actions similar to those described by the Greek historian, from the very force of circumstances, must have taken place at some part of the shores of Plymouth Harbour. The contrary supposition, that with every facility for exporting the metal, raised almost on the very coast,* the traders should have conveyed the ponderous commodity by waggons to some distant port, is too absurd to be admitted. If the Dartmoor miners then, had not the identical Iktis, at the mouth of their rivers, and in sight of their southernmost hills, they had doubtless a similar emporium on their shores, and the interesting description of the maritime Britons, may be fairly applied to the Danmonians, of the neighbourhood of Tamari Ostia, as well as to the other trading inhabitants of the Cassiterides. "The inhabitants of that part of Britain, below the promontory called Belerium, are exceedingly hospitable, (pıλóževoi, fond of strangers,) and on account of their intercourse with foreign merchants, are more civilized in their habits of life."+ With reference to the existence of some kind of emporium on the coast, at a convenient distance from the mining districts of Danmonium, it may be further observed, that the place known to the Greeks by the name of Tamara, had obtained sufficient celebrity in antient times, to be mentioned by Ptolemy, among the few places which his scanty information enabled him to enumerate on the Danmonian shores. This could scarcely have arisen from any other cause, than the natural advantages of Plymouth Sound,-its contiguity to the stannary region, and the consequent growth of an emporium for the staple commodity of the country, at some convenient spot, in the parts adjacent. Had there been no direct The tidal waters of the Plym are known to have flowed, in former times, over great part of the Saltram marshes, towards Plympton St. Mary church, so that the mining ground, near Hemerdon, Newnham and Boringdon Park, was much nearer to the estuary than at present. It is not impossible that the precincts of Dartmoor, may have supplied materials for the dockyards of Greek naval architects two thousand years ago. Polwhele has noticed a circumstance which is worth observing. "That famous ship which was built at Syracuse under the direction of Archimedes, is at once a proof of the proficiency of the Greeks in the maritime arts, and of their connexion with Britain. According to Athenæus, the ship had three masts, of which the second and third, were easily procured; but it was long before a tree for the mainmast could be found. At length a proper tree was discovered, in the mountains of Britain, and brought down to the sea coast by a famous mechanic, Phileas Tauromenites. This is a curious fact. And the mountains of Britain, I conceive, were the mountains of Danmonium. In other parts of the island the Greeks had very slight connexions. It was with Danmonium they traded."-His. View, 145. evidence of the existence of such a port, nature would have indicated, that as a roadstead like Plymouth Sound, and such harbours as Hamoaze and Catwater, could not have escaped the notice of the Phoenician and Greek traders, so the circumstance of their resorting there, for purposes of traffic, would naturally lead to the gradual rise of some kind of port, of greater or less consequence. But having the testimony of Ptolemy, to the existence of a town in the neighbourhood of the Tamar, it is no longer matter of conjecture or inference, but an historical fact, that such a place near the coast of Danmonium, was known to the Greeks and other classical nations, in the age of Ptolemy, and in all probability long before. Nor is it less certain, that with the sole exception of Isca, (Exeter,) we can fix the situation of Tamara with more accuracy, than any other of the Danmonian towns and places enumerated by Ptolemy. Its name identifies it with the banks of the Tamar, and, most probably, with the immediate neighbourhood of the estuary, since this author mentions, both Tauápov #отaμov iкßoλn, (Tamar Mouth,) and Tamara. Guided by the landmarks of nature, and the evidence of etymology, many antiquaries have agreed, that the antient Tamara is to be sought for in the modern Tamerton; a conclusion at which those who are best acquainted with local circumstances, will scarcely fail also to arrive, although others, with Horsley, have supposed it to be Saltash. Dr. Borlase, referring to Ptolemy, says "The third city is Tamara, in which the name of the river Tamar, is too strong to be questioned, and Tamerton, on the eastern bank of the river, lies almost opposite to Saltash, and must have been the place." Polwhele, venturing, on very slender and questionable authority, to divide antient Danmonium into cantreds, (which he says, gave rise to hundreds,) finds the principal town of the cantred of Tamara in Tamerton or Plymouth. Without adopting this author's fanciful opinions, on the subject of these supposed cantreds, we may conclude that there was a district of some extent, known by the name of Tamara, comprehending, perhaps, the tract of country bounded by the Tamar, the Dartmoor Hills, the Plym, and Plymouth Sound; and that within these boundaries, at the village of King's Tamerton, in the parish of St. Budeaux, the true site of the Tamara of the antients, will probably be found, opposite to Saltash, on the Roman road to the ferry, and from its commanding situation, in full view of the estuary of the Tamar, (Tauápov ißoλn,) and therefore a situation likely to be fixed upon, by the Danmonian Britons or the Phoenician traders. Since Diodorus describes Britain as a populous island,(πoλvávůρwπos vñoos) we may justly conclude, that this description must have applied to that part of the country, concerning which he had received the most accurate information, viz., the metalliferous districts. Hence we infer that the south of Devon, before the Roman æra of our history, was inhabited by a numerous population;-that on the coast, at the mouths of the rivers flowing down from the hilly country, where the staple commodity of the island was raised, there would be smelting establishments, and ports for the shipment of the metal by foreign merchants ;-that the maritime inhabitants, from their intercourse with these traders, became comparatively civilized, and probably adopted many foreign practices and opinions, whilst the dwellers of the interior retained their nomadic habits, and preserved their primitive superstitions, amidst the Forest wilds and rugged steeps of Dartmoor, as Carrington soothly sings, These silent vales have swarm'd with human life,- Awoke the soul to gladness! Dear to him His native hill,-in simple garb attired, The Druid wander'd. Haply have these hills To worship on the mountain's breast sublime The earth his altar, and the bending heav'n His canopy magnificent. The rocks That crest the grove-crown'd hill he scoop'd to hold The Verambulation. HAVING thus taken a compendious view of the several relics which may be regarded as so many monuments, reflecting the few and flickering beams which history casts upon the obscure period to which they may with most probability, be justly assigned; and having shown that they are eminently characteristic of the people who are known to have occupied this part of England before it was subjugated by the Romans, I now proceed to a topographical survey of the interesting district, whose very wildness and inaccessible character has insured their preservation, amidst the chances and changes of twenty centuries, the venerable, and often the only, witnesses of the unrecorded events of aboriginal times. In pursuit of this object, let us take the antient Perambulators of Henry III. for our guides, following their course, above recorded, as closely as the faint and imperfect vestiges which can still be traced will permit, and while with them we make the Perambulation from east to west, and "beat the bounds," let us endeavour to lead the contemplative wanderer to those objects of antiquarian interest and natural beauty most worthy of his examination within the bounds, metes, and precincts of the ANTIENT AND ROYAL FOREST OF DARTMOOR. The Perambulators began their circuit near the foot of Cosdon Hill, as stated above,* at a place called Hoga de Cosdowne, and thence in an easterly direction to Little Hoga, or Hountaret. I have been unable to ascertain the exact point, referred to by the original charter under the name of Hoga, but we may conclude that it could not have been far from the banks of the Taw, in the immediate neighbourhood of Sticklepath. This picturesque village is on the * Vide supra, p. 3. K great mail road from Exeter to Okehampton and Cornwall, which sweeps round the very base of Cosdon Hill. Here an unpretending but convenient inn affords accommodation, such as may well content the moorland tourist, bent on exploring the "wild and wondrous region" extending beyond the mighty eminence, which towers so majestically above the village nestling among the thickets, that fringe the rocky channel of the Taw, here issuing forth into the champaign country, from a noble mountain gorge. Without pausing to ascertain the exact position of Hoga, let it suffice that it must have been sufficiently near to Cosdon, to authorize our making Sticklepath the starting-point of our Forest perambulation. Proceeding along the high road up the ascent from whence the village derives its name,* at its western extremity, we notice on the left hand, hard by the way-side, and on the verge of a rocky common, the shaft of an antient cross, formed of the durable granite from the neighbouring mountain. It stands nearly six feet high, is about eleven inches in thickness, and has its sides rudely sculptured in curves, lines, and crosses, with little regularity of design; and which having been much defaced, by the weather or by violence, are scarcely discernible, unless the sun shines full upon the shaft. Adjoining the cross, a path winds away into the upland gorge, formed by Cosdon on one side, and the Belstone hills on the other. Looking down upon the windings of the Taw, with the mill and the cottages peering through the trees, on its banks, we are strongly reminded of some of the softer features of Welsh scenery in similar situations. A rugged path through broken ground, high above the river's western bank, leads to Taw Marsh, a plain of considerable extent, and remarkably level, dotted with huge masses of granite and surrounded by lofty eminences, with all the features and incidents characteristic of the peculiar scenery of the moor. † Here is one of the spots where the evidences of some mighty convulsion of nature, strike the beholder with astonishment, and carry irresistible conviction to the mind. The characteristic tors of Belstone, cresting the rocky hills on the west, their sides sloping down to the marshy level through which the Taw winds its way, are strewn with blocks and slabs of granite, *Stickle-path, the steep road, from Sticele, (Sax.) steep and path. In the Devonshire vernacular, we still retain the Saxon word; a stickle roof, is a high-pitched roof. + See Plate-Scene on the Taw. |