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CHAPTER XIII. 

 DARTMOOR. 



MOST people have a general idea that there is good fishing and excellent 

 scenery to be met with on Dartmoor. Its wild tors and rocky glens appear 

 without fail in every collection of photographs. Pictures of Holne Chase 

 and the Buckland drives form an inseparable adjunct to all guides to Devon- 

 shire, and everyone has heard of its wild cattle and wild ponies. Lastly, 

 there are few after-dinner conversations amongst members of the angling 

 fraternity in which the waters of the Dart and its tributaries do not meet 

 with frequent and well-merited eulogiums. 



Many, however, are doubtless not aware that for the small sum of ten 

 shillings a licence can be obtained, which enables the holder to shoot over 

 the unenclosed parts of the moor, and a short description of the birds to be 

 met with, and the places they frequent, may perhaps be of interest to the 

 numerous class of sportsmen who can put up with a small bag gained by 

 a good day's tramp over rough country. A zigzag railway from Yelverton, 

 which dodges backwards and forwards among the tors so sharply that 

 passengers in the last carriage can almost ogle the occupants of the first, 

 lands one, probably about eight o'clock in the evening, at the station of 

 Princetown, a village which owes its existence to the convict prison situated 

 on the adjoining hill. 



After being carefully scrutinized by some of its officials, the visitor must 

 now choose between putting up at the Duchy Hotel, or driving one and a 

 half miles onwards to Two Bridges, where excellent accommodation can 

 also be obtained on the very bank of the East Dart. The latter hostelry 

 will naturally commend itself to the angler, while Princetown is more 

 convenient for the shooter, who could, moreover, at the Duchy obtain the 

 aid of a thoroughly trustworthy setter, and a setter is a sine qua non on 

 Dartmoor. The next thing is to procure a licence. This is granted by the 

 bailiff of Dartmoor, who lives close by at Tor Royal, and gives permission 

 to shoot anything except hares and Grey Hen within certain roughly defined 

 boundaries included under the term " unenclosed lands in the Forest and 



