A Book of Dartmoor — Chapter 9

"Here lies in horizontal positionthe outside case ofGeorge Routleigh, watch-maker,

whose abilities in that line were an honourto his profession.Integrity was the main-springand Prudence the regulatorof all the actions of his life.Humane, generous and liberalhis Hand never stoppedtill he had relieved distress.So nicely regulated were all his motionsthat he never went wrong,except when set agoingby people who did not know his key.Even then he was easily set right again.He had the art of disposing his time so wellthat his hours glided awayin one continual roundof pleasure and delight.Till an unlucky minute put a period tohis existence.He departed this life Nov. 14, 1802,aged 57,wound upin hopes of being taken in handby his Makerand of being thoroughly cleaned, repairedand set agoingin the World to Come."

"I oft have heard of Lydford law,How in the morn they hang and draw,And sit in judgment after:At first I wondered at it much,But soon I found the matter suchAs it deserves no laughter.

"They have a castle on a hill;I took it for some old wind-mill,The vanes blown off by weather.Than lie therein one night 'tis guessed'Twere better to be stoned or pressedOr hanged, ere you come thither."

"I'm going, I reckon, full mellowTo lay in the churchyard my head;So say, God be wi' you, old fellow,The last of the singers is dead."

"And near thereto's the Gubbins' cave,A people that no knowledge haveOf law, of God, or men;Whom Caæsar never yet subdued;Who've lawless liv'd; of manners rude;All savage in their den.

"By whom, if any pass that way,He dares not the least time to stay,But presently they howl;Upon which signal they do musterTheir naked forces in a cluster,Led forth by Roger Rowle."

"At six o'clock I came alongAnd prayed for those that were to stayWithin a place so arrant;Wide and ope the winds so roar,By God's grace I'll come there no moreTill forc'd by a tin warrant."