THE FOREST OF DARTMOOR 347 



loaf of bread apiece ; also to help in the three summer drifts of 

 cattle between Midsummer and Lammas after like fashion, 

 under pain of 6s. 8d. 



A further presentation by the jurors was with regard to 

 divers towns or villages abutting on the forest and within the 

 purlieu, whose cattle did daily escape into the forest. Such 

 offenders were subject to fine, which fine was turned into a 

 rent called Fines Villarum, hence those who dwell in these 

 townships and pay these rents are called Venvillemen. They 

 further presented that Venvillemen, in return for the rent, 

 may keep as many cattle as they can winter on their tenements 

 in the forest, and may cut turf for their own use. 



The Venville parishes number twenty-one. When the drifts 

 were made, Venvillemen could recover their cattle or colts 

 without paying any fine or charge, but the other remained 

 pounded till the due fee had been discharged. The drift was 

 summoned by the sound of a horn. 



Every parish of the county has a right to send cattle to this 

 moor save Barnstaple and Totnes. 



The duchy now lets the four quarters of Dartmoor to the 

 moormen, who in return charge a small fee for every sheep, 

 bullock, or horse turned out not belonging to a Venvilleman, 

 and this fee includes, as it did of old, a pledge of protection. 



None of our English forests have so many of their original 

 boundary or ancient guide stones remaining as that of Dart- 

 moor, and the reason is sufficiently obvious, namely, the 

 imperishable character of the granite that abounds throughout 

 the district. Such stones almost naturally assumed the shape 

 of a cross in the days of the simple vivid faith of our forefathers. 

 The old grey cross standing up on the bare moor would not 

 only tell the moormen or the Venvillemen of the bounds of 

 their respective rights, or point out the path to be taken by 

 the wayfarer, but would serve to keep in remembrance the 

 Saviour of mankind. In one of the earliest printed English 

 books, by Wynken de Word, in the fifteenth century, occur 

 these words : 



" For this reason ben Crosses by ye waye, that whan folke 

 passynge see the Crosses, they sholde thynke on Hym that dyed on 

 the Corss, and worshyppe Hym above all thynge." 



