[24] I have had to considerably tone down the original, which was hardly presentable if given verbatim.
[25] "The Lichen Flora of Devonshire," in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1883.
[26] Given in A Garland of Country Song. Methuen, 1895.
[27] E. A. S. Elliot, "Birds in the South Hams," Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1899.
[28] Dartmoor Idylls. Methuen, 1896.
CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCETOWN
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt and Princetown—A desolate spot—The prisons—Escapes—A burglary—Merrivale Bridge and its group of remains—Staple Tor—Walk up the Walkham to Merrivale Bridge—Harter Tor—Black Tor logan stone—Tor Royal—Wistman's Wood—Bairdown Man—Langstone Moor Circle—Fice's Well—Whitchurch—Archpriests—Heath and heather—Heather ale—White Heath.
King Louis XIV. selected the most barren and intractable bit of land out of which to create Versailles, with its gardens, plantations, and palace; and Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt chose the most inhospitable site for the planting of a town. Sir Thomas was Black Rod, and Warden of the Stannaries. He was a man of a sanguine temperament, for he calculated on reaping gold where he sowed shillings, and that in Dartmoor bogs.