Of Dartmoor and its Borderland . 127 cross is at a considerable height from the ground. It rises about nine feet above the base in which it is fixed, while the surface of the latter is about seven feet from the bottom of the pedestal, and two or three feet more from the ground, as the former stands on a foundation of small stones. This pedestal is not formed of large blocks as in the case of those we have examined at Buckland and Meavy, and other places, but the steps composing it, which are three in number, are built of stones of small size -with worked granite slabs laid upon them, the edges of which project. The base of the cross is a stone about three feet square, and twenty inches in height, its upper edge being bevelled. The shaft is of an elegant tapering form, one foot square at the bottom, but a short distance from its foot the angles are chamfered, and it becomes octagonal. Just below the arms there is a kind of wide fillet running round it. The head and arms are not one with the shaft, but are fixed upon it. The whole has a very graceful appearance, and with the little chapel of ancient days, forms a most interesting picture, the surroundings harmonizing with it in a truly pleasing manner. Mr. G. W. Ormerod, in the paper referred to in the previous chapter, and written in 1874, describes this cross, and states that about forty years before that time it was repaired by a stonemason, who was a Roman Catholic, and who made a vow to do so during a storm, when sailing from America to England, should he be permitted to land in safety. His voyage had a happy termination and he performed what he had promised. There are, however, some inaccuracies here, the real facts being, perhaps, scarcely so poetical. There was no storm, and no vow made on board a vessel. About the year 1838, one John Stanbury, who was a native of South Zeal, and a carpenter by trade, came home from America for a short season. Seeing that the cross needed some repair, he effected this himself, and as a memento of his visit to the place of his birth caused his initials and the date to be cut in the base. The villagers, however, objected to the latter part of his work, and destroyed the inscription, the marks of which can still be seen in a small panel on the stone. Taking umbrage at this he made a vow that though circum- stances might bring him to England again, he would never
