A Book of Dartmoor: Historical Novel

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Baring-Gould Sabine. A Book of Dartmoor: Historical Novel

A Book of Dartmoor: Historical Novel

Table of Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. BOGS

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER II. TORS

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER III. THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER IV. THE ANTIQUITIES

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER V. THE FREAKS

CHAPTER VI. DEAD MEN'S DUST

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER VII. THE CAMPS

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER VIII. TIN-STREAMING

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER IX. LYDFORD

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER X. BELSTONE

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XI. CHAGFORD

CHAPTER XII. MANATON

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XIII. HOLNE

CHAPTER XIV. IVYBRIDGE

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XV. YELVERTON

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVI. POST BRIDGE

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVII. PRINCETOWN

FOOTNOTES:

Отрывок из книги

Sabine Baring-Gould

Tales from British Moors

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The Dartmoor bogs may be explored for rare plants and mosses. The buckbean will be found and recognised by its three succulent sea-green leaflets, and by its delicately beautiful white flower tinged with pink, in June and July. I found it in 1861 in abundance in Iceland, where it is called Alptar colavr, the swan's clapper. About Hamburg it is known as the "flower of liberty," and grows only within the domains of the old Hanseatic Republic. In Iceland it serves a double purpose. Its thickly interwoven roots are cut and employed in square pieces like turf or felt as a protection for the backs of horses that are laden with packs. Moreover, in crossing a bog, the clever native ponies always know that they can tread safely where they see the white flower stand aloft.

The golden asphodel is common, and remarkably lovely, with its shades of yellow from the deep-tinted buds to the paler expanded flower. The sundew is everywhere that water lodges; the sweet gale has foliage of a pale yellowish green sprinkled over with dots, which are resinous glands. The berries also are sprinkled with the same glands. The plant has a powerful, but fresh and pleasant, odour, which insects dislike. Country people were wont to use sprigs of it, like lavender, to put with their linen, and to hang boughs above their beds. The catkins yield a quantity of wax. The sweet gale was formerly much more abundant, and was largely employed; it went by the name of the Devonshire myrtle. When boiled, the wax rises to the surface of the water. Tapers were made of it, and were so fragrant while burning, that they were employed in sick-rooms. In Prussia, at one time, they were constantly furnished for the royal household.

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