Devonshire :: 4. Surface and General Features.

4. Surface and General Features.

Devonshire is characterised by such great irregularity and unevenness of surface that practically the only level land in it is along the shores of its estuaries; with the almost inevitable result that it is one of the most picturesque and beautiful counties in England. Its scenery has been very greatly affected by subterranean movements, which have not only roughly shaped its hills and valleys, partly by upheaval and partly by the shrinkage of the earth's crust, but have been the principal cause of the breadth of the river estuaries which are so marked a feature of its coasts, especially of the south. At many points along the shore of Devonshire there is evidence, in raised sea-beaches, and, near Torquay, in the borings of marine mollusca at a great height above the present tide-line, of upheavals that must have raised the whole coast, even if they did not materially change the contour of the country. On the other hand, the existence of submerged forests at many places near the shore proves that the land has sunk at least forty feet, thus allowing the sea to flow further inland; thereby greatly widening the already existing valleys, which had been formed in part by the shrinkage of the earth's crust, and in part by the action of the rivers.

The Upper Dart, from the Moors

The chief physical feature of Devonshire, a feature without parallel in any other part of England, is the Forest of Dartmoor, the great upland, some twenty miles long and eighteen miles broad, which occupies so large a part of the southern half of the county. It is all granite, the largest mass of granite in England, and forms part of a chain of outcrops of that formation extending from Devonshire to the Scilly Isles. The word "forest," it should be remembered, should be remembered, originally meant, not a wood, but a hunting-ground. No part of the open moor is now covered with trees, nor is it likely, considering the poorness of the soil, that it ever was so covered, although roots and other remains of trees have been found in various parts of it. In early days it was a royal hunting-ground, and most of it is still Crown property, forming part of the Duchy of Cornwall.

The most prominent feature of the moor, which contains the highest ground in England south of Ingleborough in Yorkshire, are the isolated rocky heights called tors, some 170 in number, many of which have been weathered, not only into very rugged and highly picturesque, but even into most strange and fantastic shapes; in many cases having their steep slopes strewn with fallen fragments of rock, some of them tons in weight, forming what are known on the moor as "clitters" or "clatters." The highest points are High Willhays, 2039 feet; Yes Tor, 2029 feet, only half a mile away from its rival, Newlake, 1983 feet; Cuthill, 1980 feet; and Great Lynx Tor, 1908 feet above sea-level; and among the most striking and picturesque are Great Lynx Tor, Staple Tor, Mis Tor, and Vixen Tor, although many others are remarkable for their strange and time-worn outlines.

The moor is seamed by many valleys and ravines, not a few of which are, in parts, well-wooded, each with its swiftly-flowing stream or river, and many of them most picturesque and beautiful. Such, in particular, are the Valley of the Dart, especially including Holne Chase and above; of the Teign near Fingle Bridge; of the Tavy at Tavy Cleave; of the Lyd at Lydford, and of the Plym at the Dewerstone.

Tavy Cleave, showing disintegrated granite

Dartmoor is distinguished in being the coldest and rainiest part of Devonshire, and to these two features of its climate are no doubt largely due the fogs which so frequently envelope it. Its great extent and its heavy rainfall make the moor the main watershed of the county. Most of its rivers have their sources in the bogs, which are a well-known and somewhat dangerous feature of the district, and of which the most remarkable are Fox Tor Mire, Cranmere Bog, and Cuthill Bog.

Its varied and peculiar features, its vast expanses of wild and desolate moorland, now aglow with golden gorse, and now still more splendid with the magnificent purple of its broad sheets of heather or with the warm hues of dying bracken, and beautiful, as the seasons change, with the varying tints of grass and sedge, of ferns and rushes, of moss and bog-myrtle and bilberry, of cotton-grass and asphodel; the almost unrivalled beauty of its river-valleys, its multitudinous streams, its wild life, its extraordinary wealth of prehistoric antiquities, its lingering superstitions of pixies, of witch-craft, of night-flying whisht-hounds and ghostly huntsmen, its very solitude and silence, combine to make Dartmoor, to the antiquary and the artist, the naturalist and the angler, one of the most attractive spots in England, and one whose charm poets, painters, and authors have striven from earliest days to immortalise.

The greater part of Exmoor, and all its principal heights, are in Somerset, but it extends into the north-eastern corner of Devon, and detached portions of it, which appear to be really parts of the same upland, reach to the hills above Combe Martin. Part of Span Head, whose summit is 1619 feet above the sea, is in our county; and the outlying spurs of Bratton Down, Kentisbury Down, and the Great Hangman are all over 1000 feet high. There is very beautiful scenery on Exmoor, especially on the Somerset side of the border, somewhat resembling that on Dartmoor, although less wild and picturesque, and without any of the tors which are so characteristic of the greater upland. Exmoor is the only part of England where red deer still run wild; and the district is visited every year by stag-hunters from all parts of the island and especially from Ireland. Both it and Dartmoor are famous for a breed of sturdy little ponies, originally, no doubt, of the same stock. In the Badgeworthy Valley, which is in Somerset, although not far from Lynton, may be seen what are said to be the ruined huts of the Doones, a community of freebooters immortalised by Blackmore, who represents them as having been the terror of the country-side towards the close of the seventeenth century.

Other Devonshire hills are the Black Downs, along the border of Somerset, in which the highest point is 860 feet above the sea; another Black Down, six miles due south, reaching 930 feet; the Great Haldons, south-west of Exeter, 817 feet high; and Dumpdon Hill, about two miles north by east of Honiton, 856 feet above sea-level.

Devonshire is in parts extremely fertile, especially towards the south, and it has been called (in common, it is true, with other counties) the Garden of England. Two very large and specially productive areas are the Vale of Exeter, and the South Hams,—the latter a name somewhat indefinitely applied to the district south of Dartmoor and occupying a large part of the region between the Teign and the Plym, with Kingsbridge as its chief centre. The great fertility of this famous district is due partly to the nature of the soil, partly to the mildness of the climate and the shelter afforded by the heights of Dartmoor, and partly to its nearness to the sea.

On Lundy

A very remarkable and interesting feature of Devonshire is Lundy—an island three miles long by one mile broad, lying out in the Bristol Channel, opposite Barnstaple Bay, and twelve miles north-north-west of Hartland Point. Its name, it is believed, is derived from two Norse words meaning Puffin Isle.

Composed entirely of granite, except for its southern extremity, which is millstone grit, its lofty cliffs are very wild and rugged and picturesque, and for two miles along its eastern side there is a remarkable series of chasms, from three to twenty feet wide and some of them of great depth, known to the islanders as the Earthquakes. The shingle beach at the south-eastern corner, in the shelter of Rat Island, is the only landing-place, but many vessels find good anchorage on the eastern side, well protected from westerly winds. Many ships, however, have been wrecked among the terrible rocks round its base, including the battleship Montagu, lost in 1906, and, according to tradition, one of the galleons of the Spanish Armada. There is a lighthouse at each end of the island, and the southern one is the most powerful in Devonshire.

Perhaps the greatest charm of Lundy lies, as will be shown in some detail in a later chapter, in its natural history, especially in the vast numbers of birds which visit it in the breeding season. Among very rare stragglers that have been shot here is the Iceland falcon, a species of which very few examples have been recorded for this country. A few plants and insects are peculiar to the spot. There are now few trees, except those planted not long ago near the owner's house in a cleft at the south-eastern end, but some shrubs, such as fuchsias, hydrangeas, and rhododendrons grow to a great size, and the mesembryanthemums are particularly vigorous and beautiful.

Granite for the Thames Embankment was obtained here, but the quarries have long been closed, and farming is the chief industry of the few inhabitants.

There are evidences of very ancient occupation, in the shape of kistvaens, tumuli, and the foundations of primitive dwellings; and in times more recent the island has had a stirring history. In the reign of Henry II it was held by the turbulent family of the Montmorencies or Moriscos, and the shell of Morisco Castle, now converted into cottages, still stands on the south-east corner of the island. During the Civil War it was fortified for the king, and only surrendered in 1647. At various times in the seventeenth century it was captured by French, Spaniards, and Algerines; and it was, moreover, several times occupied by pirates, some of whom were Englishmen, who found it a convenient station from which to plunder ships sailing up the Bristol Channel.

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