A coach from the
"Dolphin," which runs three days a week in the season, takes one through
scenery which grows more and more desolate and grand as the summit of
Hey Tor is approached. From Hey Tor the coach goes on to Buckland
Beacon, whence a wide view is obtained, including the shining roofs of
Princetown right away in the distance. Princetown, with its convict
prison, is considered by the people of the moor to be its most important
town. Holne, which is included in some of the coach drives from Bovey
Tracey, contains the birthplace of Charles Kingsley. Dartmoor is so huge
that one must be born and spend a lifetime in or near it to really know
it, and the visitor can merely endeavour to see typical examples of its
granite tors, its peaty streams, its great stretches of boulder-strewn
heather, and its strangely isolated villages.
Eight miles from Bovey Tracey is Widdecombe, the lonely little village
possessing a church which is known as "the Cathedral of the Moor." The
great tower of the church was struck by lightning one Sunday in October
1638, and a contemporary account can be seen on some panels in the
tower.
Brent Tor, illustrated opposite, is quite close to the station on the L.
and S.W. Railway of that name. The little battlemented church on the
summit, which has nave, aisles, and chancel, has a legendary origin and
is dedicated to St. Michael. The rock composing the tor is volcanic
trap.
[Illustration: BRENT TOR, DARTMOOR.
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