Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts | Page 2

V. The Teign 89
VI. Torbay 106

VII. The Dart 119
VIII. Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and the South Hams 141
IX. The Three Towns 155
X. The Tamar and the Tavy 179
XI. The Taw and the Torridge 201
XII. Lundy, Lynmouth, and the Borders of Exmoor 244
XIII. Castles and Country-Houses 272
List of authorities consulted 315
Index 317

Illustrations
The Guildhall, Exeter Frontispiece
Exeter from Exwick To face page 2
Exeter Cathedral 5
The Exe: Tiverton 13
Topsham 41
Exmouth from Cockwood 45
Ottery St. Mary 47
Sidmouth 51
Branscombe 61

Beer Beach 65
Seaton Headland 67
The Windypost, or Beckamoor Cross 71
Yes Tor: Dartmoor 73
Lustleigh Cleave 75
Wistman's Wood 77
Widdecombe-in-the-Moor 81
Sheepstor 83
Lydford Bridge 84
Hey Tor 89
Fingle Bridge 91
Chudleigh Glen 101
Teignmouth and Shaldon 103
Torquay from the Bay 106
Berry Head 113
Brixham Trawlers 115
Postbridge 119
Dartmeet Bridge 121
Holne Bridge 123
Fore Street, Totnes 129

Sharpham Woods: River Dart 133
Dartmouth Castle 139
Salcombe 141
Bolt Head 146
Slapton Lea 151
The Tamar, near Saltash 155
Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound 171
Brent Tor. From Lvdford Moors 179
Tavy Cleave 185
Brent Tor 198
Bideford 201
Appledore 211
Clovelly 215
Morthoe 221
Bull Point: Morthoe 223
Barnstaple Bridge 227
Torrington 230
Lantern Rock: Ilfracombe 244
Countisbury Foreland 255
Lynmouth 259

Malmsmead 263
Lorna's Bower 265
Waterslide: Doone Valley 267
Doone Valley 269
Powderham Castle 272
Berry Pomeroy Castle 285
Compton Castle 295
Okehampton Castle 297
Sydenham House 299
Bradfield 306
Pynes, near Exeter 308

Devon
CHAPTER I
Exeter
'Richmond! When last I was at Exeter, The mayor in courtesy show'd
me the castle, And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once, I should not live long after I
saw Richmond.'
King Richard III., Act IV, Sc. ii.
There are not many towns which stir the imagination as much as Exeter.
To all West-Countrymen she is a Mother City ... and there is not one

among them, however long absent from the West, who does not feel,
when he sets foot in Exeter, that he is at home again, in touch with
people of his own blood and kindred.... In Exeter all the history of the
West is bound up--its love of liberty, its independence, its passionate
resistance to foreign conquerors, its devotion to lost causes, its loyalty
to the throne, its pride, its trade, its maritime adventure--all these many
strands are twined together in that bond which links West-Countrymen
to Exeter.' Mr Norway is a West-Countryman, and he sums up very
justly the sentiment, more or less consciously realized, of the people for
whom he speaks, and especially the feeling of the citizens.
Not only the Cathedral, the Castle, and Guildhall, bear legends for
those who know how to read them, but here and again through all the
streets an ancient house, a name, or a tower, will bring back the
memory of one of the stirring events that have happened. One royal
pageant after another has clattered and glittered through the streets, and
the old carved gabled houses in the side-lanes must many a time have
shaken to the heavy tramp of armed men, gathered to defend the city or
to march out against the enemy.
'Exeter,' says Professor Freeman, 'stands distinguished as the one great
English city which has, in a more marked way than any other, kept its
unbroken being and its unbroken position throughout all ages. It is the
one city in which we can feel sure that human habitation and city life
have never ceased from the days of the early Cæsars to our own.... The
city on the Exe, Caerwisc, or Isca Damnoniorum, has had a history
which comes nearer than that of any other city of Britain to the history
of the ancient local capitals of the kindred land of Gaul.... To this day,
both in feeling and in truth, Exeter is something more than an ordinary
county town.'
The city is very picturesquely placed, and before ruthless
'improvements' swept away the old gates and many ancient buildings,
the general effect must have been particularly delightful. 'This City is
pleasantly seated upon a Hill among Hills, saving towards the sea,
where 'tis pendant in such sort as that the streets (be they never so foul)
yet with one shower of rain are again cleansed ...,' wrote Izacke, in his

Antiquities of Exeter. 'Very beautiful is the same in building;' and he
ends with some vagueness, 'for considerable Matters matchable to most
Cities in England.' The earliest history can only be guessed at from
what is known of the history of other places, and from the inferences to
be drawn from a few scanty relics; but there is evidence that Exeter
existed as a British settlement before the