MEDITATIONS ON DARTMOOR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13729, 20 October 1908, Page 7

MEDITATIONS ON DARTMOOR.

liy H. B. Marriott Watson.

Pour »ome 6alt water over the floor. L'gly, I'm sure, you'll allow it to be. Say it extends for a mile or more. Well, thut'x comething like the sea. I iiuote from a faded memory, but 1 know Lewis Carroll's facetious- depreciation run, somehow thus. And, ab on all 011 a> out when the human mind is con fronted -sharply with mete —els, *.ripped of a>l .»< iiliuieiit and association, one won-fte-h air ami the panorama of ships, it is di n.iueitiugly like the definition. 1 Here is nothing but salt water in the wu. An authority oti Dartmoor has provoked : n n*c ihi* line of thought. One does not expeit guide book* to depieciate; it is .-omchim not liirir oftii-e. Vet 1 i-ead. silting upou .Xieliti.ti full bv "t'haggvlo»d"; l{-gard<-d a> a mountain dittrict. Dartmo 1 isoorn r .if the dill 1.-st and dreariest up lan.is ut any extent in liieal br lain . . . tlie iiuiutcSMence of unlovely dreariness. Here k> the old pcoblem. The resolution of emotions into elemental lactt is perplexing. It is impossible to deny that Dartmoor is on unvarying wilderness o: inert; blankness; and yet—it there iiny one who has made proper acquaintance with :t who would describe it iu tlie.se terms of the guide-book. Tbe difficulty is one of analysis ; and it k> well to remember that in no elemental" judgments can complex man be trusted. You see, phenomena are not left to us as tlod created them ; they have taken up »o much on the way. Kvery generation adds its accretions, as every geological era its changes. Dot* Daitmoor Mann in tbe eye with the same investiture as. t>»y, one thousand yeait, ago! I; ij, ,m p.rf.ible that it should, a s the wilderness has enjoyed a thousand years of orgiinic life since. We come back to fiiot principles. Is mere size grand and imposing Is the tea imposing because it a> that pouted'out water coutinued iudelinitely? Is a great city impressive of the imagination because it is vast? L'ndoubtetily there must be more in it than thai. Is* it possible, for example, to claim that the unending and unvarying praire is ""grand"? Xo; mere size is not excellence. There must be some spiritual nigniticaticr to stamp a phenomena before it can be claim ed ar. sublime. I have known an aggregate- of hilir". for instance, equally liai r«ti and wild, and of a much higher elevation than the forest, and y.-t they left me untouched. There must !*-. I repeal, an inner t guiticams-. IX A DARTMOOR MIST. Primarily one may >eek explan.it inns in the artistic t-on:ouis. The outline" i,f the gr.im'e hills are u,ually lin<-. and 111 nature un raise moie myitterious rino tiotis than line lines. Dartmoor is 110 pUc- of heather, but rather of uastc gntrs. Its ijrey gieemiets :liu» • inpha si»t tlie ettltial smiMtlhlietn Its otitl nes are w<!l atld flowilijj. alino-.: as tti>« as 1 halk downs: and it hat uli.it the uild imagination leapt to as pabwilithii 'umiriitt. In reality these tint aie in.-!.-out cropping* of the xranitr. under the niHu.nr,- ( ,f the lro«t .md '•lf run But they assume f.mtiisti. sl«.p.-* 1.11 th- hei-hts; they ar.in tli- mi« : «: rulilv r .a-tle-.. .-.tihedralt. an:rna!. «( prey. an.l I he Lillrl- in J i>se» strmisr mi.tlnli. llpi'tl theUi 1 knovi nothing iiH-:-- fii> tli.ni

s—^^w^^^^^ to pass these granitic phantoms dissolv ing in and out of the loneliness of a Dart moor miK. The sweep of the valleys, ih< reach of the plains, is somehow justly pro portioned with those rolling barriers. M; guiiie-book sneeis at- the hog's back o Cawsand Beacon, but to my eye it is ; magnificent curve, meet- satisfying to thi critical taste. Xo; there can be no d's pute as to the contours of the Forest: a: to the value of those heights—Yes Tor, High Willhays, Amicombe, Links 'lor Hauiildon, Believer, and the rest. But. after all, these signify little in comparison with the mental affects imposed by the atmosphere of the Moor. Dartmoor is a composite thing, built up of these tore and of smooth hiils, of dim circumferent and distant masses with all the arrogance of Alps, of uncanny marshe*, of bogs, of half-wild cattle, of large spaces, of the primitive work of cavemen, of dead and gone 6uper»tiiionK, ol mysterious hnt circles and stones dedicated to unknown sacrifices on unknown altars, or desolate mines, of the traditions and antiquity of thousands of years. The secret is out. It is association that invests these places for the visitor. The proportions of Westminster Abbey will always enjoy* the admiration of the artist, .but it is the atmosphere that affects the ordinary tourist, Dartmoor has thousands of years of tradition, and nearly two thousand years of history. Its austerity throws into relief the amazing beauty of its outlying combes. I do not know to which of these to give the palm, but must suppose that must'votes' in a popular competition would go to the upper reaclus of the Dart, upon the south of the great upland. The watenV""of Devon being mainly derived from Dartmoor, a score of rivers take their rise in its wilderness. And it is in the. ravines of these, :* they cleave their way downwards to the jh-a. that the characteristic beauty of the Devon valleys lies. The three ■'• m<*>t norah'e are the Dart Vallev. the-'feign, and the Lyd. To me it has ever been better to live near the rose: and rather than dwell in the confines of the Forest, I should prefer to look up at its battlements from the offing. I can lift up mine eyes unto the hills from the border villages with delight. These are the true lieirs nnd legatees of Dartmoor. Its desolation exists that they may prosper and grow b-autiful. They are scattered on the outskirts, north, south, erst, and west.