Original - The MAN & Other Families

PREFACE.IN mycountry,former notices of the Stone Crosses of the Dartmoorthose existing- on the moor, and those to be foundin the cultivated portions of the border parishes,with in separate books. In the following pageswere dealtthese twoare combined, and much new matter, rendered necessary bythe altered state of some of the objects described, has beenadded. This has required some re-casting, and renders thepresent in great measure a new book.Some of the remarks prefixed to my earlier description ofthe Old Crosses of the Moorlands I venture to repeat here.I stated that my explorationson Dartmoor had extendedover many years, and had enabled me to gather much ofinterest pertaining to its history, its customs, and its objects ofantiquity. My researches in that regionof tor and streamI have never tired of pursuing, a love for its dear old hills,extending back as far as memory will carry me, attractingme to its wild solitudes, where, by the side of the stonecircle and the moss-covered cairn, we seem to stand on theborderland between the present and the distant past.How much of poetryis there in the memorials of apeople who lived on these hills, and who saw the moor aswe see it now ages ago. There is truly a rich reward offeredto the student of our antiquities, which is denied to thosewho look with indifference upon the remains of a bygoneday. The light shed by the grey stones of the Celt, enablesus to read something of the past, and as we advance to