in Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Part of Cornwall. 551 



which meet in the centre like an arch, and support purlins. 

 Against each arch thus formed there is an exterior buttress; 

 and thus, no cross ties being required, no interruption is given 

 to the storing up of corn in the sheaf. In this barn are two 

 threshing-machines; they are wretched pieces of machinery, and 

 cannot, we should think, thresh clean. The farm-yard lies on a 

 slope, in consequence of which, the whole of the drainings of 

 the dunghill run to waste. A more wretched specimen of 

 farm-yard management we never saw on so large a scale. 



From Buckland Abbey to Moreton Hampstead, the road lies 

 across Dartmoor, which we were very glad to have an oppor- 

 tunity of closely inspecting. The soil is every where excellent, 

 and in but few places is in want of draining; and we con- 

 sequently conjecture that it forms a covering to an immense 

 accumulation of granite boulders. There is not an acre of 

 surface that we saw which does not admit of as high a degree 

 of cultivation as any part of Peeblesshire or Selkirkshire. The 

 only drawback to Dartmoor is the expense that would be in- 

 curred in removing the stones that now protrude through the 

 surface, or exist a few inches beneath it. As shelter is the 

 great object that is wanted, many of these stones might be 

 collected into ridges, and trees planted among them ; or they 

 might be formed into walls. We repeat that the soil is uni- 

 formly excellent, and would grow turnips and wheat as well as 

 any soil in the Scotch counties mentioned. From the frequency of 

 streams of water, the necessary farm buildings, if the farms were 

 of large size, might be so placed as to have water-wheels for 

 their threshing-machines; and there might be a great many 

 acres of water meadow. The prison buildings at Dartmoor 

 afford a specimen of the mean and the melancholy combined. 

 Moreton Hampstead is a small place, with a very indifferent 

 inn. 



Sept. 17. — Moreton Hampstead to Ugbrook and Exeter. The 

 road to Ugbrook is through a beautiful country chiefly along 

 the sides of well-wooded valleys, with rich meadows, and apple 

 orchards laden with fruit. 



Ugbrook ; Lord Clifford. The park here contains the greatest 

 quantity of fine old wood that we have seen in Devonshire. 

 The trees are not crowded, and many of them, therefore, have 

 attained an immense size, and taken their natural shapes. They 

 are also remarkably well displayed with reference to the inequa- 

 lities of the surface. Sketches of many of these trees have been 

 taken by Mr. Nesfield; We only measured one or two, a Dutch 

 elm 20 ft. round at 4 ft. from the ground ; and an oak with a 

 trunk 27 ft. round, 60 ft. high, and with the branches covering 

 a space 120 ft. in diameter. What gratified us much was to see 

 a number of young single trees introduced throughout the park 



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