380 DARTMOOR AND THE DART. 



Dartmoor. There was much in the historic associa- 

 tions of that seat of ancient civilization, that region 

 where Britons mined and smelted tin and copper, and 

 where Syrian and Sidonian merchants met, and chaf- 

 fered, and displayed the precious things of Asia, ages 

 before Home was bom much in this, I say, that had 

 a strange fascination for me ; and, besides this, it was 

 a peculiar tract of country, where I expected to meet 

 with unwonted forms of life, interesting to both of us. 

 Accordingly my boy took his butterfly-net and insect- 

 boxes, and I a vasculum for ferns. 



It was in cheery mood, then, that we set out from 

 Marychurch on that brilliant July morning. The 

 long trailing twigs of the wild clematis were spread- 

 ing in profuse and elegant freedom over the hedges 

 and rocky slopes of the Teignmouth road, and hang- 

 ing nearly to the horse's feet; and the dark and 

 glossy leaves of the beeches almost' intermingled as 

 the long pendulous and patulous branches met over- 

 head, as we turned off towards Hele. The fetid iris, 

 a plant so rare generally, so common here, showed its 

 pale violet blossoms, in contrast with the crimson 

 stars of the rose-campion ; and all along the lower 

 level of the banks shone clusters of the sweet ger- 

 mander speedwell, always charming in its bright 

 azure hue, and here, most poetically, named by the 

 peasantry, " angels' eyes." Groups of tall foxgloves 

 rose from out of the rank herbage ; and high up in 

 the hedges there was a constant succession of dog- 

 roses and honeysuckles, adorned with numbers of the 



