Copy 1, Volume 1
Traditions, legends, superstitions, and sketches of Devonshire on the borders of the Tamar and the Tavy illustrative of its manners, customs, history, antiquities, scenery, and natural history, in a series of letters to Robert Southey, esq / By Mrs. Bray.
- Anna Eliza Bray
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Traditions, legends, superstitions, and sketches of Devonshire on the borders of the Tamar and the Tavy illustrative of its manners, customs, history, antiquities, scenery, and natural history, in a series of letters to Robert Southey, esq / By Mrs. Bray. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![asf LET. 11.] ORIGIN OF DARTMOOR. Ly, only confirmed by King Henry III., but had bounds set out by him in a charter of perambulation.” And Edward III. gave it to his son the Black Prince, when he invested him with the title of Duke of Cornwall. This vast tract of land, which has been computed to contain 100,000 acres,* is distinguished by heights so lofty and rugged, that they may in some parts be termed mountaimous; and though a large portion of the high road, over which the traveller passes in crossing it, presents an unvaried scene of solitariness and desolation, yet to those who pursue their in- vestigation of the moor beyond the ordinary and beaten track, much will be found to delight the artist, the poet, and the antiquary. By a mind alive to those strong impressions which the vast and the majestic never fail to create, Dart- moor will be viewed with a very different feeling to that experienced by the common observer who declares it is “all barren.” ‘To him, no doubt, it is so: since, in its bleak heights, he is sensible to nothing but the chilling air; in its lofty tors, still rude as they were created, he sees nothing but bare rocks; and in its circles of stones, its cairns and its fallen cromlechs, he finds no associations to give them an interest by connecting them with the his- tory and manners of ages long past away. The feelings inspired by visiting Dartmoor are of a very different order from those experienced on viewing our beautiful and cultivated scenery. The rich pastures, the green hills, the woodland declivi- * There are said to be 20,000 acres in addition to this, distin- guished by the name of the Commons.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33282419_0001_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
