SHARP TOR. 401 



than usually picturesque ; old fashioned farm-houses, 

 a primitive inn, an antediluvian smithy, and people as 

 unsophisticated as the region ; little brilliant streams 

 crossing the road at every turn ; fence-walls of huge, 

 unformed granite blocks ; these at length bring us 

 slowly and toilingly upon the moor. 



And now we are in the midst of the Tors. Here 

 they are on every side, Pelion upon Ossa, Ossa upon 

 Olympus ! Away on the left, or, as a seaman would 

 say, broad upon the larboard bow, rises from deep 

 valleys a vast mass, of great regularity in outline, 

 terminating in a sharp cone of gray rock. Other 

 hills are beyond and on each side, but there is a 

 grandeur in this which arrests the attention. Pre- 

 sently the road turns, and we see that we shall have 

 to skirt the very flank of the mountain. A passing 

 peasant, of whom we inquire its name, tells that it is 

 Sharp Tor, or, as he pronounces it, Sharpitor. As we 

 pass, we perceive that its broad side bears antique 

 remains, and jump out to explore. Yes ; here are 

 indubitable relics of man's handiwork. We are 

 standing in the midst of a circle, about fifteen yards 

 in diameter, as I measured by pacing, composed of 

 great primary rounded blocks of granite. Besides 

 these, however, there are the debris of the eleva- 

 tion, in heaps of smaller stones which lie at the 

 base of the primaries, making the walls in places 

 two yards or more in thickness. The primary stones 

 are placed in contact, not separated by interspaces, 

 and therefore this was a dwelling-house, not a 



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