Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/364

 Of Dartmoor and its Borderland, 3 foaming torrents over rocky beds, the precipitous sides being clothed with furze and heather, with many a huge granite boulder half hidden in the wild and tangled growth, the numerous tors lifting high their rugged crests and standing like giant sentinels around. King John disafforested the whole of the County of Devon, with the exception of Dartmoor and Exmoor, and though the former when it was afterwards bestowed upon Richard, Earl of Cornwall, by his brother, Henry III., ceased to be a forest in law, since none but a king can hold such unless by special warrant, it has nevertheless continued to b6 regarded as a forest down to our own day, and is generally so called. It is part of the Duchy of Cornwall, and is consequently always held by the male heir apparent to the throne, as duke, but in the event of their being none such, it reverts to the Crown for the time being. Perambulations have been made from time to time for the purpose of defining the limits of the forest, which lies in the centre of the moorland region, its boundaries being, in some parts, several miles from the cultivated country. The intervening tract, which presents similar characteristics to the forest, was formerly known as the Commons of Devonshire. It is made up of parts of a number of parishes surrounding the forest, many of which possess Venville rights, as certain privileges of pasturage and turbary are termed. The forest itself lies entirely within the parish of Lydford. The return of a perambulation made in the year 1240 when Richard, Earl of Cornwall, was the lord of Dartmoor^ sets forth the bounds of the forest, and of this there are several copies extant. A survey of the forest was also made in 1609, and the bounds as named in this, approach very closely to those generally recognised at the present time. These are defined by natural objects, such as a hill, a tor, or a river. The forest is divided into quarters, of which the north is the largest. Ancient customs still survive on Dartmoor, though gradually giving place to modern usages. Yet it is still a home for many of our old superstitions and legendary tales, a place where much that found favour with our ancestors, and which, perhaps with questionable taste, is now voted out of fashion, still finds a refuge, and where freedom from all