362 DEVON GREENERY 



regard to cottages; cottages let (and rated) at is. 6d. 

 a week were relet at 45. 6d. after their sale and rated 

 to correspond ; obviously other similar cottages still 

 let at .is. 6d. could not be allowed to escape their 

 fair share of the rating, and were brought up to the 

 same level without reference to the actual rent charged. 

 Rating on a basis of value may force on a general 

 custom of charging an economic rent for cottages with 

 a corresponding rise of wages ; a desirable change, 

 because it will render cottage building again possible 

 as an ordinary business proposition. Meantime there 

 was, naturally enough, much indignation and soreness 

 among the farmers of this part of Devon ; the old 

 regime was more than good enough for them, and 

 neither the magic of ownership nor the independence 

 conferred by the feeling that they are paying for 

 their holdings the true market price afforded any 

 compensation for depleted pockets. The process of 

 getting the great patriarchal estates on to a business 

 footing may be inevitable, may even be for the 

 ultimate good of the industry, but one cannot expect 

 the old tenants to like it. 



From the Tavistock country we made our way into 

 the Devon of one's traditions and imaginations, the 

 land of bright red marls cut into cleeves and combes 

 and deep lanes from Tor Bay up the Exe Valley into 

 Somerset, the land of apple orchards, which " hardly 

 bear the red fruit up that shall be next year's cider 

 cup." It was not farming, however, that took us over 

 Dartmoor, but the mere joy of the moor on a day 

 when the fierce wind occasionally rent the piled clouds 

 and let flying gleams of sunshine traverse the long 

 slopes of heather and grass. We saw only the hardy 

 Dartmoor sheep, the forest ponies, and the red Devons 

 cropping the scant pasturage, with now and then a 



