Fitz of Fitz-Ford; a legend of Devon - University Library

FITZ OF FITZ-FORD. 17
and desert grandeur is its character. Trees,
by their elegant ramifications and foliage,
convey to the mind ideas of beauty ; but a
desert, by its vastness, of sublimity. And no
where is. this sentiment experienced with deeper
feeling than when the traveller stands on some
of the elevated tors of Dartmoor. He stands,
like a thing of nought, amid portions of the
giant rock, the smallest of which, were it to
fall, would crush him, but which look as if they
had maintained their station unchanged since
the creation of the world. If he turns his eye
inland, it ranges from height to height, from
tor to tor, in unbroken succession. And as
the clouds roll above, casting their shadows
below, or part asunder, the finest effects may
be observed. At one moment an eminence
will appear shrouded in so deep a purple as
to approach almost to blackness, in another,
the same minaret of the lofty moor will be seen
white and silvery, and to sparkle and glitter
in a sunshine almost too dazzling for the sight.
If he looks towards the west, the conical
eminence of Brent Tor, with its little church
perched on the very summit, is seen rising ab-
ruptly from an extensive plain of high lands,
and forms a striking feature in the landscape.