INSCRIBED STONES AND ANCIENT CROSSES OF DEVON. 157 
RIPPON TOR CROSS. 
On the northern side of Eippon Tor, on the face of the slope, 
overgrown with heather and wild thyme, there lies embedded in 
the turf an ill-cut cross. On removing the moss and plants that 
are struggling to entomb it, I found it to have been cut in relief 
upon the mass of granite that lies below. 
This cross could not have been intended, as most of the moor- 
land crosses undoubtedly were, to serve as guiding the pathway 
over a desolate region. I therefore believe that it was sculptured 
at a period when the sign of the cross was thought to bring a 
blessing, as a symbol of good that should drive away all evil from 
a spot that had probably been much noted for unhallowed rites. 
I think there can be but little doubt that many of the older 
moorland crosses were placed in accordance with an order from 
Pope Gregory, that the symbol of the Christian religion should be 
engrafted on the records of heathen superstition. 
On Rippon Tor are two or three large cairns, from one of which 
a causeway leads to an overhanging rock. May not this last have 
been the scene of human holocausts, and the causeway the path by 
which the victim was carried to the cairn ? 
Farther down the hill there is a large logan stone. 
