Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/539

 15S The Aiulcnt Stow Crosses masonry several f^et above the roadway. It is partly built into the wall of a garden belonging to Cross Cottage, and near a lane leading to a farm called Higher Atway. Dr. Croker, who has left us some geological notices of the district, as well as a brief account of the eastern part of Dartmoor, placed the cross where we see it now, as the widening of the road many years since necessitated its removal from its original situation. Both the piece of shaft and the socket- stone are of very plain workmanship, and are much weathered. The former, which is thirty-four inches high, is sixteen inches wide at the bottom, and its corners are slightly chamfered. The latter measures about four-and-a-half feet across. There is a small incised cross on the shaft which, it is plainly to be seen, is comparatively modern. It is said to have been placed on it when the stone was built into the wall. Formerly the day on which the portreeve of Bovey is chosen was observed as a holiday, and was known as Mayor's Moaday, as it fell upon the first Monday after the 3rd of May. It was the practice in former times for the this cross and strike it with a stick. The market cross of Bovey, which stands in the middle of the town, is a striking object, particularly when approached by the road leading from the bridge. It stands upon a base and pedestal of two steps, but previous to 1865 was not in its present situation. It, however, stood close by, and was moved in order to make room for a new Town Hall. The pedestal is raised upon a modem foundation, which forms as it were a lower stage, and consist- ing of blocks of cut granite, square at the bottom, but with the corners steeply sloped, so that its top is octagonal, which is the form the steps of the pedestal take. These steps are about eighteen inches in height, each having a moulding at the top, very much worn and broken, and the lower one a chamfered phnth. The base or socket-stone is three feet ten inches square at the bottom, and gathered into an octagon at the top. It is nineteen -and-a-half inches high. Upon this is fixed the shaft, which like the socket-stone is square at the bottom, but a short distance up the angles are chamfered, and it becomes octagonal. It is of a tapering form, and about eight feet high. On this, as the original was missing, is fixed a
 * Mayor of Bovey " on these festive occasions to ride round