3G 
2 DARTMOOR SCENERY. 
intersected by rivers, hilly, rich in pasturage, and 
highly fruitful ; the third, bold, but sometimes, soft 
and gentle, and at others, grand and terrible ; 
generally precipitous and barren. In consequence 
of considerable irregularity in the shape of the 
county, and a partial participation by each of these 
divisions in the qualities of the others, their limits 
are far from being accurately defined, and in this 
way the threefold aspect of the Shire may be en- 
joyed by an observer, within a range by no means 
considerable. By such a combination of scenic 
beauties,—the mountainous, the sober, the tranquil, 
the bold, and the maritime,—does Devon outvie 
Scotland, and even the more interesting and de- 
lightful of the midland English counties ; and 
whether therefore the lover of Nature gives prefer- 
ence to the one sort or the other, or whether he 
delight in a conjunction of scenic qualities, he here 
finds the feast on which his mind may continually 
be regaled. 
The feeling of enjoyment derived from scenery 
is of course relative—it has relation to previous 
experience, and to prior considerations—it depends 
on comparison, on associations, on the production 
of ideas congenial to the individual mind. Dart- 
moor indeed, the first portion of our district, to be 
here glanced on “ with a bird’s eye,”—has in years 
long since numbered, had its inhabitants who felt 
local attachment, loved the soil that maintained 
them, looked with satisfaction on its mighty hills, 
its forests, and its fastnessess, and gloried in its 
remoteness from softer scenes ; but then these 
originals of the soil of Dartmoor were prompted in 
such sentiments, either by religious superstitions, 
the materials of which were presented to them in 
the majestic and fantastic “ tors ;” by the friendly 
protection from bitter enemies afforded by these 
wilds ; or lastly, in a third case of which history 
