Meliora.

DEVONSHIRE.

1. The History of Devonshire from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By the Rev. Thos. Moore. London :

1829.

2. A Handbook for Travellers in Devonshire and Cornwall. London: Murray.

3. Journals of the Bath and West of England Society. London: Ridgway.

4. Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1865.

5. First Report of the Children's Employment Commission. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1863.

6. Miscellaneous Statistics of the United Kingdom. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1866.

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WITHIN the same county are to be found the garden of England and its desert; sheltered vales, over-arched by a green vault of leaves, and strewn with flower and fern, and a waste, howling wilderness, where the foot of the wayfarer sinks through the treacherous peat, or stumbles over the boulders that lie scattered on the hill-side. This same county contains the lowest land in England-land that is said to lie beneath the level of the sea-and some of the highest land, hills that rise two thousand feet above the sea. These sterile granite wastes actually touch the fertile sandstone plains at their feet. A pedestrian may easily, in the course of a single Vol. 10.-No. 38.

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day, pass from wooded dells, where the trees bend down and kiss the sea, and picturesque villas are fronted by green lawns and brilliant tinted parterres, to a seemingly boundless moorland, shunned by man and forsaken by God. And the physical contrast thus strongly marked, is not more apparent than the social contrast. The second, indeed, is the result of the first. Devonshire-the county of which we speak-contains both Torquay and Dartmoor. The myrtle and the aloe will thrive in the one, scarce anything will grow in the other. So it comes to pass that while the weak and the sickly take refuge in Torquay from the gales and frosts of less sheltered places, even the strong man has good reason to dread being overtaken by a winter storm on Dartmoor. Many a fragile invalid has been enabled to outlive on the slopes of Torbay the season that would have proved fatal elsewhere. Not a few men in full possession of health and strength have perished among the granite tors, and in their epitaph has been written, 'lost in the snow. Nor do the diversities end here. They are to be found in other circumstances of social life. For instance, there is one very startling contrast to be seen in the same district. The watering-places on the south coast of Devonshire are resorted to by two sets of visitors, the invalids already mentioned, who pass the winter there, and the summer tourists out on their holiday. Thus two streams of pilgrims throng into Devonshire at different periods, the health-seekers, who, when the days grow short and the nights grow chill, and the leaves begin to fall fast, may be seen creeping about in the sunniest and most sheltered nooks, clad with many wraps, and with mouth hidden by the respirator; and the pleasure-seekers, who, when the days are longest and brightest, and the heavens are brilliant with the most splendid hues of dawn and sunset, and earth is clad with her most beautiful robe of leaf and grass and flower, rush away from the heated, noisome streets, and are to be seen mounting the cliffs and breasting the waves as though there were no such thing as shortness of breath or cavity in the lungs. Then, again, the contrast is seen in the social condition of classes. Devonshire contains the town which is said to be the wealthiest in proportion to its population of any in England. The same county contains also the most poorly paid labourers in the country. Not far from Torquay, whose Italian villas are inhabited by wealthy commoners and peers, and often by royalty itself, there are cob-built cottages, little better than hovels, whose tenants work for eight or nine shillings a week. We might point, too, to the Ancient Druid circles that crown Dartmoor, whence the gazer can look down upon one of the

greatest triumphs of modern science, the tubular railway bridge across the Tamar; or we might transport the visitor suddenly from beneath the Norman towers of the Cathedral that crowns the most ancient city of Exeter, to the docks and steam yards of the very modern town of Devonport, to show how great a variety there is within the limits of this same county. It is the land alike of the miner and the shipbuilder, of the shepherd and the fisherman. Here the 'moorman' pursues some stray herd across the morasses of the 'great common of Devonshire;' there the 'tributer' follows underground some precious metal lode; here the 'hind' presses the harvest of the orchard into cider; there the 'trawler' reaps the harvest of the sea with his drag net; here the country parson vegetates in some rural rectory far away from any railroad; there that thorough man of the world, the British officer, tells lively stories in the messroom, or whispers tender nonsense in the ball-room. Clearly a county, this, not to be seen in a railway journey, nor to be described in a paragraph.

The ancient Danmonium included both Devonshire and Cornwall. The name is variously derived. The most probable derivation is that which traces the word back to the British Danmunith, which has its equivalent in the Welsh Deuffneynt, and signifies valleys. Isca Danmoniorum, the modern Exeter, was one of the most important cities in all England before the Saxon Conquest. After the Britons had been driven out of the rest of the country, they for a long time held their ground in Danmonium. The battle of Bampton, in 614, was a disastrous event for the ancient race. In 681 they were again defeated, and that part of Devonshire which lies east of the Exe was laid waste. Early in the ninth century Egbert succeeded in penetrating Cornwall, and made the district tributary to him. In 814 a great battle was fought at Gafalforda, probably Camelford, in which the Britons were again worsted. For a century from that date the county was constantly ravaged by the Danes. Athelstane constituted the Tamar the boundary of the British province, thus detaching from it the whole of Devonshire. Even in Cornwall Saxon thanes established themselves, so that scarcely any British names appear in the Domesday Book as belonging to landowners. Nevertheless, Cornwall retained its nationality much longer than Devonshire, and within the memory of persons now living the Cornish language was spoken in the neighbourhood of Penzance. The Ancient Britons were Christian when the Saxons were heathen. In fact, there was no communication between the British and Saxon Churches until the beginning of the eighth century, when Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, addressed a letter to 'the most illustrious

Lord who rules the Kingdom of the West, King Geruntius, and to all priests throughout Danmonia.' At that time the differences which had prevailed about the time of keeping Easter were settled, the Britons yielding to the Saxons. Between the Celts of Armorica and Danmonium there was more akin than between the latter and the Saxons. There were constant communications between the south-west of England and the west of France, that is, between Devonshire and Cornwall and Britanny. It is probable that Germanus, who founded the ancient Cornish Bishopric of St. Germans, was a Breton. The stone circles and avenues which abound on Dartmoor are the relics of a period long anterior to this. They are the remains of the Druidical age, and have given rise to much learned writing, and to elaborate disquisitions of too special a character to be further mentioned in this review.

Coming to more recent times, the history of Devonshire is full of interest. Before the Norman Conquest, in 1002, Exeter was reduced to ruins. Perkin Warbeck found many supporters in the two westernmost counties, but Exeter, rebuilt long before this, held out against him and the six thousand men with whom he marched from Bodmin. The Reformation led to a serious rebellion in Devonshire, whereof Hooker, who was then living at Exeter, has left us an account. On Whit Sunday, 1549, the clergy, according to King Edward's commands, read the reformed liturgy, greatly to the disgust of a large number of the people who were attached to the old faith. On the following day-Whit Monday-the inhabitants of Sampford Courtenay forced their rector to read the service to which they had been accustomed. The news of this victory soon spread, and the example of these villagers was followed in other places. The magistrates seem to have sympathised with the people, at all events they took no steps to enforce the law. The Government having been informed of what had taken place, sent some of the local nobles to expostulate; but in vain; the people refused to listen, and began to prepare for the armed conflict which they saw impending. The father of Sir Walter Raleigh was taken prisoner by the rebels, and threatened with death for siding with the Reformers. A proclamation was issued, calling upon the people to lay down their arms, and submit to the law. It produced no effect. The insurgents laid siege to Exeter, and invited the mayor to join them. He and his brother magistrates, though they were Roman Catholics, refused to take part in the revolt. The city was then invested, and the suburbs were captured. The rebel army was, no doubt, thoroughly sincere in its motives. Its sincerity was proved by the prominence which was given to the religious