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Rh CHAPTER VII. Oosscs on the Lands of Amida^ G>imtess of Devon* Bickleigh Vale — Maynstone Cross — Woolwell Cross — Bickleigh Cross — The Church— Socket Stone — Copris Cross — Buckland Abbey — Buck- land Monachorum Cross — Shaft of Cross on Crapstone Farm — Horrabridge — Smalacumbe Cross — Sheepstor Cross — ^A Moorland Church — An Ancient Church House — The Pixies' Cave — The Path of the Monks. In the lower valley of the Tavy, where the ground slopes gently to the river beneath the hanging woods, there rose in the later years of the thirteenth century a stately pile of build- ings. When the workmen had completed their task, and the sounds of their tools were no longer heard, those whose future home it was to be, a colony of Cistercian monks, took up their abode there, and for the first time the hymn of praise resounded within the walls of Buckland Abbey. This house was founded by Amicia, Countess of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, who endowed it with certain lands, including three manors in the neighbourhood — Buck- land, Bickleigh and Walkhampton. The foundation deed was signed by Amicia in the eighth of Edward I. (1280), and eleven years later the gift was confirmed by her daughter, Isabella de Fortibus, by charter. In these instruments the bounds of the lands bestowed upon the abbey are set forth, and among the various objects by which they were defined are named six crosses. These are given as Crucem Siwardi, Smalacumbacrosse, Yanedonecrosse, Maynstoncrossa, Crucem de Wolewille and Copriscrosse. The first will claim our attention when we come to describe the crosses on the Abbot's Way ; for the present we shall confine our remarks to the others, noticing at the same time those which still exist within the boundaries of the manors of the countess. We shall therefore now return to Browney Cross, which we may best do from Urgles by following the green path to Cadaford Bridge, and retracing our steps over the Plympton road. Arrived at the cross we turn into the lane leading to