into the wooded country. The rock is ivy-clad. Tufts of broom 66 wave like golden banners in the passing breeze;" and in late autumn the mountain ash brightens the ledges with her scarlet berries. In the "Dewerstone" it is quite probable that we have to recognise the "Rock of Tiw," the powerful spirit of Saxon heathendom from whom we

THE DEWERSTONE.

get the name of "Tuesday;" and the "Tiwes-stan" has its appropriate legend. Once, in a deep snow, the traces of a human foot and of a cloven hoof were found ascending to the

highest point of the rock, which the "Enemy" seems to have claimed, as the proper representative of the Teutonic deity. Pressing up through the woods to this airy summit we shall find one of the "earthfast" stones which abound on it, graven with the name of "Carrington," a Devonshire poet, whose "Dartmoor"-if elsewhere it appear some

what flavourless-will, if read on such a native height as this, be found true to the spirit of the scene-like certain wines which, though they will not bear removal, are excellent at home. And to catch the spirit of such a scene demands the qualities of a true poet. We are here on the verge of the moorland. On one hand is a grand solitude; on the other a wide hilly country, rich in woods and picturesque in all its outlines, stretches away to the sea-board. Plymouth Sound and the Breakwater mark the extreme distance, and the winding valley of the river, itself unseen in the midst of overhanging woods and coppices, extends far below us, with all its memorials of vanished centuries, and of forms and fashions of life which have passed away hardly less completely, though with fuller record, than those of the stone-rows on the hill-side of Trowlesworthy.

At Shaugh Bridge-Shaugh, the Saxon "sceagga," indi

"When shaws be sheene, and shades full faire,

And leaves both large and long,

It is merry walking in the faire forèst
To heare the small birdes song ".

the stream of the West Plym joins that we have been following, and the main river is formed. This West Plym is generally known as the Mew or Meavy river, from the principal hamlet by which it flows. "Meavy's venerable oak," of which Carrington

THE MEAVY RIVER.

69

sings, remains in front of the simple church, a building of the fifteenth century, and is perhaps far more ancient. It still wears its crown of green leaves, and the hollow trunk, in which nine persons (so say the villagers) once dined, generally contains a stack of black peats, piled up for winter fuel. The upper part of the stream, between Meavy and Sheepstor,

is wild and picturesque, with banks overhung by tangled coppice. It passes on the western side of Sheepstor, between that hill and the more peaked height of Leathertor, whose name "steep side." Leathertor is covered with broken seems to preserve the Celtic llethr, a "steep side." granite, and the view looking towards it from Nosworthy Bridge, which here crosses the stream, is striking. The West Plym flows from marshy ground near Clacywell Pool, a sheet of still water which has filled an ancient mining pit.

On the banks of the Plym, at Shaugh Bridge, oaks of no great size, but of considerable

age, and grotesquely contorted, rise from the masses of moss-grown boulders. The rocky side of the Dewerstone projects itself between the two stream-valleys, and on the right bank, a little below the bridge, are the remains of the old house of Grenofen, once the home of the Slannings. Like most of the Devonshire gentry, they were ardent royalists, and one of them, Sir Nicholas, is the Slanning of the rude West-country rhyme

"The four wheels of Charles's wain

Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning, slain."

At Grenofen they lived in great state; though their old house has almost vanished, and the mossy barn, with its gables, is now the principal object left for the sketcher. In the Church of Bickleigh, before its restoration (it fell to pieces, like many another tomb during similar operations), was the elaborate monument of an earlier Sir Nicholas Slanning, with effigies of himself and his wife. He was killed in a duel with Sir John Fitz, in 1590, and this Sir John afterwards killed himself in his hostel at Salisbury. Hence the inscription on the Slanning tomb (which has been preserved) runs thus:

"Idem cædis erat nostræ simul auctor et ultor;

Trux homicida mei, mox homicida sui.
Quemque in me primum, mox in se condidit ensis,

O nostrum summi Judicis arbitrium."

Bickleigh Bridge is the next encountered on the river, which, retaining all the characteristics of a mountain stream, clear-flowing, broken by boulders, and dashing into "water-breaks " and miniature falls, at this point enters the region of the woods. Here it truly becomes the "sylvan Plym" of Carrington. Lateral valleys, each with its tributary streamlet, and each wooded, open here and there into the vale of the widening river. The coppices become woods such woods as that of Wordsworth's sonnet :

"An old place, full of many a lovely brood,

Tall trees, green arbours, and ground-flowers in flocks,

And wild rose tip-toe upon hawthorn stocks."

Sometimes a cleared space lies open to the sun, or a winding path crosses a ledge of rock, cushioned with wild thyme and whortleberry; and wherever the trees at all open their ranks, the ground in the spring-time is thick with flowers-blue-bells (the Scilla nutans) colouring spaces as far as the eye can reach; primroses in great cool-leafed tufts; wood anemones with their delicate tinting. The murmur and dash of the river give life to the solitude—a solitude which, for some part at least of the course, has been rudely disturbed by the line of railway from Plymouth to Tavistock. Between Bickleigh and Plym Bridge this railway passes through Cann Quarry, where the dark blue slate of the "Devonian" series has been worked for a very long period. The excavations have become picturesque in form, and the slate is finely contrasted by surrounding masses of foliage. The crescent-shaped weir-head, which is close at hand, makes an excellent foreground.

Plym Bridge, where the river has become broader, and more tranquil, so that the arches are reflected in the deeper water, is still among the woods, but it is not far from the head

of the estuary. These old Devonshire bridges, some of which date from the fourteenth century, are highly picturesque, with their granite parapets and angular recesses. Ivy has often crept over them, and the arches, as at Bickleigh and Shaugh, sometimes frame a river-scene of great beauty. At Plym Bridge we are reminded of our approach to a more inhabited district. The land here belonged to the neighbouring Priory of Plympton; and the Augustinians had raised at one end of the bridge a small chantry, or bridge-chapel, where the traveller might kneel in prayer before passing into the wild land which lay beyond. Such bridge-chapels were not infrequent in medieval times. Of this one the traces are but slight, although a fragment of wall with an enriched niche for the figure of a saint was standing but a few years ago. On either side the woods stretch thickly. A lane on the right bank of the river leads upward to Boringdon, now a farmhouse, but anciently the residence of the Parkers, who are now seated at Saltram, and enjoy the Earldom of Morley. Boringdon gives a second title to the house. It is known that a house existed here in the fourteenth century, but the present remains are scarcely earlier than the reign. of Elizabeth, and there are additions of a later date. The hall, lighted by tall mullioned windows, is a noble room, with a chimney-piece ornamented by figures emblematical of Peace and Plenty, supporting the arms of Charles I. Beneath is the date 1610. Interesting as is this old house, the view which it commands and that which opens beyond it are still more attractive. On one side we look into the recesses of the wooded hills, wild and rough, and varied in outline. On the other, the estuary of the Plym unfolds itself, and Plymouth Sound is seen beyond Mount Batten and the Staddon heights. The solitary world we are leaving is behind us. Close in front is the bustle and turmoil of to-day.

IN BICKLEIGH VALE.

We may follow the river to Plympton Bridge, or by a steep hill-road descend on the two Plymptons-Plympton St. Mary, the seat of the priory, and Plympton Earl, where the castle of the De Redvers, Earls of Devon, once rose in the midst of the valley, and now shows little beyond the mound of its shell-keep. Between the Plymptons the Torry brook rushes onward to join the Plym. Priory and castle stood close to the head of the estuary, enringed by broad green meadows, and backed by the grey hills of Dartmoor. The surrounding lands are among the richest in Devonshire, and the Augustinian priory was the wealthiest of all the monastic houses in the county. The castle was really important for but a short period, although it remained strong and habitable until the year 1643, when it became the head-quarters of Prince Maurice during his siege of Plymouth. But the

priory maintained its importance and its influence until the Dissolution. It was the "nursing mother" of the great port of Plymouth; and all that mass of throbbing life and energy toward which we glide onward on the waters of the estuary, those crowded docks and quays, those havens with their forests of masts, may be traced back to their origin in the care and far-seeing judgment of the Plympton Augustinians. They protected and developed the little fishing town and harbour of Sutton-the first " Plymouth,"

which belonged to them from a very early period. In this sense the old rhyme (something resembling which occurs in so many places) is undoubtedly true: Plympton was, if not "a borough town," yet

a place of no small consequence, when Plymouth was in truth but "a furzy down."

The Augustinian priory was founded by William Warelwast, Bishop of Exeter (1107-36), so as to replace a collegiate establishment of secular canons which had been in existence at Plympton before the Conquest. This college was dissolved, and the new foundation received great benefactions from Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, lord of the neighbouring castle. The house grew and prospered, favoured as it was by the advantages of its site, which was SO near the head of the Laira (as the estuary of the Plym is called) that the shallow vessels of those early days could lie at a very short distance from the walls of the monastery. There is a local tradition that these Augustinian canons (the order was unknown in England before the Conquest) were the first to cultivate the apple in Devonshire, and an orchard which adjoins the priory wall is pointed out as the oldest in the county. But this is also said of the Cistercians of Buckland, and of other religious houses in the West; and we must be content to believe that while cider may not have been unknown in Devonshire in the days of the "glorious Athelstan," the various religious orders, patrons of horticulture as they were, procured from the Continent choice grafts and new varieties of the apple; and thus, if they did not introduce cider-making in the West, they certainly encouraged it and greatly improved the drink. We may look on the moss-grown orchard at Plympton with interest, since it probably occupies the site of the monastic "apple garth." The domestic buildings of the community have entirely disappeared, with the exception of the refectory and an adjoining kitchen. The refectory, measuring sixty-one feet six inches by fourteen feet, is of the thirteenth century (early English), and retains its windows, roof, and fire-place. It is raised on a crypt or undercroft of Norman character, with a round-headed portal which is slightly enriched. There is no reason why this undercroft should not have been the work of the