cities at
their mouths are famous in English history, and Spenser, in the _Faerie
Queene_, announces that both Dart and Plym were present at the great
feast of the rivers which celebrated the wedding of the Thames and
Medway. The courses of the Dartmoor rivers are short, but with rapid
changes. In the moorland they run through moss and over granite; then
among woods and cultivated fields, till, with constantly broadening
stream, the river joins the estuary or tidal inlet, and thus finds its
vent in the ocean. Strangely enough, with these short streams there are
high points on the Dartmoor tors from which both source and mouth of a
river are visible at the same time. The Dart, with steadily-increasing
flow, thus runs out of the moorland, and not far from its edge passes
the antique town of Totnes, where the remains of an ivy-mantled wall
upon the hill is all that is left of Judhael's famous castle, which
dates from the Norman Conquest. The surrounding country is remarkably
picturesque, and is noted for its agricultural wealth. About two miles
to the eastward is the romantic ruin of Berry Pomeroy Castle, founded
upon a rock which rises almost perpendicularly from a narrow valley,
through which a winding brook bubbles. It is overhung with foliage and
shrubbery and mantled with moss and ivy, so that it is most attractive.
The great gate, the southern walls, part of a quadrangle, and a few
turrets are all that remain of the castle, which suffered severely in
the Civil War. Tradition states that the adjacent village was destroyed
by lightning. This castle also dates from the Norman Conquest, and
passed from its original possessors, the Pomeroys, to Protector
Somerset, the Duke of Somerset being the present owner.

[Illustration: BERRY POMEROY CASTLE.]

[Illustration: A BEND OF THE DART.]

[Illustration: DARTMOUTH CASTLE.]

The Dart, which is a rocky stream above Totnes and a favorite resort of
the fisherman and sketcher, becomes navigable below the town, and has a
soft, peculiar beauty of its own that has made it often compared to the
Rhine; but there is little comparison between them: the Dart has no
precipitous cliffs or vine-clad hills, and no castle excepting at its
mouth. From Totnes to Dartmouth is about twelve miles, through
exquisitely beautiful scenery, especially where the river passes the
woods of Sharpham, the current narrowing to about one hundred and fifty
feet, and flowing through an amphitheatre of overarc