lo The Ancieftt Stone Crosses Whether this was so, and it had ever served the purpose of a place of shelter to the watchers of the beacon fire, I am unable to offer an opinion, but that such blazed upon this prominent height, there seems little reason to doubt.* Less than half a mile to the northward of Brent Hill, and by the side of the road that leads from Lutton Green to Gigley Bridge, is a small marshy spot known as Bloody Pool, though it is only in very wet seasons that much water can be seen there. What were supposed to be weapons of bronze, but which are in reality the heads of ancient fishing spears, were found there many years since, and may be seen in the Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter. The manor and church of Brent belonged from a very early period to the Abbey of Buckfast ; after the Dissolution, the former was bestowed upon Sir William Petre, and in 1806 a great portion of it was sold. There are two fairs yearly, and Risdon tells us this was so in his time, but more anciently it seems to have been held once a year only, at Michaelmas, and lasted for three days. According to Risdon, one fair was on May-day, and the other on St. MichaePs-day, but in 1 778, more than a century and a half after our topographer wrote his Survey of Devon, the days on which they still continue to be held were fixed. The fairs commence at noon on the Monday before the last Tuesday in the months of April and September, and continue till the Wednesday night ; but the Tuesday is now the day of the actual fair. The old custom of holding it ** under the glove " is not departed from, the glove being raised upon a pole when the fair commences, and kept there during its continuance. This still prevails in many towns and villages, and is an ancient form of charter ; a glove sent to the inhabitants was a token that the rights prayed for were granted.
- If a signalling station so near to the Eastern Beacon on Ugborough
Moor should seem to have been unneoessary, it may be well to explain that it is doubtful whether that ever was a beacon hill. The name appears to be a corruption of Pigedon, by which appellation it was anciently known, according to an old map of Darlmoor, now in the Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter. On' the same map, the moor- gate at the foot of the hill (now called Peek Gate) is marked as Picke Yeat, and old people in the neighbourhood used to speak of the height as Picken Hill. Brent Hill would also seem to be the more suitable of the two for the purpose of signalling.
