A broken wall or two rose here and there, and radiating amid the desolation of bog and mire, old tramways ran red.”, p.16. Round about, as though torn by giant ploughs, the shaggy slope of the hill was seamed and ripped with long lines of darkness. This field of industry had already passed into the catalogue of man’s failures upon Dartmoor, and a ruin marked the spot. Once again Eden Phillpotts captures this scene ” he breasted the eastern shoulder of Great Links and then stood a moment, startled by the strangeness of the scene before him. All have left scars and painful reminders of Dartmoor’s industrial past across the landscape. Over the centuries the craggy tor has overseen many of man’s ventures which have involved tearing out its very substance at the nearby peat works and mining out its precious ores from its valley streams. If you get this right you will see the welcomed sight of what appears to be a small man looming out of the mist, this is the Dick’s Well boundstone who sits close to the track so all’s well at Dick’s Well. But believe me when the mists do descend the best option is to bear due south from the tor until you meet the track which leads back down to High Down Ford. I have had the pleasure of both conditions on various visits, both of which provide contrasting visitor experiences. On the other hand when Dartmoor is in a good mood it can afford wide-ranging panoramic vistas which gladden the heart. This rack sank to earth’s surface, swept the Moor, and, when it reached the crowns of the land, swallowed them.”, Phillpotts, p.84.Īs you may gather from Eden Phillpotts’ description of the landscape around Great Links Tor it can be a desolate spot when Dartmoor decides to cloak itself in infamous mists. A million tiny clouds dappled the sky with pure pearl, and far beneath this apparently motionless cloth of silver was woven another cloud-pattern of darker tone, where tattered vapour fled easterly across heaven before the roaring breeze. “ They sat in a nook of Great Links Tor, looked at the world outspread beneath them, and listened to the hiss of the wind, as it flogged heath and stone and chattering rushes.
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