THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
37 
times were its boundaries defined. 1 The fact that the Saxons called 
the north of the county the North Hams (ham = dwelling), and the 
south the South Hams, is a proof of the unpeopled character of 
Dartmoor in the Saxon period j and it is at least possible, nay, 
very probable, that the majority of the British settlements on Dart- 
moor were formed by the Kelts as they were pushed backward by 
the encroachments of the Saxon colonists, who were very unworthy 
ancestors of the modern Englishman, if they did not settle upon 
the best lands available. 
The question will probably be asked : "If in those early days all 
Devon was peopled much in the same manner as Dartmoor, where 
beyond Dartmoor are such traces of ancient races to be found 1 ? 
where outside the moorland region are the hut rings, the stone 
circles, the menhirs, the pounds, which are the chief characteristics 
of the antiquities of that great upland 1 " 
The answer is twofold. First — we cannot expect to find many rude 
stone monuments in places which do not yield the stone for their 
construction. Whether in savage or in civilized times the 
architecture of a people or locality is largely influenced by the 
materials at its command. Second — when we have allowed for 
local conditions, and for the destructive effects of enclosure and 
cultivation, the traces of early habitation are as abundant off 
Dartmoor as upon it. 2 
This may seem a bold assertion ; but we have been too much in 
the habit of regarding byegones as exceptional and peculiar. We 
rarely allow enough for the constants of simple humanity in its 
1 Mr. Davidson in a paper on " Some Anglo-Saxon Boundaries, now in the 
Albert Museum, Exeter," temp. Eadweard Confessor — "Peading tunes land 
boundary of the Ashburn outfall" — has shown that lands which are now 
within the limits of Dartmoor Forest, were then included within these private 
"metes and bounds," which seems to me a very strong argument that the 
" forest," in the sense of the later Perambulations, did not then exist. Mr. 
Davidson suggests Wangfield (wang = " field," Saxon) as the original of Ven- 
ville, in which case the Venville tenures would represent the rights of common 
which the Saxon landowners of the border district had enjoyed over the moor- 
land waste, and had somehow contrived to maintain against the Crown under 
the Norman monarchs. This highly ingenious speculation is probably correct. 
We thus see how very modern a thing in a distinctive sense Dartmoor really 
is. — Vide Tram. Dev. Assoc. vol. viii. p. 396. 
2 Allowance must also be made for the many modern towns and villages 
which continue ancient settlements. 
VOL. VIII. C 
