AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 171 



also being connected at the same time with the Salcombe 

 receiving office.* Some of the leading telegraph gentlemen 

 of the day were engaged in testing the cable at this building, 

 by forwarding and receiving messages from very distant 

 parts of the world; the long ribbons of communication 

 uncoiling from the beautiful instruments in a marvellous 

 manner, and displaying their hieroglyphic dots and strokes 

 to the amazement of the uninitiated. 



In these times of rapid telegraphic or railway communi- 

 cation, one is rather inclined to smile at the primitive style 

 of postal arrangements at Salcombe in days gone by, for 

 Hawkins, who wrote in 1819, says — "No regular mail 

 reaches this place ; but a woman on foot (reversing the order 

 of expediency) proceeds daily to Kingsbridge, where she 

 arrives long after the letters are sorted, executes numerous 

 petty missions, and returns to Salcombe, heavily loaded, 

 at night, charging a penny for each letter conveyed to or 

 from the office." 



Between the North and South Sands, stands the Moult, 

 the property of the Earl of Devon, but for many years it was 

 the summer residence of the late Lord Justice Sir George 

 Turner. Lady Turner continued to reside there until her 

 death, when her daughters removed from the Moult to another 

 house at Salcombe. The Moult was built in the year 1764, 

 by the late John Hawkins, Esq., as "a mere pleasure box," 

 but he did not live to finish it. He left it to his widow, who 

 in 1780 sold it to the late Henry Whorwood, Esq., of Holton 



* The Robert Lowe was lost, November 20th, 1873, having struck on the 

 " Shotts," near St. John's, Newfoundland. She filled and settled down a 

 few minutes afterwards. The commander, Capt. Tidmarsh (who remained 

 on the bridge to the last), and sixteen of the crew, were lost, some of them 

 having been washed overboard by the heavy seas which struck the vessel ; 

 thirty-three others were saved in three of the boats which got clear of the 

 sinking ship. 



