114 ^^ Anciifii Stone Crcssis has certainly been well-cared for. It is rather a pity, bow- ever» that the head and arms were not made a little larger ; their size is scarcely proportionate to that of the shaft. This new work, in which the octagonal form is preserved, increases the height about fourteen inches, the total from the ground to the top of the cross being ten feet and a half. The arms measure eighteen inches across. As at Peter Tavy some fine trees grow in the churchyard spreading their boughs over the tombstone that tell us of those who once dwelt in this moorland parish. But the spot has not quite that primitive air belonging to the former, the alterations connected with its extension having robbed it of some of its older features. Leaving Mary Tavy and entering upon the Tavistock and Okehampton road, we shall make our way to Black Down, at the north-eastern comer of which is a spot known as Fostall cross. Whether a cross ever existed there or not, I have been unable to ascertain. At present a boimdary stone stands there, but we might well suppose that in former times a cross was reared near by, as an ancient track known as the Lich Path passed that way. At the distance of about half-a-mile from the verge of the down we shall leave the highway and strike over the common on the left, in order to visit Lydford. On reaching the higher part of the down we see across the valley to the westward the conical peak of Brent Tor, of which we have had many a distant view during our rambles. On its summit is a little church dedicated, like most ecclesiastical buildings on high places to St. Michael, and traditions, as might natually be expected, are not wanting to account for its erection here. It would have been built at the foot of the tor, we are told, but for the intervention of the arch enemy of mankind, who, it seems as in the case of the church at Plympton St. Mary,* took upon himself to remove the stones which the builders brought to the chosen site to a spot more to his liking. But in this instance he conveyed them to a higher situation instead of to a lower one, possibly in the hope that the trouble of climbing up a steep hill would deter worshippers from attending church •p 43, ante.
