MOOELAND AND BORDER CHURCHES IN DEVON. 
399 
country. There is, however, no frittering away of pretentious and 
unsuitable ornament, but a consistency throughout. The nearer to 
the actual Moor, the simpler in form and construction the church. 
The Moorland builders, however, catching the honest spirit of the 
more learned craftsmen of their age, and in the full belief and 
assurance that "the gods see everywhere," never put up a hand- 
some west front and a beggarly return, and yet did not begrudge 
the sacrifice which ornament sometimes means, and bestowed a 
great deal of taste and skill on the woodwork in the sheltered 
little interiors, and especially on the rood lofts and screens, which 
were the glory of their churches. There was not much originality 
about their work ; perhaps there was pretty much sameness about 
it; but it was good and honest, and interesting because it had a 
meaning. These works of their hands (whatever they may have 
been worth) were, like their prayers, offerings of "intention." 
It has been supposed that in some Devonshire parishes the art 
of wood-carving was hereditary in many families, and was followed 
by them for several generations. 
As you are well aware, Devon cannot compete with the neigh- 
bouring county of Somersetshire in the magnificence of its churches. 
"We have no parish church comparable for loftiness and elegance 
with Redcliffe Church at Bristol, and no tower so lofty and elabo- 
rate as that of St. Mary at Taunton. This arises partly, no doubt, 
from the circumstance that in Somersetshire they have the advan- 
tage, which we do not possess, of quarries of freestone, such as 
Bath stone and Ham Hill stone (especially the latter), "which, 
though not so durable as our granite and limestone, are much 
more easily worked, and are much finer and richer in colour than 
the materials available for building in the southern part of Devon 
at any rate. Then the situations of the churches in the Damnonian 
peninsula are much more exposed than those of the more inland 
and sheltered churches. This will account probably for nearly all 
the churches in South Devon and Cornwall being very low, some 
of them with two or three steps down to the floor, and hardly one 
of them having the nave roof rising above a clerestory. 
I suppose one of the most popular abodes of the primitive races 
was an underground residence. Burrowing was then the fashion. 
Livingstone is supposed to be exploring dwellings of this kind at 
the present time, and we shall all be anxious to hear from him 
something about them. But as the inconvenience connected with 
