8 The Ancient Stone Crosses which is lent by the pale stars, that form will forcibly reznind us of the power which the religion of the cross has exercised. over the darkness of our land, and which it has so happily dispelled. The hands that fashioned these time-worn relics have loxi^ since mouldered in the tomb ; and they themselves are oft- times overturned and shattered, deeply impressing us as ^viFe contemplate their ruin, with the certainty that all the works of man will fall and crumble away before the touch of Time. And in many of the rural settlements around the great uplands, and on the roads that lead to them, we shall also meet with the objects which it is now our purpose to examine- Some of these will, of course, differ in character from those that exist upon the moor itself ; for here the market-cross and the churchyard-cross will claim a share of our attention, while on the waste they were set up either to mark a boundary, or as guides to the wayfarer. And the difference is not only in their character, for although the crosses of the moorland borders display little elaboration in their fashioning, yet there are few of quite so rude a type as the examples seen on the moor itself. We shall not be disappointed, however, in our examination of them, though we do find them lack orna- mentation, for there is much in them and their associations to interest and attract, while the scenery amid which we shall roam as we visit in turn these venerable memorials, will not fail to call forth our admiration, and constitute an additional delight. In our ramble we shall seldom stray far from the old moor, and it will not need that we look towards its hills to tell us of its proximity, for nearly every step we take will remind us of this. The old-fashioned farm-house with its wide porch and parvise room, and muUioned windows, and the lowly thatched cottage, alike of granite ; and boulders partly covered with moss, and half-hidden by ferns, by the sides of many of the narrow lanes, will all plainly reveal that we are near the land of tors, and will cause us to realise when we sometimes wander by enclosed fields, and by the dwellings of men, that we are yet in the Dartmoor country.
