settlements that have not as
yet been properly investigated.
The Abbots' Way, a track from Buckfast to Tavistock, crosses the Avon
at Huntingdon's Cross, a rude un-chamfered stone four feet and a half
high. It stands immediately within the forest bounds. The moors already
traversed are the commons of Brent and Dean. The cross is romantically
situated in a rocky basin, the rising ground about it covered with
patches of heather, with here and there a granite boulder protruding
through the turf.
"All around is still and silent, save the low murmuring of the
waters as they run over their pebbly bed. The only signs of life
are the furry inhabitants of the warren, and, perchance, a herd of
Dartmoor ponies, wild as the country over which they roam, and a
few sheep or cattle grazing on the slopes. The cross is surrounded
by rushes, and a dilapidated wall--the warren enclosure--runs near
it."[18]
The Abbots' Way may here be distinctly seen ascending the left bank of
the Avon.
On Quick Beam Hill, over which the Abbots' Way climbs to reach the
valley of the Erme, is another cross, concerning which something must
be said, as it shows that not only educated and intelligent architects
are iconoclasts, but also illiterate and stupid workmen.
There is a cairn that bears the name of Whitaburrow, and till the year
1847, erect on it in the centre stood an old grey moorstone cross. In
that year a company was formed to extract naphtha from the peat, and
its works were established near Shipley Bridge, to which the peat was
conveyed from this spot in tram-waggons.
There being no place of shelter near, the labourers erected a house on
the summit of the cairn, which measures one hundred and ninety feet
in circumference, and requiring a large stone as a support for their
chimney-breast, they knocked off the arms of the cross and employed the
shaft for that purpose. The house has disappeared with the exception
of the foundations and about three feet in height of walling, but the
poor old maimed shaft stands there aloft, just as the poor old maimed
church of South Brent stands on the river far below. Each has lost
that which made it significant and beautiful, each mutilated by the
stupidity of man.
The cross takes its name from Sir William Petre of Tor Brian, who
possessed certain rights over Brent Moor. He was Secretary of State in
four reigns--those of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth--and
seems to have conformed to whichever religion was favoured by the
Sovereign, like the Vicar of Bray. He died in 1571, and was the
ancestor of the present Lord Petre.
On Ugborough Moor, that adjoins, is a third cross, called that of
Hobajohn, which is planted, singularly enough, in the midst of a stone
row. This row starts on Butterdon Hill, above Ivybridge, and passes
within a short distance of Sharp Tor. I have not seen it, but learn
that it, like most other stone rows, starts from a cairn inclosed
within upright stones. It must, if really a stone row, be something
like three miles in length. The cross has also been mutilated, and lies
prostrate.
A fourth cross, Spurle's or Pearl's Cross, on Ugborough Moor, has lost
its shaft.
The Abbots' Way from Avon valley leads to the Erme valley, where
Redlake enters it at a very interesting point. Here, at the junction of
this feeder, is a well-preserved blowing-house, with its wheel-pit and
with its tin-moulds lying in the ruins.
The whole of Erme Plains and the valley for three miles down is simply
crowded with hut circles, pounds, and other remains. On the height
above, Staldon Moor, is a stone row of really astounding length, of
which something has been already said. It starts at the south end from
a large circle, which formerly inclosed a cairn, and stretches away
to the north, over hill and down dale, for two miles and a quarter,
and terminates in a kistvaen. The stones are not large, but the row is
fairly intact.
Due south of this, on the south side of the highest point of Stall
Moor, Staldon Barrow, are two more stone rows, almost, but not quite,
in a line. In the neighbourhood are many cairns and kistvaens. The
stones here are larger. Taken together the rows run over 1,400 feet.
They can be seen from Cornwood Station when the light is favourable.
Again another row on Burford Down, a continuation of the same moor,
starts from a circle containing a kistvaen near Tristis Rock, and
stretches away north to a wall and across an inclosed field, but here
it has been sadly pillaged for the construction of the wall. It still
runs 1,500 feet. The Erme valley has been much worked by streamers, and
some of the mining operations have been carried on at a comparatively
recent period.
By the side of a little lateral gully on the right hand in descending
the river is a beehive hut among the streamers' mounds; it is quite
intact, and shelter may be taken in it from a passing storm. It is,
however, not prehistoric, but is a miners' _cache_.
Another, also perfect, is a little further down, on the other side of
the river before reaching Piles Wood.
Harford church, another foundation of S. Petrock, stands high. It
contains nothing of interest except an altar tomb with brasses upon it,
in memory of Thomas Williams, Speaker of the House of Commons, of the
family of that name formerly resident at Stowford, in the parish. And
in the second place, a monument to John and Agnes Prideaux, the parents
of John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester. This was set up by the latter in
1639.
Hall, not far from the church, was for some time the residence of the
notorious Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, who was tried and
condemned for bigamy. It was a hard case. She was born in 1726, and was
the daughter of Colonel Thomas Chudleigh, who died when Elizabeth was
quite a child. In 1744, when she was aged only eighteen, she visited
her maternal aunt, Anne Hanmer, at Lainston, near Winchester, met at
the Winchester Races Lieutenant Hervey, second son of Lord Hervey,
and grandson of the Earl of Bristol, who was then aged twenty. He was
invited to Lainston, and one night in a foolish frolic, at eleven
o'clock, with the connivance, if not at the instigation, of Mrs.
Hanmer, Elizabeth was married to Lieutenant Hervey by the rector in the
little roofless ruin of a church. No registers were signed, and the
bridegroom left in two days to rejoin his ship, and sailed for the West
Indies.
She never after that received Lieutenant Hervey as her husband, and
he instituted a suit in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London
for the jactitation of the marriage, and sentence was given in 1769
declaring that the marriage form gone through in 1744 was null and
void. On the strength of this Elizabeth married the Duke of Kingston,
March 8, 1769.
No attempt was made during the lifetime of the Duke to dispute the
legality of the union; neither he nor Elizabeth had the least doubt
that the former marriage had been legally dissolved. But when the Duke
left all his great fortune to Elizabeth, then his nephews were furious,
and raked up against her the charge of bigamy, on the grounds that
the sentence of the Consistory Court was invalid. She was tried in
Westminster Hall before her peers in 1776, and the trial lasted five
days.
The penalty for bigamy was death, but she could escape this sentence by
claiming the benefit of a statute of William and Mary, which commuted
death to branding in the hand and imprisonment. The peers found her
guilty, but she escaped punishment by flying to the Continent, where
she died in 1788.[19]
Harford Hall, where she resided, has about it no architectural
features; it never can have been other than a small mansion, and is now
a mere farmhouse. The trees around it alone indicate that it was at one
time a gentleman's seat.
If now we strike across Stall Moor to the Yealm we come on Yealm
Steps, where the river falls over a mass of granite débris. Here are
two blowing-houses, one above the steps and the other below. The
lower house on the eastern side of the stream is a mere heap of ruins
with, however, the door-jamb standing and facing the north.[20] No
wheel-pit is visible, but there are traces of a watercourse at a high
level to the north-east of the hut. Near the entrance is a stone with
one perfect mould in it, and another imperfect. A second mould-stone
is lying near an angle in the eastern wall of the house. It has in it
two moulds adjoining each other--one at a lower level than the other,
and connected by a channel. The high-level cavity is 15 inches long, 8
inches wide, and 3 inches deep. At one end is a groove one inch deep,
perpendicular, and running down the side of the mould three inches;
that is, from top to bottom.
The low-level mould is 17 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 5 inches
deep. These cavities have been used for the purification of tin,
for the molten metal mixed with furnace impurities poured in on the
high-level hollow would flow in a purer condition into the low-level
mould.
This blowing-house has been excavated, somewhat superficially, but
nothing was found in it to give token of the period to which it
belonged. About a quarter of a mile further up the river, but on the
western bank, is another ruin. The doorway, which is very imperfect,
is on the eastern side. One mould-stone remains, containing a mould 17
inches long, 12 inches wide, and from 4 to 5 inches deep.
The whole slope of Stall Moor towards the south is strewn with hut
circles, and between the Yealm and Broadall Lake is a pound containing
several. On the further side of the stream is another pound, at which
begins a singular wall that extends for over three miles as far as
the Plym at Trowlesworthy Warren. For what purpose this wall was
erected--whether as a boundary, or whether for defence--cannot be
determined. It is in connection with several pounds and clusters of hut
circles.
In the valley of Hawns and Dendles is a pretty cascade, a great haunt
of the tripper, who ravages the Yealm valley and tears up and carries
off the ferns and roots of wild flowers.
A few instances of the habits of the tripper may not seem amiss, as
exhibited in the Yealm valley.
Blachford was the residence of the late Lord Blachford, the friend of
Gladstone.
One day my lady saw a woman--a tripper--in front of the house, where
there is a rockery, tearing up ferns. Lady Blachford rushed forth to
interfere.
"Oh!" said the tripper, "I only did it so as to get a sight of Lord
Blachford. I thought if I executed some mischief I might draw him
forth."
A peculiarly fine rhododendron grew in front of the vicarage. It
attracted the tripper by its beautiful masses of flower. One evening
an individual of this not uncommon species proceeded to tear it up,
assisted by trowel and knife; and finally having hacked through the
roots, carried it off; but finding the load burdensome at the first
hill, threw it away.
A gentleman residing further down the valley was cultivating a rare
flowering shrub. After seven years it put forth its tassels of bloom.
He tarried a day or two before gathering the blossoms till they were
fully out. His wife was an invalid, and he purposed showing them to
her when in their full perfection. But before he carried his purpose
into execution, he went to Cornwood Station to meet a friend, when he
perceived a "lady" on the platform with her hands full of the flowers.
He approached her and civilly inquired where she had obtained the
beautiful bunches.
"Oh! they were growing in Mr. P.'s ground, so I went in and gathered
them. I know Mr. P. well, and I am convinced he would not object."
"You have the advantage of me, madam. I am Mr. P. But to a lady, as
to a Christian, all things are lawful, though all things may not be
expedient."
A friend threw open his grounds to a great party of school teachers
and their scholars. The neighbourhood had been denuded of the _Osmunda
regalis_ by the tripper, but the beautiful fern had a sanctuary in his
preserves. However, the visitors dug up, tore away, and destroyed his
plants wholesale, and returned to town burdened with the wreckage. The
_Osmunda_ is a slow grower, and takes many years to reach maturity.
So much for the tripper. I do not in the least suppose any of this race
will see more of my book than the outside. But I write this for the
intelligent visitor, to warn him against Hawns and Dendles on Plymouth
early closing day (Wednesday) in summer.
Wisdome is the ancestral house of the Rogers family, of which the late
Lord Blachford was the representative. It is a modest, picturesque old
moorland mansion of a small gentle family. Slade, on the other hand,
must have been a house of consequence; it still possesses a noble
hall, with richly carved oak wainscotting. Steart has handsome carved
armorial gates; and Fardell is remarkable as a home of the Raleigh
family, and had its licensed chapel. The grandfather of the navigator
lived at Fardell, and Sir Walter himself was probably there much in
his early days. Here was found an ogham inscription on a stone, now
in the British Museum, which shows that the Irish had conquered and
colonised Devon as far south as Cornwood. Other oghams have been found
at Tavistock, and at Lewannick, near Launceston.
According to local belief, the stone indicated where treasure was hid;
and a jingle was current in the neighbourhood:--
"Between this stone and Fardell Hall
Lies as much money as the devil can haul."
The stone bore the inscription, "Fanonii Macquisini" on one side, and
"Sapanni" on the other. The "Mac" in the name is conclusively Irish, as
also the oghams.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] CROSSING, _Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor_, p. 15.
[19] I have told her story in full in _Historic Oddities and Strange
Events_. Methuen and Co., 1889.
[20] This is the scene chosen by me for my story _Guavas the Tinner_.