64 The Ancient Sterne Crosses that the lane becomes merely a rough track leading over Lynch Down. We may follow it, and so gain the Sheepstor road at the top of the hill, or we may reach the village by leaving the common and taking a path across the fields. The view from the summit of the hill is of the most extensive character, and on a fine, clear day, will not fail to afford the observer a vast amount of delight. On approaching Sheepstor the visitor begins to feel that before him lies an ideal Dartmoor lx)rder settlement. There is the grey moor-stone church, with its strong-looking tower with crocketted pinnacles, at the foot of a huge tor, bold in outline, and with confused masses of granite covering the slope from which it rises. Near the gate of the churchyard is the old priest's house, bearing a date carved upon its wall, and next to it the vicarage, built in a corresponding style, thus harmonizing well with all that sur- rounds it. There, too, are the rough granite walls of the enclosures, and little cultivated patches creeping up to the rocky common, trees growing in the sheltered part of the combe, and a purling brook wit^ its primitive looking bridge. And above all the feeling that one experiences of having reached the limits of the cultivated country — indeed, what is for some distance behind hirft is only partially reclaimed — and that before him lies a vast moor, over which he may travel for many miles ere meeting with any sign of man's recent occupation. Not far from the east end of the churchyard, at a point where one lane joins another, is a granite stone in the hedge, which is the broken base of the old Sheepstor Cross. It occupies a similar position to the one we have examined at Shaugh, but is very much hidden by the growth around it. The cross, though missing from this spot, is not lost, but stands in a field at Burrator, some half-mile distant, where it serves the purpose of a rubbing-post for cattle. To reach it we must proceed on the road leading to the Burrator dam, whea we shall soon notice the entrance to the house of that name. As the cross now stands in private property it will of course be necessary to obtain permission to visit it. It will be found in a field overlooking the deep vale of the Mew below Yennadon. It has been sadly mutilated, both arms being broken, but is still far from presenting the appearance of an ordinary granite post, inasmuch as on each of its faces there is
