The beauty of Dartmoor lay chiefly along its fringes, where ancient
villages stood securely sheltered along the banks of these streams; but
in their higher reaches were the remains of "hut circles" and
prehistoric antiquities of the earliest settlers, and relics of
Neolithic man were supposed to be more numerous than elsewhere in
England.
There was no doubt in our minds that the earliest settlers were those
who landed on the south coast, and in occupying the country they
naturally chose positions where a good supply of water was available,
both for themselves and their cattle. The greater the number of running
streams, the greater would be the number of the settlers. Some of the
wildest districts in these southern countries, where solitude now
prevailed, bore evidence of having, at one time, been thickly populated.
We did not attempt to investigate any of these pretty valleys, as we
were anxious to reach Plymouth early in order to explore that town, so
the only divergence we made from the beaten track was when we came to
Ivybridge, on the River Erme. The ivy of course flourished everywhere,
but it was particularly prolific in some parts of Devon, and here it had
not only covered the bridge, over which we crossed, but seemed inclined
to invade the town, to which it had given its name.
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