Of Dartmoor and its Borderland. i6i CHAPTER XVI. WidecombC'in'the^Moor and the Crosses in its Neighbourhood* Ilsington — Bag Tor Mill — Cross on Rippon Tor — Cross in Buckland Churchyard — Wayside Cross at Buckland — Dunstone — Cross in Vicarage Garden at Widecombe — Base of Cross on Widecombe Green — Crosses in the Churchyard — Thunder Storm of 1638 — Hameldon and its Barrows — Hameldon Cross — The Coffin Stone — Dartmeet — Ouldsbroom Cross — Cross Furzes — Dean Prior — Ancient Track to Plympton — Conclusion. Our investigations will now take us to that part of Dart- moor lying to the eastward of the Webbum, a tributary of the Dart, where the long valley of Widecombe thrusts itself far up into the moorlands, and our first point will be the summit of Rippon Tor, a lofty eminence in the parish of Ilsington. From Bovey we may make our way to the common crowned by the granite bosses of Hey Tor, or, if we prefer it, we may pass through pleasant lanes to Brimley and thence to Ilsington village, from which place we can also conveniently gain the down. Mr. Charles Worthy in his Ashburton and its Neighhourhoody published in 1875, in noticing Ilsington Church, refers to a block of granite on its south side, which he says "may possibly be the remains of the ancient churchyard cross." This, however, appears to be a mistake. I have carefully searched, for it, but could not discover any such ^ stone, and the Rev. Thomas Hales^he late vicar, told me /o7^ * ^1 that he had never known of the base of a cross there. On reaching the common we shall see the fine frontier hill we are about to scale rising boldly before us. When we have accomplished our task, we shall discover, at a distance of only thirty yards from the top of the cairn which crowns the hill, the object which has attracted us hither ->a granite cross. I am indebted for my knowledge of this venerable relic to Mr. Spence Bate, not having noticed it on the tor before my attention was drawn to it by his account.* It is totally unlike
- Inscribed Stones, etc. Trans. Plymouth Institut, vol. vi.
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