50 
PERi^Y COMBES. 
the French prisoners were confined here ; and 
now it is an establishment where “ penal servi- 
tude” is carried out ; the prisoners being employed 
in the quarries, in collecting peat for fuel, and in 
clearing the ground immediately round the prison 
of the blocks of granite with which it is encum- 
bered. You may see them at work in gangs, with 
guards stationed at intervals with loaded muskets 
ready to fire should any attempt to escape. Several 
however, in spite of all precautions, have got clear 
off, aided in more than one instance by the thick 
fogs that often suddenly envelope the Moor. 
This is a desolate region, barren and rocky, — 
one of the most elevated portions of the great 
middle plateau of Dartmoor ; nothing to he seen 
but bogs and moorland, strewn with blocks of gra- 
nite ; here and there a Tor, breaking the monotonous 
outline. But the air, in spite of the mists which 
often descend on you, is so peculiarly dry and re- 
freshing, that a week at Princetown is a perfect 
luxury after the moist warm atmosphere of most 
parts of Devon, which is charming on the whole, 
but for a continuance very trying to many people. 
During a late sojourn at Princetown, we deter- 
mined to investigate the western side of the Moor. 
Considering that in all probability we should have 
to traverse some bad roads, and wishing to try our 
