a new guide-book, which repeats with slight variations the words and even errors of the old.

While, on the other hand, there stands up in the past of Lynton scarcely a single individual around whom history could gather, not even a squire or a parson-name's often held up for derision, yet the centres of every village chronicle, and here scarcely to be found. Not till the seventeenth century was there a resident lord of the manor of Lynton, and then only for a brief period, after which the manor was rapidly dismembered; and as long as records go back, with one exception, no vicar or parson (I use the word parson in its strict sense, the persona, or rector, of the parish), but only a perpetual curate, who was often nonresident. Yet, in spite of this, Lynton has a past and a history, which, if not so eventful as other parishes', will always be of interest to those who dwell there or visit it; and I have tried in these pages to give some account of it, the manors, ecclesiastical affairs, and families, especially that of the Wichehalses, around which all the romances and legends of the district have gathered.

The only account hitherto published is in the "Guide to Lynton and Neighbourhood," written about 1850, by Thomas Henry Cooper, a medical man, then residing at Lynton. It was the result of a great deal of painstaking research, and contains most of what had been said by Pole, Westcote, and Risdon; yet as it is very incomplete and contains so many inaccuracies, I have attempted to give an entirely independent account, gathered almost entirely from original deeds and documents, though I would acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Cooper for putting me on the track of many subjects, and also to E. B. Jeune, Esq., lord of the manor of Lynton (jure uxoris), for permission to look at the existing records of the manors of Lynton, Woolhanger, and East Lyn; to Mr. Franklyn Walford, of the Record Office; Mr. W. E. Mugford for his search into the ecclesiastical records; and especially to my friend Oswyn A. R. Murray, Esq., whose wonderful knowledge of Devonshire families of the seventeenth century, their wills, records, and family relationships, as well as the records at the Bodleian and Record Office, is invaluable to any student of Devonshire family history. In an appendix I have given abstracts of the most important of the documents from which my information has been drawn.

II.

ANTIQUITIES AND PREHISTORIC PERIOD.

The first inhabitants of the district who have left any traces of themselves behind are the men of the Neolithic or early Bronze period: along the sides of its streams, on the more level portions of its downs, and on the hill-tops their hut circles, burial places, stone monuments, and fortifications can still be seen, and so frequently as to show for the age a somewhat numerous population along the northern and western slopes of Exmoor.

Polwhele, in his "History of Devonshire," says:

Shapeless piles of stones on Exmoor and the adjacent country might be approached as rock idols of the Britons. The Valley of Stones, indeed, in the vicinity of Exmoor is so awfully magnificent that we need not hesitate in pronouncing it to have been the favourite residence of Druidism. . . . This valley is about half a mile in length, in general about three hundred feet in width, situated between two hills covered with an immense quantity of stones and terminated by rocks, which rise to a vast height and present a prospect uncommonly grotesque. At an opening between the rocks at the close of the valley there is a noble view of the British Channel and Welsh coast. The scenery of the whole country in the neighbourhood of this curious valley is wonderfully striking. The Valley of Stones has a close resemblance to several of the spots in Cornwall which tradition has sanctified with the venerable names of rock idols, Logan stones, or rock basons; and the north of Devon, though it may furnish us with no tradition of the Druids, must yet be examined with an eye to Druidical antiquities. If the hills or valleys which have been so long consecrated to the genius of the Druids of Cornwall deserve so high an honour, I have little doubt but that the same distinction is due to the romantic scenes in Devonshire, which hitherto we have been led to view with an incurious eye, or to admire, perhaps, for their rude magnificence while we carried our ideas no further than the objects themselves. Not that the Druids formed these scenes, no, they only availed themselves of such recesses to which they annexed sanctity by commemorating there the rites of religion. . . . The rock idols are purely natural, though some labour was employed in a few instances to make them look artificial. Nature, or some great convulsion in nature, left those rocks in their present fantastic shape, or if any art was applied to rock idols, it was only to remove some earth, some surrounding stone from the larger or more curious masses, and then the whole would put on the appearance it now possesses. The whole army

...

of Xerxes could not have raised by force or skill such ledges of rock piled up in the Valley of Stones by human industry. The most remarkable rock idol in the valley is the Cheesewring. Lyttleton observes that it greatly resembles the Cheesewring at Alternon.

I have quoted this passage at some length as, however absurd and exaggerated it may seem, it is one of the earliest descriptions we have of Lynton and the Valley of Rocks itself, as it is now called. Yet it is curious that Polwhele, who came to examine the neighbourhood with an eye to what he called Druidical Antiquities, and while he was familiar with Speed's words, "Ad Exmore saxa in triangulum alia in orbem erecta," could only see natural features and was blind to the undoubted erections of man in a prehistoric age still to be seen in the parish, and the stone circle and hut circles in the Valley of Rocks itself. And it would seem that as late as sixty years ago or less there were many more in the Valley of Rocks which have since disappeared, for in January, 1854, Mr. Charles Bailey, father of the present owner of Ley, in a public letter addressed to the inhabitants of Lynton on the subject of the commons enclosure complains not only of the building of ugly stone walls and fences, and opening of quarries in the valley during recent years, but also adds, "worse than either, the removal of the immense Druidical stones and circles which formed its peculiar and striking interest for the purpose of selling them for gate-posts." In Cooke's "Topographical Description of Devonshire," published in 1810, there is a further description of these stone circles that have been destroyed. "The central part of the valley contains several circles of stone above forty feet in diameter, probably Druidical remains."

Since the date of Mr. Bailey's letter many stone monuments existing then in other parts of the parish have disappeared, especially on the south side of the parish, owing to the enclosure of the commons; and the new Ordnance Maps show that the destruction is still going on. Of those that now remain, a first account was given of some in the paper by Mr. R. H. Worth and Rev. J. F. Chanter in the "Transactions" of the Association for 1905, and as a further instalment of them is to follow, I would refer those who desire more exact information on these antiquities to their papers.

III.

CAMPS AND EARTHWORKS.

These are very numerous in the district and of various classes, and a study of their relative positions leads to the conclusion that they were erected in the first place not to stay the advance of any invaders, but for the purpose of defence in intertribal warfare, though some of them may perhaps have been utilized in later ages as a place of refuge from raiders by land or sea. There are two of these prehistoric camps in Lynton parish and two in Countisbury parish; those in Lynton both lie inland in the south-eastern part of the parish, and are known as Stock and Roborough Castles.

Stock Castle lies on the western slope of the ridge between Fursehill and Hoar Oak waters; it is an approximate square with rounded corners, about 58 yd. in diameter, and consists of a single fosse and rampart; the fosse has almost entirely disappeared owing to the plough; the rampart at its highest point is now 8 ft. 10 in. externally and 7 ft. 10 in. internally.

Roborough Castle, on the other side of the same ridge just above Lyncombe Wood, is almost circular in shape, about 83 yd. in diameter; the western side is still fairly perfect, and gives a very fair idea of what it must have been; but most of the rest has been ploughed over, and the fosse has consequently in those parts almost entirely disappeared. On the western face the fosse is still about 8 ft. 9 in. below the present surface, and the rampart about 12 ft. high above the ditch. Like Stock, it consists of a single fosse and rampart.

The Countisbury camps are of entirely different form, and both lie close to the sea-cliff; one is on the south-west of Countisbury village, and might be more properly described as a headland cut off on the east side by a fosse and rampart rather than a camp. The main rampart runs roughly north-west and south-east for about 440 yd., tapering off gradually to meet the steep slopes of the hill on the north, and terminating somewhat more abruptly on the south; at the sides the defences are the natural slopes, which are very steep; on the west side there is a low bank of stones running north and south approximately, forming a boundary and slight defence, with apparently an entrance at the south-eastern corner. The present entrance on the