Of Dartmoor and its Borderland, iii Nabarr to be Irish. Mr. R. N. Worth, in his History of Devon, says that the inscribed stones of this corner of the county, probably indicate '* a period of active mission work on the part of the Irish church, somewhere about the latter part of the fifth and first half of the sixth century." The abbey of Tavistock, dedicated to S.S. Mary and Rumon, was not completed until 981, twenty years after its foundation, and then had a brief existence of sixteen years only, being burned to the ground by the Danes in 997. But it would appear that it was not long permitted to remain in a ruined condition, for in 1032 we hear of its second abbot,. Livingus, being promoted by Canute to the See of Credition. The last of the abbots, and according to Dr. Oliver, the fortieth, was John Peryn. On the northern borderland of Dartmoor are several crosses and inscribed stones, and for the purpose of ex- amining these we shall now resume our wanderings. We therefore leave the old town of Tavistock with its historic associations, and make our way by the Okehampton road to Harford Bridge, which we shall cross, and after a pleasant walk, each step drawing us nearer to the moor, shall reach the secluded village of Peter Tavy. In Miss Evans' Home Scenes^ than which it would be difficult to find a more charming work descriptive of a rural district, is a notice of Peter Tavy, and a reference to a cross that formerly existed there. From a former sexton who remembered it perfectly well, I learnt several years ago that it stood at a short distance from the churchyard gate. The roadway being narrow, the cross was found to be in the way of the mourners, so the sexton told me, at funerals, and it was consequently taken down, and the stones composing the pedestal thrown on one side. I have not been able to ascertain when this was done, as the sexton could only fix the time by statmg that it took place when the school was removed from the building close by, and which is now a cottage. However, it must have been prior to 1846, as Miss Evans' book was published in that year, and when she wrote the cross had disappeared. On the low wall of the churchyard are laid coping stones of granite, and one of these, on the right of the gate in entering, is wider than its fellows. This stone is none other
