Chapter XXX · THE FOREST OF DARTMOOR

Whilst far too little has hitherto been printed about many of England’s forests, the reverse is true with regard to Dartmoor. The mere list of books and publications relating to Dartmoor, its history, scenery, antiquities, and convicts, covers twelve pages of the last edition of Rowe’s Perambulation. Much of this is, however, of an ephemeral character, and the only two books that give serious information as to the history of the forest or chase are J. S. W. Page’s Exploration of Dartmoor (1889), and the one just named. The Perambulation of Dartmoor, by Samuel Rowe, vicar of Crediton, a good antiquary of his day, was first published in 1848; it was reprinted in 1856, and in 1896 brought out again in a much extended and corrected form by J. Brooking Rowe, F.S.A. This last admirable volume gives in extenso a variety of historical documents from a charter of John in 1199 down to an interesting presentment of the jurors of a court of survey in 1786. Nevertheless, a continuous history of this forest or chase yet remains to be written.

In the following brief remarks a mere bare outline of the general run of such a history is all that is attempted; whilst the additional documentary evidence cited has, to the best of our belief, never before been printed.

The whole forest of Dartmoor lies within the old parish of Lydford, by far the largest parish in all England. The wild table-land of the forest in the centre of the shire, with its adjacent common lands, hardly distinguishable from the forest proper, covers some 100,000 acres, whilst the actual forest has, in round numbers, an acreage of 60,000. The district is about twenty-eight miles long from north to south, and about twenty-six miles wide from east to west. The nature of this granite table-land makes it certain that Dartmoor was never covered to any considerable extent with timber, although there was doubtless more underwood in places, diversified by occasional growth of oak, alder, and willow in the more sheltered glades.

By a charter of John, 18th May, 1204, all lands in Devonshire, save the forests of Dartmoor and Exmoor, were disafforested, thus anticipating the great charter of 1215, so far as this county was concerned.

In 1222 Henry III. directed the bailiffs of the once important borough of Lydford to permit the tinners of Devon to take peat from his moor of Dartmoor for the use of the stannary.

Henry III., in 1228, granted to Adam Esturney certain lands, which Roger Mirabel had held of the king in chief, in Skerradon and Shapelegh, by the service of two barbed arrows when the king came to hunt in his chase of Dartmoor. The manor of Woodbury was held in chief of the king by the service of three barbed arrows and an oat cake of the price of half a farthing, when the king should come to Dartmoor for hunting in his chase. The ancient tenure of the manor of Druscombe also shows that royal hunting over this waste, then so well stocked with deer, was anticipated, for the lord had to present a bow and three arrows to the king when hunting on the moor.

In 1236, the king granted the tithe of the herbage or agistment of Dartmoor to the chaplain serving the church of St. Petrock at Lydford.

In 1240, the sheriff was directed to summon a jury to determine, by perambulation, the bounds of Dartmoor Forest. Of this perambulation there are several early copies. An ancient quaint map of the forest, of which a photograph is given by Mr. Brooking Rowe, is extant that has generally been supposed to be coeval with this perambulation, but it is probably two centuries later in date.

An entry on the Close Rolls, dated 23rd January, 1251, shows that the very rare privilege of having a justice in eyre for forest pleas, for a forest that was not strictly royal, was granted to Richard Earl of Cornwall, to whom the castle, manor, borough of Lydford and the forest of Dartmoor had been granted.

Geoffrey of Langley, justice of the forest, was at that date ordered by the king, as a concession to the Earl of Cornwall, when he had finished the eyre then being held in the county of Nottingham, to proceed to Dartmoor for a like purpose.

Mr. Brooking Rowe prints a rendering of the ministers’ accounts of Edmund Earl of Cornwall relative to Dartmoor for the years 1296-7. The items are arranged under the heads of the borough and manor Lydford, including the fee-farm rent, and profits arising from water-mill, fairs, toll-tin, and stray cattle; and the forest, including profits from water-mill, from township fines for pasturing cattle, from peat-diggers, from the agistment of 2,442 cattle at 1½d. a head, from 487 horses at 2d. each horse, and from pannage, etc. There were various court fines chiefly for straying cattle, but two for trespass during the fence month show that some care was taken of the red deer. Under the head of allowances, 60s. is entered as paid to the parson of Lydford, and 42s. for the stipends and drink money (poutura) of the foresters, with 22s. for their expenses in the fence month, and stipends and drink money for twelve herdsmen from 3rd May to 15th August, 76s. 6d. There was a clear balance on the whole account for the Earl of Cornwall of £44 2s.

That the deer were well warded, in addition to the cattle, is shown by the supplies of salted venison that were sent to Edward I. and Edward II. from this forest.

From the reign of Edward III. to that of James I. there are various ministers’ accounts and court rolls among the duchy muniments at the Public Record Office. The forest was divided into four quarters or wards, known from the points of the compass as East, West, North, and South, and the accounts of each were kept separately. The accounts of Robert de Cleford, the keeper and receiver of the moneys for turves, agistments, etc., for the years 1354-5, show the following particulars for the first three wards, that for the South being mutilated:—

East.—2,641 cattle and 198 horses agisted, and five peat-cutters licensed—producing £34 7s. 5d.

West.—1,408 cattle and thirty-seven horses agisted, and twenty-two folds and twelve peat-cutters licensed—producing £10 2s. 9½d.

North.—298 cattle, 163 horses, fourteen folds, and thirty-one peat-cutters—producing £5 1s. 6½d.

The charge right through these accounts for a long period was 1½d. a head for cattle and 2d. a head for horses, 2d. for each fold, and 5d. from each peat-digger. Those who dug peat for fuel are termed carbonarii, which has been absurdly translated colliers, and mention of early coal-getting on Dartmoor has been more than once printed. But the geological formation makes such an idea impossible.

Ralph Houle was the receiver in 1370-1, and his accounts for two wards yield the following particulars.

East Ward.—2,762 cattle agisted within the forest, and 1,762 without the forest; five horses agisted within the forest, and twenty-nine without. This agistment, in addition to the payments of thirteen peat-cutters, 58s. 10d. in rents, gave a total of £29 15s. 11d.

West Ward.—952 cattle and twelve horses agisted, whilst thirty-eight men paid for folds and thirteen to cut peat. This, with 11s. 11d. rents, made a total of £9 9s. 10½d. Among the outgoings were the 60s. of tithe, which appears in every account, 6s. 8d. to the clerk who drew up the returns, and the stipends of two foresters.

The court rolls of 1381-2 have the heading de venatione infra forestam several times, but no entry follows.

The accounts for 1387-8 give John Copleston as the king’s steward in Devonshire. John Prik was the forester-bailiff of the West forest; the money wages for two foresters was only 13s. 4d., but they each received an additional 6d. a week during the four weeks of the deer-calving time, or fence month. For the North forest, Robert Colleshull was forester-bailiff, and Ralph Brante for the East forest; in both cases the wages were the same as in the West ward. Much of this roll is illegible.

The ministers’ accounts for 1403-4 give Henry Burgeye as receiver, and he accounts for the borough of Lydford. William Wykes was forester for North Dartmoor; 1,307 cattle, ninety-one horses, forty-two peat-cutters, and twenty-four folds. Aver Wonstan was forester for East Dartmoor; 1,693 cattle, 133 horses, twenty-one peat-cutters, and twelve folds. William Ysabel was forester for South Dartmoor; 1,600 cattle, forty-nine horses, sixteen peat-cutters, and twelve folds. William Kelly was forester for West Dartmoor; 1,780 cattle, ninety-seven horses, sixteen peat-cutters, and twelve folds.

A bundle of court rolls of the beginning of Henry V.’s reign, 1399-1405, contain many interesting forest details. At a court for East Dartmoor held at Lydford on St. Luke’s Day, there were various fines for unwarranted agistment, and one charge of hunting with greyhounds at Myrepitte on Christmas Day. Though not so styled, there were evidently the regular swainmote courts held in forests every forty days, for courts were also held, for the year 1399-1400, in February, on the Feast of St. David, at Easter, Sts. Philip and James, Whitsuntide, St. John Baptist, St. Mark, and the Assumption—nine in all.

There were also eight courts held for West Dartmoor, on days quite apart from those for the east ward, including St. Clement’s, Christmas, St. Valentine’s, and St. Gregory’s Days. There is a full list for 1399-1400 of those who turned their cattle (averia) out in East Dartmoor. The contrast is considerable between the rich John Abraham—(was he of Jewish descent?)—who turned out 300 head, and Walter atte Heade who had only a single beast. The total of the cattle is 1,970, and the agistment money came to £19 6s. 3d.

The ministers’ accounts for 1403-4 show a still large number of agisted cattle on East Dartmoor, namely, 3,159, in addition to twenty-nine horses; the peat-cutters numbered thirty. Richard Wyte was the bailiff-forester. The wages for two foresters stand as in earlier accounts, and there is also 10s. paid for a warden of the cattle collected at the pound of Dunbryge, and for a clerk writing out the list and aiding in impounding them. In Rowe’s Perambulation there are several references to Dunbridge, or Dunnabridge, pound, usually called the duchy pound, of a much later date. The sum of 3s. 4d. was paid this year for parchment on which to write the East Dartmoor agistment lists. The bailiff-forester for West Dartmoor for that year was Alfred Wonstan; he returned 1,430 cattle, thirty-two horses, and twenty-one peat-cutters, but no fold money (faldagium); for this ward there were also two paid foresters with an assistant herdsman for the Dunbridge pound. South Dartmoor (John Grendon) had 2,012 cattle, thirty-six horses, and seventeen peat-cutters; whilst North Dartmoor (John Wyke) had 1,401 cattle, eighty-nine horses, and thirty-three peat-cutters. These two wards also each paid for two foresters and an assistant for the Dunbridge pound. This great pound, between Two Bridges and Dartmeet, is a large enclosure measuring 350 feet from east to west, and 330 feet from north to south. Rowe describes the wall as nearly 6 feet high where perfect.

The ministers’ accounts for 1451-2 yield the following agistment returns:—

East West South North

Cattle 1,208 1,248 1,696 1,045

Horses 42 21 40 26

This shows a considerable falling off from the returns of half a century earlier date.

The agistment entries more than a century later, in the court rolls for the forest of 1571-2, give the numbers of the cattle on North Dartmoor as 1,224; they belonged to fifty-four owners: Thomas Whyte owned 208, Thomas Ware 150, and Stephen Knight forty-eight, whilst some only owned one beast. Under Nomina delinquent’ infra forest’ are the names of Stephen Knight and thirty others who were each fined 3s. for agistment offences. There were only thirteen horses. Agistment of sheep (bidentes) now appear on the rolls; of these there were twenty-one owners, and their flocks on the moor varied from 300 to 10; the total number of the sheep was 830, and their agistment fees amounted to 25s. 11d. The cattle on South Dartmoor numbered 1,043, and the horses nine; whilst twelve persons turned out 346 sheep for 10s. 7½d. On West Dartmoor the cattle numbered 1,619, and the horses twenty, but there were no sheep. On East Dartmoor there were 2,079 cattle, twenty horses, and 100 sheep. Five persons each turned out a score, and paid the aggregate sum of 3s. 1½d., so the charge for sheep was 7½d. the score. In each ward there were a number of delinquents who paid 3s. fines. The total of the peat-cutters, who still paid 5d. each, on the whole moor was thirty-five.

The court rolls for some twenty years later, namely, for 1595-6, show that the sheep were increasing. There were 843 in the north quarter, 110 in the east, and 246 in the west; the return for the south quarter is missing.

In the reign of James the sheep on the whole materially increased, at the expense of the cattle. The proportions for the north quarter in 1609-10 were 746 cattle, thirteen horses, and 1,560 sheep; but they fluctuated much, for in 1617-19 the cattle of the same quarter numbered 640, the horses seven, and the sheep 600.

The introduction of sheep on Dartmoor probably showed a diminution in the deer, or, at all events, less attention to their interests; for although red deer, where they roam widely, are not nearly so much affected by sheep pasturage as fallow deer, still it was always the principle to restrict sheep very narrowly in royal forests even when tenanted by the larger deer.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the red deer had become so plentiful on Dartmoor that the farmers bitterly complained, and at last they were exterminated by the staghounds of the Duke of Bedford, sent down from Woburn for that purpose. It has been said that “Tavistock was so glutted with venison that only the haunches of the animals killed were saved, the rest being given to the hounds,” but this is obviously a somewhat ridiculous exaggeration. Of late years red deer occasionally find their way to Dartmoor, straying thither from Exmoor, although its nearest point is over forty miles distant.

The return of the jurors of the court of survey of the manor of Lydford and the forest of Dartmoor on 13th October, 1786, as parcel of the possessions of the Duchy of Cornwall, is cited in full by Mr. Rowe. It supplies interesting particulars as to the then obligation of the tenants to assist the foresters of the east, south, and west quarters to make a winter drift for the colts at their own charge, and to drive them to Dunnabridge pound and keep them there for two days and three nights, and thence to the Prince’s pound at Lydford, all at their own charge save the taking from the forester one halfpenny white loaf of bread apiece; also to help in the three summer drifts of cattle between Midsummer and Lammas after like fashion, under pain of 6s. 8d.

A further presentation by the jurors was with regard to divers towns or villages abutting on the forest and within the purlieu, whose cattle did daily escape into the forest. Such offenders were subject to fine, which fine was turned into a rent called Fines Villarum, hence those who dwell in these townships and pay these rents are called Venvillemen. They further presented that Venvillemen, in return for the rent, may keep as many cattle as they can winter on their tenements in the forest, and may cut turf for their own use.

The Venville parishes number twenty-one. When the drifts were made, Venvillemen could recover their cattle or colts without paying any fine or charge, but the other remained pounded till the due fee had been discharged. The drift was summoned by the sound of a horn.

Every parish of the county has a right to send cattle to this moor save Barnstaple and Totnes.

The duchy now lets the four quarters of Dartmoor to the moormen, who in return charge a small fee for every sheep, bullock, or horse turned out not belonging to a Venvilleman, and this fee includes, as it did of old, a pledge of protection.

None of our English forests have so many of their original boundary or ancient guide stones remaining as that of Dartmoor, and the reason is sufficiently obvious, namely, the imperishable character of the granite that abounds throughout the district. Such stones almost naturally assumed the shape of a cross in the days of the simple vivid faith of our forefathers. The old grey cross standing up on the bare moor would not only tell the moormen or the Venvillemen of the bounds of their respective rights, or point out the path to be taken by the wayfarer, but would serve to keep in remembrance the Saviour of mankind. In one of the earliest printed English books, by Wynken de Word, in the fifteenth century, occur these words:—

“For this reason ben Crosses by ye waye, that whan folke passynge see the Crosses, they sholde thynke on Hym that dyed on the Corss, and worshyppe Hym above all thynge.”

Notwithstanding the mischief that has been done to these Dartmoor forest crosses, by wanton ignorance or Puritan malevolence, upwards of thirty still remain. They are admirably described and illustrated by Mr. William Crossing, in his Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor (1887).