Original - The MAN & Other Families

26 The Ancient Stone Crossesfor a short distance, and crossing the head of a little brook,we shall find it has become a smooth green path of considerablewidth. By following this grassy road, which runs nearlydue east and west, and which we shall be well able to do,even after it loses its present character and is covered withheather, for it is marked throughout the whole of its courseby small heaps of stones placed at short distances apart, weshall reach the moor gate at Harford. This path forms themost direct route to that place from O\\ley or from Brent.We shall find the object of which we are in quest abouta mile from the gate by which we have entered on themoor. It is the top of the shaft, and one of the armsof a very curious old cross, and it is much to be lamentedthat it has been so mutilated. It is known as Spurrell'sCross (though the moormen sometimes call itPurl's) and issituated by the side of the path we have been following, closeto the point where it is intersected by an old road, whichthough now exhibiting the marks of wheels and showing usthat it is sometimes used as a way for bringing in peat, isvery probably an ancient track, and can be traced a considerabledistance. It passes between Sharp Tor and ThreeBarrows, and goes direct to Left Lake Ford, and from thenceto one of the boundary stones of Ugborough and HarfordMoors. From this point it becomes a narrow path, but canbe followed as far as Hook Lake, a stream that runs down thehollow called Stony Bottom and falls into the Erme. ErmePound is at no great distance from that hollow, and a little tothe north of it the Abbots' Way crosses Red Lake. South ofthe cross this track may be traced to the enclosed lands belowthe Eastern Beacon.The shaft of Spurrell's Cross is missing, and the mutilatedhead issimply fixed up on a few loose stones. There is little-doubt, however, that,being found at the intersection of paths,it is now on iis original site, or within a short distance of it.But besides marking the track from Owley and the onewhich crosses it, it also served to indicate the direction ofanother. This latter ran from Buckfast to Plympton, andnot far from where the cross is seen. Ijoins the Owley pathhave traced it for several miles along the verge of the moor.It crossed the Erme at Harford and went through Cornwood,and thence to Plympton by way of Sparkwell.