109 



ANTIQUARIAN INVESTIGATIONS ON DARTMOOR. 



Concluded from page 70. 



Examples of the existing relics of Dartmoor and its precincts 

 have thus been produced. I now proceed to a general notice of 

 the principal of those relics, more agreeably to their topographical 

 situation, commencing with Putor, near Sampford Spiney church, 

 on the western skirts of the moor. 



Putor is traditionally regarded as a Druidical court of judica- 

 ture, probably from the conformation of the granite masses whereof 

 it is composed. These are raised by the hand of nature, so as to 

 form two divisions — that on the east consists of four piles of gra- 

 nite rocks standing at the four cardinal points, like rude bastions, 

 connected on the E. and W. by an equally rude breastwork or 

 curtain, but open to the N. and S. On the N.W. pile is a series 

 of rock basins irregularly disposed over the surface of the granite 

 mass. One, on its N. edge is complete, and is furnished with a 

 natural lip or spout, calculated to pour the water over the edge. 

 This basin communicates by a slight channel with a second much 

 broken, which has a like communication with the third, much 

 more oval than the former, and placed E. of the second on the 

 verge of the rock. Near the W. edge of the same rock, but de- 

 tached from the others, is a fourth basin, slightly oval — depth 

 eleven inches, diameter two feet. 



N. E. of Putor, above the Walkham river, stands V^ixen or 

 Vissen tor, a natural pile, rising abruptly on the N. side from the 

 heath, ranking from its size and form among the grandest on the 

 moor. It faces exactly S. and is said to have been anciently 

 employed for astronomical purposes : whether it were ever so 

 used or not, it would at least form a colossal dial to determine 

 the mid-day hour. 



N. from Vissen tor, are the Three-staple tors, and Rolls tor — - 

 a line drawn from N. to S. would nearly intersect the five. Little 

 Staple tor is first arrived at in ascending the hill. On the W. 

 edge of the highest and largest mass of this tor, is a basin of irre- 

 gular outline — lip nearly S., diameter two feet. On the N.W. 

 pile ol Great Staple tor, a basin less perfectly hollowed than the 

 last — diameter sixteen inches, no lip. 



Merivale bridge, adjoining which is the bound-stone of VValk- 

 hampton and Whitchurch parishes, is in the valley below. As- 

 cending the hill, by the turnpike road, scarcely half a mile from 

 the river Walkham, we enter the ancient town or vill;igc already 



