SIWARD'S CROSS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 83, 14 May 1914, Page 10

SIWARD'S CROSS.

A MARCH DAY ON DARTMOOR.

There are two orders of ancient human monuments on Dartmoor (says Mr Eden Phillpotts), the prehistoric evidences of man's earliest occupation and the mediaeval remains that date from Tudor tiings, or sfir)ier. The Neolith has left his cairns and piiunds and hut circles, where once his lodges clustered upon the hills—encampments that some antiquaries - have . suspected were only occupied by the Stone Men in summer, when the;f climfced hither from the lowlands to pasture their .flocks, as we do to this day. The other memorials are of a differient* character, and chiefly mark the-time of the Stannators, "When "■ alluvial tin abounded and the Mqprsupported a larger population of miners than it can the farmers of the present. Ruins of the smelting houses and. the piled debris of\old tin-streaming "works may be seen; on every hand, and the moulds into which molten tin- was poured still lie in hollows and half hidden by the herbage. Here also, scattered irregularly, the Cliristi an symbol occurs, on wild heaths and lonely-, hillsides, to' mark some, sacred place, indicate an ancient path, or guide' the wayfaring ..monk and friar of old on their bleak journev bv the Abbot'a Way. * " Of these the most nptable is that venerable fragment known as. Siward'a Cross-fra, of pilgrimage to me these many ycartj'i : L , 1 THE GREiT VEIL. N Now, on "this- day of March, clouds swept the -desert intermittently'. with' their grey veils and often blotted". £ every landmark. At such thnes one sought the little hillocks thVowri Up by vanished men and somfe hdllow r of the tin-streamers' digging to eficape the pelt of the hard snow and avoid the buffet of the- squall that it. Then the sun broke up the welter of hurrying grey, arid for a time the wind lulled and.'the brief white shroud' of the* snow melted,; save-where r it had banked against some obstacle.'. The lonely ■ hillock where stands Siward's Cross, or. the ' 'Nun's Cross," as 'Moormen call ' it,' lies at 'a point a f little above the; western end of" Fox . Tor Mire. The land slopes gently ~to ifc r and.from it; the great hills roll round about. To the east, a far distance opens very blue after the: 'last ■ snow has fallen; to the South tower the featureless ridges of Cator'sf- Beam, witiir -the twin turrets of Tox-Tor on their -proper mount beneath them, r The beginnings of the famous mire are at--han'd-pra region of shattered "peat hags ; and "; morasses—where, "torn to pieces,", the ■■ black earth gapes in ruins and « thou- > and" watercourses riddle it.. All is dark and sere at' this seasonj <for r ' grasses make the peat blacker by con- ... trast. - It is a cliaos' of' rent and ri.ven' earth ploughed and-tunnelled .by--bogs-' and waterways;- while, beyond r ? this ■ savage wilderness the places of the hills - wind round in a semi-circle and,hem the cratlle of the great marshes below; with ,; firm, land and»good J. * strolls' f or-cattle, - when spring shall send them ; in-their thousands to the grazing lands of the • Moor again. - , ' • \ ' A RELIC-OF, CENTURIES.' • ■ The sky. shone blue- by:-the, ftime lv reached the old-cross and weaksun- ■ light- brightened its familiar face.' The .relic .-stands,,seven ..feet, Jiighi.vandi'now it Held a vanishing patch' of 'snow" on*' each stumpy arrii. - .weathered front 1 had made a Jhome for flat and clinging - lichens, grey as the granite*for the;most part, yet»warmi'ng~to Vpale'.-gpld- some- - times. \ Once the; cross j was - broken . and , v thr'own in two pieces'on the heath; but , the wall-builders 'spared- it, for: tlie* " monument",had long been famous".' 'An- ' tiquarian interest existed for' the old* relic, and it was' mended with clamps .? of iron,' and lifted upon a lowdying. boulder to occupy again its ancient site. For many a.year experts "puzzled to •learn the meaning of the'inscriptions-• upon its face, various conjectures concerning them had their, day;, but it 5 was left forour first;. Dartmoor authority, William Crossing, who. lias said the last word on these remains} - to. decipher the » worn inscription-and indicate its significance. He finds, the word '' Siward," or " Syward;'' on the eastern side, andvthe woird "Boc-land'/' for ' Buckland,on the other, set in two lines under the incised cross that distinguishes the western face of the monument. [ " Siward V Cross " is mentioned in the Perambulation *of 1240.. "It -is named," says Mr'Crossing> "ina'deed, . of Amicia, Countess,, of Beyond confirm- ; ing the. grant of certain lands for, building and supporting the Abbey.of>Buck- :;■ am»ng which were of? Buckland, Bickleigh, and Walkhampton.>The latter, manor abuts on Dartmoor Forest, and 'the, boundary line," 'which Siward's • Cross, marks ; at. one •of ■ \ the ' points, is'draw« from ;Mistor to bhe Plym. The cross/therefore/in .Ifdtditionto being considered a forest boundarymark, also became one to the lands Buckland Abbey, and I. that the letters on it-which so variously ; interpreted simply -.repre l sent the.-word 'Boc-land. l ' The iiaine, as already stated, is • engraved' -orf' the * western f ace <of ,the cross—the side on which the monks' possessions lay." THE ABBOT 'S WAY. Elsewhere-lie Observes that Siward's Cross," standing; as it does on tlie line of the Abbotseem not - improbably to have been set up by the • monks of Tavistock as a mark to point out the direction of the track across the Moor ; and were it not for . the fact that it has been supposed to have obtained its name from Siward, Earl of Northumberland, who, it is said, held property-near this part of the Moor in " the Confessor's reign, I should -have ho hesitation in believing siich to be the case.'' .' -. •' '' . "•■■'i.. 1

•No.; matter . who' first . lifted ity - still it'..stand® —the largest cross '.'on/ Dartmoor— like a-grey sentinel to guard the path over that wild region that extended between the religious houses of Plyinpton, Buckland, and Tavistock. And other; crosses there are beyond the Mire, where an old road descended over Tor Hill.; But the Abbot's .Way is tramped no more, "and the princes of the Church, with their men-at-arms and their mules and pack-horses,.,. have passed into forgotten time. but the holiday-makers wandojr .to Si ward's. Cross; or the f ox-hiinter gallops past it/ or the folk, when they tramp to the. neighbouring heights for purple, harvest.of the ''hurts jner time. - The : stone that 1 won>.. the blessings of pious men only comforts a heifer to-day j. she rubs her side .against it, and leaves a strand of her red hair eaught in the lichens. . The snow began to fall more;sheavily and the wind increased. Therefore X I turned north ,-.and w vieft; .thjiti local sanctity -from olden time, , well j pleased to have„-seen it once again in stern theatre of winter. It soon shrank to a grey smifdge on the .waste; then snow wreaths whirled .their, arms . about it, and the emblem vanished. .