Jump to content

Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/418

From Wikisource
This page needs to be proofread.

Of Dartmaar and its Borderland, 49 IS the usually accepted form now, though it is frequently called Cadover, which is merely a corruption of the former. The farm near by is called Cad worthy, and the bridge, with- out doubt, is named after the settlement, or '^ weorthig," that preceded the present homestead. More than six hundred years ago there was a bridge here, probably a clapper, as is proved by an ancient deed, to which we shall have occasion later on to refer. Several places and objects in this part of the moor are mentioned in it, and among them the ponte de Cada- worthy." It is easy to see how this would become corrupted to the present form of the name. Making our way up the slope of Wigford Down, to the left of the road and in a north-westerly direction, we shall find near the hedge a portion of what must have been an exceedingly fine cross. It was discovered lying near here by the soldiers encamped in the vicinity, during the Autumn Manoeuvres in 1873, and was set up by them at the request of the Rev. G. R. Scobell, then vicar of Shaugh. It was placed on the centre of a small grassy mound, rather more than nine feet in diameter, and surrounded by a little trench. The greater part of the shaft is gone, but the portion now remaining measures from the surface of the ground to the top about two and a half feet, and across the arms it is two feet five inches. The width of the shaft below the arms is thirteen inches, and from the upper surface of the arms to the top of the shaft it is exactly twelve inches. The shaft tapers from the arms upward ; below them it appears to have had its sides parallel. On one face of this cross there is a fracture, a piece being split off from it, but its other is uninjured. Here are three incised crosses; one on each arm, and the third, a little larger than the others, in the centre, exactly where the arms intersect the shaft. There are faint traces of what seem to be incised crosses on the fractured side, but they cannot be determined as such with certainty. The last time I saw this cross, in 1901, it had been thrown down. This was probably done by cattle rubbing against it, and unless it is provided with a socket stone it will not be easy to guard against its overthrow. While this cross served to nlark the track to Tavistock from Plympton and from Cornwood, it also pointed out the