Original - The MAN & Other Families

8 The Ancient Stone Crosseswhich is lent by the pale stars, that form will forcibly remindus of the power which the religion of the cross has exercisedover the darkness of our land, and which it has so happilydispelled.The hands that fashioned these time-worn relicshave longsince mouldered in the tomb ;and they themselves are ofttimesoverturned and shattered, deeply impressing us as wecontemplate their ruin, with the certainty that all the works ofman will fall and crumble away before the touch of Time.And in many of the rural settlements around the greatuplands, and on the roads that lead to them, we shall alsomeet with the objects which it is now our purpose to examine.Some of these will, of course, differ in character from thosethat exist upon the moor itself for here the market-cross and;the churchyard-cross will claim a share of our attention, whileon the waste they were set up either to mark a boundary, or asguides to the wayfarer. And the difference is not only in theircharacter, for although the crosses of the moorland bordersdisplay little elaboration in their fashioning, yet there arefew of quite so rude a type as the examples seen on themoor itself. We shall not be disappointed, however, in ourexamination of them, though we do find them lack ornamentation,for there is much in them and their associationsto interest and attract, while the scenery amid which weshall roam as we visit in turn these venerable memorials,will not fail to call forth our admiration, and constitute anadditional delight.In our ramble we shall seldom stray far from the old moor,and it will not need that we look towards its hills to tell us of itsproximity, for nearly every step we take will remind us of this.The old-fashioned farm-house with its wide porch and parviseroom, and mullioned windows, and the lowly thatched cottage,alike of granite and;boulders partly covered with moss, andhalf-hidden by ferns, by the sides of many of the narrowlanes, will all plainly reveal that we are near the land of tors,and will cause us to realise when we sometimes wander byenclosed fields, and by the dwellings of men, that we are yetin the Dartmoor country.