70 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



of acting as an amateur water-bailiff, do his best to enforce 

 iheir laws. 



Eminently clean and respectable is Tavistock, on the 

 border-land of the"two great western counties. Nay, it 

 is quite ecclesiastical in its staid appearance. There is an 

 air of repose within its borders of which you become im- 

 mediately sensible. A roSicking blade the visitor may be 

 in London, but at Tavistock it will be useless to struggle 

 against the subduing influences around him. On entering 

 the hotel I was on the point of doffing my hat, fancying I 

 was on the threshold of a church. The markets had all the 

 quietness of the cloister ; the public buildings struck me as 

 decidedly smacking of the cathedral style ; and the police 

 went their rounds 'with a verger-like tread. The town, cele- 

 brated in the fifteenth century for its mitred abbey, would 

 seem to have cherished to the present day its ecclesiastical 

 associations. Some remnants of the time-worn stone-work 

 of the abbey are there, in keeping with the spirit of serenity 

 which still lingers in the highways and byeways. Notwith- 

 standing its demureness of countenance, Tavistock is a 

 bright, comfortable, and right pleasant spot in which to pitch 

 one's tent ; furthermore, it is a central spot from which the 

 angler may sally in many directions on trouting cares intent. 



It is seven miles into the heart of Dartmoor, and, as you 

 will speedily discover, seven miles pat against the collar. 

 He who is able lo ride and drive safely and boldly over 

 Dartmoor is fit to take a horse anywhere. It is a typical 

 drive from Tavistock to Princetown, for it affords fair 

 examples of many peculiarities of the moor. Steadily 

 ascending from the lowlands, the atmosphere, like the 

 scenery, gradually changes. For the first mile or so out of 



