TSJ 



DEVOXPORT. 



DEVONSHIRE. 



granting to her burgesses ' Da Divisis' fVeedoio of toll throughout nil 

 England ami the port* of the MO. Devize* returned nu-nilH-n < tin- 

 parliament* of Edward I., to two of Edward II., and couUntly since 

 the 4th of Edward III. The summer assizes for the county are held 

 at Devises. The quarter sessions of the county are held here in rota- 

 tion with Salisbury, Warminster, and Marlborough. A county court 

 is held in the town. 



Devizes is situated nearly in the centre of the county, on the Kennet 

 Canal : it consist* of several street* well paved, and lighted with gas, 

 and contains many good houses. Being built on an elevated site, the 

 town is well drained. The town-ball is & handsome modern building, 

 in the basement of which a cheese-market is held. 



St. John's church is built partly in the Norman and partly in 

 the perpendicular style of architecture, with a square embattled tower, 

 and consists of a nave, transept, chancel, and two chantry chapels. 

 Of St. Mary's church the chancel is supposed to have been built soon 

 after the Conquest, but nearly all the rest of the structure was rebuilt 

 by William Smyth, who died in 1436. There are chapels for Wesleyan 

 Methodists, Baptists, Independents, Presbyterians, and Quakers. 

 There are a church charity school, a British school, a literary institu- 

 tion, a savings bank, and a dispensary. 



The woollen manufacture, once of considerable importance, is now 

 extinct. The silk manufacture, malting, and the manufacture of snuff, 

 afford employment. The market is on Thursday, and is the largest 

 in the west of England for corn. A large cross, erected in 1815 by 

 Lord Sidmouth, is in the market-place. Fairs are held on the 4th of 

 February for horses ; Holy Thursday and April 20th, for cattle ; and 

 June 13th, July 5th, and October 2nd and 20th, for cattle, hops, 

 cloth, tic. Richard of Devizes, a Benedictine monk of the 12th 

 century, who wrote a chronicle of English history, was a native of 

 this place. 



(Hoare, WUtthire ; Communication from Devizei.) 

 DEVONPORT. [PLYMOUTH.] 



DEVONSHIRE, a maritime county in the south-west part of 

 England. Its form approximates to that of an irregular quadrangle, 

 having for its angles on the west Hartland Point on the Bristol 

 Channel;, on the north the boundary of Devonshire and Somerset- 

 shire, near Oare, on the coast of the same channel ; on the east the 

 boundary of Devonshire and Dorsetshire, on the coast of the English 

 Channel, near Lyme Regis ; and on the south Prawle Point, near the 

 Start Point, on the coast of the English Channel. Devonshire lies 

 between 50 12' and 51 15' N. lat, 2 54' and 4 33' W. long. The 

 county is bounded N. and N.W. by the Bristol Channel ; N.E. by 

 Somersetshire; E. by Dorsetshire; S.E. and S. by the English 

 Channel ; and W. by Cornwall, from which it is separated along part 

 of the boundary-line by the river Tamer. An insulated portion of 

 the county is inclosed between Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, and 

 the boundaries as given above include an insulated portion of Dorset- 

 shire which is entirely surrounded by Devonshire. The length of 

 this county from north to south is about 71 miles ; the breadth from 

 east to west is about 68 miles. The area of the county is about 2590 

 square miles. The population in 1841 was 532,959; in 1851 it was 

 667,098, being on increase of 6'4 per cent. 



Coatt-litu, Jilandt. The coast of the Bristol Channel which 

 bounds Devonshire to the north and north-west is for the moat part 

 steep and rocky. On the side towards Somersetshire the coast-line 

 runs nearly east and west for about twenty-two miles, measured in a 

 straight line from the border of Somersetshire to Bull Point, west of 

 Ilfracombe : along one part of this line there are cliffs, in the other 

 parts the coast though steep is not broken -or precipitous : there are 

 no marked headlands. From Bull Point to Mortc Point the coast 

 forms a small bay bounded by cliffs ; from Morte Point to Baggy 

 Point it forms a larger and deeper bay, with cliffs at each extremity 

 and a low shelving beach in the middle. From Baggy Point to Hart- 

 land Point the coast forms the deep bay, Barnstaple or Bideford Bay, 

 into which the united stream of the Torridge and the Taw empties 

 iUelf. From Baggy Point to the estuary of the Taw and Torridge 

 the coast is shelving and sandy, with a multitude of sand-hills, called 

 liraunton Barrows ; from the oatuary of the rivers to Hartland Point 

 the coast is lined with steep cliffs and rocks. From Hartland Point 

 the coast, still lined with cliffx, runs south or south by west to the 

 border of Cornwall. This coast presents in several places very pic- 

 turesque views, especially about Lynmouth (the mouth of the river 

 Lynn), on the border towards Somersetshire, and at Clovelly in 

 MM Bay. 



The coast of the English Channel, which bounds the county on the 

 south, runs wert-south-west from the neighbourhood of Lyme Regis 

 (in DonwUhirc), 22 miles measured in a direct line, to the mouth of 

 the river Ex. This coast is lined with cliffs throughout its whole 

 extent, and is marked by one headland, Beer Head, at the western 

 extremity of Seaton Bay. The rivers Axe and Otter enter the sea in 

 the course of this line. From the mouth of the Ex the coast, lined 

 with cliffs, runs south-eouth-wcrt (i mile* to the mouth of the Toign, 

 and thence 6 miles south or south by east to the headland called 

 Hope's Nose, at the northern extremity of Tor Bay. Tor Bay is a 

 deep bay bounded on the south by Berry Head, having a shelving 

 beach at the bottom of the bay, interrupted by a bluff headland < ull.-.l 

 Koundbam Head, and an abrupt coast towards each extremity, llerry 



Head appears to have been the Promontorium Hellrnis of the an 

 (liicliard of Circiuviiter.) From Berry Head to Plymouth Sound the 

 general character of the coast is rocky. In this port of the oou 

 there are several bays. About two or three miles of coast on tin- 

 west side of Plymouth Sound belong to Devonshire. 1'h 

 Sound is three miles wide and extends many miles inland. It receives 

 from the north-west the Tamer (united with the Ly nlier or St. Her- 

 man's River), upon the textuary of which, called Hamoaze, is the town 

 of Devonport, formerly ' Dock,' the royal dockyard of which ranks 

 next in importance to that of Portsmouth ; and from the north-east 

 the Plym, the tcstuary of which is called Cutwater. Mill Bay and 

 Sutton Pool are small inlets at the bottom of Plymouth Sound ; the 

 latter is almost encircled by the town of Plymouth. [PLYMOUTH.] The 

 Devonshire coast may be estimated at from 155 to 160 miles; 55 to 

 60 miles on the Bristol Channel, and about 100 miles on the Kngli^h 

 Channel. 



Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, 10 to 11 miles N.N.W. from 

 Hartland Point, is a moss of granite, except the extreme soutli.ru 

 end, which is grauwacke, 21 miles long from north to south, and about 

 1 mile from east to west. Its area is about 1000 acres. It is sur- 

 rounded on every side with rocks ; the landing-place, up which two 

 men can scarcely walk abreast, is on the eastern side. The southern 

 point is occupied by a lighthouse. The northern purtof Lundy Island 

 rises considerably above the level of the sea, the highest part 

 200 feet high. There is an abundance of puffins and rabbits, and the 

 island is much infested with rats. The number of inhabitants in 

 1851 was 34. Their princijial business is shooting rabbits for their 

 skins, and puffins for their feathers. The island was sold in 1840 for 

 about U870/. St. Nicholas Island, which is fortified, is in Plymouth 

 Sound. 



Surface, Hydrography. Devonshire is more uniformly hilly than 

 any other of the large counties of England. The principal ran 

 hills may be considered as offsets from the elevated districts of 1 '.irt- 

 moor, Exmoor, and Blackdown. Dartmoor is a granitic table-land of 

 irregular elevation, having its greatest elevation towards the north, 

 and containing the highest ground iu Devonshire. The highest part 

 of Dartmoor is Yeo Tor, which attains a height of 2050 feet above the 

 sea. Other hills in different parts of Dartmoor vary in height from 

 2000 feet down to 658 feet. 



Dartmoor extends nearly 22 miles from north to south (from li- 

 near Okehompton, to the Plymouth road between the rivers Ernie and 

 Avon or Aune) ; and 14 miles from east to west, from the neighbour- 

 hood of Mart-ton Hampstcad to that of Tavistock. This immense 

 waste is thus described by Dr. Bcrger (' QeoL Trans.,' voL i. p. 1 1!<) : 

 " From Harford church (near the southern limit of Dartmoor) the 

 country assumes quite a bare and alpine appearance, presenting a vast 

 plain, extending beyond the visible horizon. The face of the country 

 is formed by swellings and undulations gradually overtopping each 

 other, without ever forming distinct mountains. There is neither 

 vegetation nor any human dwelling; we tread upon a boggy soil of 

 very little depth, and scarcely affording sufficient food to support 

 some dwarf colts as wild as the country they inhabit" The area of 

 Dartmoor Forest has been estimated at from 80,000 to 100,000 acres. 

 Part of the waste is appropriated by the surrounding parishes, the 

 freeholders of which possess the right of common, or as it is termed 

 the right of venville, on these appropriated parts. The rest of Dart- 

 moor, to which the name of Dartmoor Forest (frequently given to 

 the whole waste) strictly applies, and which belongs to the duchy of 

 Cornwall, has been found by survey to contain 53,644 acres. It was 

 on this part that the prison was built during the last war for the 

 prisoners of war. The highest part of Dartmoor Forest, in which 

 some of the most important rivers of the enmity (the Taw, the Dart, 

 the Teign, Ac.) have their rise, consists of a succession of morasses 

 formed by the decay of the successive crops of aquatic plants with 

 which this part teems : these morasses are in some parts 40 to 60 feet 

 deep, in others not more than 5 feet In several places there have 

 been land-slips, owing to the over-accumulation of marshy soil : these 

 slips would be more frequent but for the granite rocks or ' tors ' 

 which continually rise to the surface. Peat is dug iu this forest; and 

 many sheep are pastured there in summer, and some all the year 

 round. The elevation of Dartmoor Forest causes it to have a much 

 lower average temperature than other parts of the county. The 

 average difference of the temperature at Ilfracombe, on the north 

 coast of the county, and Okehampton, just on tin- northern border of 

 Dartmoor, is 10 5' of Fahrenheit : in summer the difference is small, 

 but iu winter it rises to 16 or 18. Numerous stone circles, cairns, 

 macnhirs or rude upright stones, cromlechs, stone circular huts, and 

 other antiquities of the earliest period abound in various parts of the 

 forest, and the whole district is full of interest. Dartmoor has been 

 excellently described and its natural history and antiquities illustrated 

 by the Rev. Samuel Howe, in his 'Perambulation of the Ancient 

 Forest of Dartmoor.' Amicombe Hill, Okement Hill, and others, are 

 elevated parts of Dartmoor. l!rent Tor (802 feet, according to Dr. 

 Merger) and Blackdown, both near Tavutock, border upon Dartmoor, 

 but are not composed of granite. 



Dartmoor has been described as on elevated plain : the descent to 

 the lower country all round is rapid. From Dartmoor several i 

 of hills, composed chiefly of rocks of the transition series branch off 



