ANTIQUARIAN INVESTIGATIONS ON DARTMOOR. 25 



of it can be traced, while the other can be followed to an extent 

 of four hundred and thirty-two feet. 



Of all our Druidical monuments, purely artificial, the Crom- 

 lech is that which is the most striking in appearance, and the 

 most eminently characteristic of the age to which such monu- 

 ments are usually assigned. The finest and perhaps the only 

 perfect specimen in Devonshire, is at Shilston, in the parish of 

 Drewsteignton. The masses whereof it is constructed have been 

 selected, as adapted for the purpose, in their natural state ; no 

 tool appears to have been passed upon them, — and this absence 

 of artificial preparation, contrasted with the indication of great 

 power exerted in the fabric, confers a venerable rudeness on this 

 singular and interesting relic. 



The Drewsteignton Cromlech is formed of four stones ; viz. 

 three supporters and the quoit or impost. The impost is forty- 

 one feet in circumference, and in many parts is from two to three 

 feet in thickness. From these dimensions a notion may be formed 

 of the mass thus elevated on the supporters, the lowest of which 

 stands five feet three inches above the surface, the others being 

 sufficiently high for a man to stand erect beneath the massive 

 canopy of the impost. This has an inclination to the westward, 

 which, with a bevil in the same direction, gives to the surface of 

 the impost a considerable slope. 



This is not only the finest and most perfect specimen in Devon- 

 shire, but it is generally regarded as furnishing the sole example 

 of which our county can boast. Could this opinion be established 

 it would appear singular, if not anomalous, that in a region where 

 the other Druidical relics are so abundant, this characteristic mo- 

 nument should so sparingly appear. In the adjoining county of 

 Cornwall we know they are numerous ; and the most cursory 

 observer could not visit a single tor on Dartmoor, without per- 

 ceiving that a want of appropriate and ready materials did not 

 stand in the way of their erection in this chosen district. The 

 supposition naturally arising from these circumstances has been 

 justified, in more than one instance, by the discovery of monu- 

 ments of this class hitherto unnoticed. On Shaugh moor is one 

 which, if it be that noticed by Polwhele, is mentioned by that 

 author only to have its claims disallowed ; but for reasons which 

 a view of the cromlech will instantly show to be both inapplicable 

 and groundless. The quoit is doubtless supported in an unusual 

 manner, resting partly on a natural ledge of rock — but that stone 

 itself possesses every characteristic of the cromlech quoit, and ap- 

 voL. IV. — 1834. D 



