Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/439

 68 The Amient Stone Crosses left of the road leading to Princetown. In shape it is rectangular, measuring three feet by two-and-a-half feet, and, as in the former example, there is a square hole in the centre. This is fifteen inches by twelve, and thus of suitable size to receive the shaft of a cross. That it is the socket-stone of one is very probable, though we should not care to positively pronounce it to be such. A cross at or near this spot is certainly what we should expect to find, as it would be difficult to suppose that on a road the direction of which was marked by such objects one would not be placed at such an important point. At Dousland the track from Comwood and Plympton to Sarapford Spiney and Tavis- tock crossed another which the discovery of several crosses in certain situations on the moor enabled me to trace, and which led from the house founded by Amicia at Buckland to the Abbey of Buckfast by way of Fox Tor and Holne ; this we shall notice by and by. Here, too, would run the old path from Plymouth to Moreton, the line of which is followed by the present highway, so that a cross at this spot would mark three important roads. But in addition to these considera- tions we have the fact that the Yanedonecrosse of the Lady Amicia's deed stood somewhere near here, and if the stone we now see be indeed the base of a cross, it is by no means improbable that it once supported the old bond-mark of more than six hundred years ago. Our way will now lead us by the lane opposite to the hotel at Dousland to Walkhampton, at which place we shall leave it again for a brief space, in order to examine an object near the church, which is situated on an eminence at some distance from the village. As we ascend the hill we shall probably wonder what could have induced the builders of the sacred edifice to choose such an elevated spot on which to rear it, but we shall certainly not find fault with the magnificent view that it commands. Ere we gain the top of the lane we shall pass through a gate reached by some steps, and a footpath having a neatly made stone hedge on each side will lead us to the churchyard. Close to the steps is a large granite stone, built into the hedge, its face forming two panels, in one of which are the letters T B, and in the other the date 1 68 —, both cut in relief. The stone is broken, and the last figure of the date cannot be read.