rocks one of the Royalist
Elfords, whose house was under the tor, sought refuge, and amused his
solitude by painting the walls of the cavern, which is known as the
"Pixies' House," and is regarded by the neighbors as a dangerous place
for children, to whom these little fairies sometimes take a fancy. It is
not safe, they say, to go near it without dropping a pin as an offering
between the chinks of the rock--not a very costly way of buying
immunity. In Sheeps Tor churchyard in the valley below lies Sir James
Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, who died near there in 1868. As the streams
course down the hillside they disclose frequent traces of the rude stone
relics left there by an ancient people, the chief being the settlement
at Trowlesworthy, where there is a circular hut enclosure about four
hundred feet in diameter, with stone avenues leading to it and the
entrances defended by portions of walls. The stones are nowhere large,
however, rarely exceeding five feet high. Then we come to Shaugh, where
the rivers struggle through rocky ravines and finally join their waters.
The little Shaugh church crowns the granite rocks on one side, while on
the other is the towering crag of the Dewerstone. This ivy-clad rock,
which lifts its furrowed and wrinkled battlements far above the Plym,
was the "Rock of Tiw," that powerful god of the Saxons from whom comes
the name of Tuesday. Once, we are told, in the deep snow traces of a
human foot and a cloven hoof were found ascending to the highest point
of the rock, which His Satanic Majesty seems to have claimed for his own
domain. From this lofty outpost of the moor, if he stayed there, our
all-time enemy certainly had a wide lookout. On the one hand is a grand
solitude, and on the other a hilly country stretches to the seaboard,
with the river-valley winding through woods and fields, and Plymouth
Sound and its breakwater in the distance. Here, below the junction of
the two streams, are the scant remains of the old house of Grenofen,
whose inmates lived in great state, and were the Slannings who so
ardently supported King Charles. A mossy barn with massive gables is the
prominent feature of the ruins. The river runs down through the very
beautiful vale of Bickleigh, and then under Plym Bridge, where it
becomes broader and more tranquil as it approaches the head of the
estuary. This region belonged to the priory of Plympton, and its
Augustinian owners raised at the end of the bridge a small chap