A Hand-Book for Travellers in Devon & Cornwall [By T.C. Paris]. (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ...Exmoor occupies an area of about 14 sq. m., and is still to a great extent uncultivated--a waste of dark hills and valleys tracked by lonely streams. It attains its greatest elevation on the E., where Dunhery Beacon rises 1668 ft. above the sea; but on the W. its hills are of little inferior height, Chapman Barrows being 1540 ft., and Span Head 161.0 ft. On its borders it is pierced by deep wooded ravines, of which the traveller has a magnificent example in Lyndale. The central part of this region, about 20,000 acres, formed the ancient Forest of Exmoor, for which an Act of enclosure was obtained in 1815, when it was purchased by the late John Knight, Esq., of Wolverley Hall, Worcestershire, who proposed converting it to a less interesting but more profitable land of meadows. With this object he encircled the whole forest with a ring fence, and commenced building a castellated mansion at Simonsbath, but this he soon found occasion to abandon, together with many of his projected improvements, for the speculation proved anything but a golden adventure. A considerable acreage has, however, been brought under cultivation, and this is now leased in separate farms by the proprietor of the forest, Mr. Frederick Knight; the principal drawback to success being the strong winds and chilly mists which prevail in so elevated a district. The soil is in general of a fair quality, although the hard sandstones below the soil, being little liable to decompose, are somewhat unfavourable to fertility. Extensive tracts, however, still remain, both in the forest and surrounding highlands, in a state of niture, delighting the eye by the grandenr of their unbroken outline and the rich beauty of their colour; and here, over slopes of heather, interspersed with...