ON THE TRACK OF THE " OLD MEN." 
229 
Although there is nothing so far down the valley of the Meavy 
indicative of early smelting operations, there are unmistakeable 
signs just above Leather Tor 9 Bridge, at a place marked Rithy Pit 
on the Ordnance Map, or, as it is pronounced and named in the 
map attached to Rowe's Perambulation of Dartmoor, Reddipit or 
Riddipit. Here are the ruins of two dwelling-houses, which were 
inhabited not many years since. By following the track a few 
yards further up the river bank from these ruins, some flat granite 
boulders forming the bottom of the rough roadway will be noticed. 
On examination these will be found to have on their surfaces 
curious oval and circular-shaped cavities, previously found and 
described at Week Ford, Gobbett, and Har Tor. What appears 
to have been the back of a house is still standing close by. There 
is a recess formed by the modern hedge builders, who apparently 
constructed the boundary with the view of including this back 
wall, thus saving labour but using space, for they doubtless would 
have carried it in a straight line if the temptation of a standing 
wall had not diverted their course. The material of this ruin was 
doubtless a fine deposit from which the houses lower down were 
partially constructed, and what was left the hedge builders would 
gladly avail themselves of. There is evidence of the former in 
the shape of a small stone with a circular cavity in it, in the 
westernmost ruin ; and also of the latter, for close to the site of 
the ancient remains is a curious stone, with a circular cavity on 
each side. It is built into the hedge, and is similar to that 
described by Mr. Amery at Gobbett (since disappeared), and 
likened by that gentleman to the top of a headsman's block. The 
stone in the hedge at Riddipit is nineteen inches long. The lower 
cavity is nine inches in diameter and three deep, whilst the upper 
is six inches in diameter and two deep. 
On one boulder in the roadway are four cavities, six to eight 
inches in diameter and four to six inches deep. They are in pairs 
side by side, each pair forming a shape similar to the figure 8. 
Two other boulders have a single circular cavity on each. 
These are not the only remains indicating ancient workings, for 
close by is a dome-shaped stone with a flat and perfectly smooth 
base, nineteen inches by fourteen. The stone is eighteen inches 
high, and the rounded top has two triangular holes about an inch 
deep and some two inches apart, with a hole between which 
9 Anciently " Ledder " Tor. 
