Of Dartmoor and Us Borderland. 109 Mr. A. J. Kempe, the brother of Mrs. Bray, in a paper in the Gentleman's Magazine^ entitled Notices of Tavistock and its Abbey ^ makes mention of another cross, for in speaking of the hermitage of St. John, which was situated not far from the town, he says, " The holy well is still to be seen with the remains of a cross at its entrance.'* Mrs Bray does not seem to have been aware of the existence of the latter, for in 1832, two years after the publication of Mr. Kempe's article, she says that no memorial of the hermitage remained with the exception of a spring of the purest kind, while from a passage in Miss Evans* Home Scenes; or, Tavistock and its Vicinity, published in 1846. the cross would appear still to have been there. The hermitage was opposite the lower end of the walk by the river under the abbey walls, and in describing this Miss Evans says, '* Farther down is another cascade — a natural one, boiling and foaming by, as if scorning the small clear drops that trickle into its heaving bosom from a font, supposed from the remains of a broken cross by its side to have been a holy well, belonging to. the hermitage and chapel of St John."* Mrs. Bray refers to an inventory of the treasures of Tavistock Church, preserved among the parish documents, in which mention is made of a hermit having bequeathed to it a silver crucifix, containing a piece of the wood of the true cross, and considers that this was probably the recluse of the cell of St. John In the vicarage garden, which is adjoining the Bedford Hotel, are three ancient inscribed stones, one of which was found in the town, the other two being those we have alluded to as having been discovered at Buckland Monachorum. They were brought hither and placed in the garden in order to preserve them. Of the existence of the first the Rev. E. A. Bray was informed in 1804 by his father, who in 1780 had caused it to be removed from West Street, where it had formed part of the pavement. This was done in consequence of its having become so slippery as to constitute a danger, and Mr. Bray said he thought he recollected having seen letters on it. This was found to be so, when the Rev. E. A. Bray visited the stone, which had been taken some half mile from the town to form a bridge over a mill leat. He had it
- Home Scenes, p. 37.
