Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... an old cross On a long ridge of moor, a thousand feet above the sea, that forms a spur of Dartmoor, running out into the rich umbrageous land below--like certain characters that retain their innate savagery though surrounded by the sweetest culture--stands a very ancient cross--so rude, so shapeless that it probably belongs to a hoar antiquity, unless it were carved in the Middle Ages by a man who was an abject workman. It is of granite. It is covered with a crust of lichen, yellow, white, and black. It is so shapeless that some daring antiquaries have suggested that it was a prehistoric menhir that was hacked into a rude cross to give it consecration from heathen rites. Whatever its origin, it is a curious object; and long may it remain looking down out of its grey lichens on the golf-players who have invaded this tract of down. But a quarry has been opened near it; and year by year those engaged in supplying stone for the roads approach nearer to the venerable cross, and menace its stability. That its existence has been menaced before, these pages will declare. That the menace came to nought is obvious, because it stands still. The Abbot of Tavistock one day passed that way on his mule. "Upon my word, that cross is clean too ridiculous," said he, in the vernacular of the fourteenth century, which I do not attempt to reproduce, as vernacular never was written down save in farces; and there are no farces extant of that early period to tell us what the popular slang was. "I think, Brother Augustine," pursued the Abbot, "I'll have it broken up and a new and respectable cross erected in its stead." "Can't do it," answered Brother Augustine. "Why not?" "Because it is a cross" So it escaped on that occasion. Abbot Robert wouldn't have it said...
