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

FITZ OF FITZ-FORD. 37
of the Druids^ who once consecrated so many
of the tors of Dartmoor to the ceremonies of
their priesthood. Vixen Tor in its form has
been aptly compared to the S2:>hinx,^ and the
abrupt heights, by which it is surrounded in
various directions, to those '^ rocks amidst the
flood of years," the pyramids of Egypt. The
scene was at once wild and desolate, but full
of grandeur.
In the foreground appeared a rugged way
thickly strewed with rough stones and heath,
yet with no object of sufficient magnitude to in-
terrupt the view of the dark tor, or to lessen
its claim of solitary pre-eminence. But if viewed
from the south-east, the abrupt fall of the land
upon which it stands gives it a new character ;
and there Vixen Tor assumes the form of an an-
cient castle of stupendous construction, tower-
ing above the valley of the Walkham, that
lies as it were sleeping in beauty far, far be-
* This comparison was made by the Rev. E. A. Bray, in
his MS. survey of the western limits of Dartmoor, in 1810,
when, in company with a friend, he managed to ascend to
the very summit of Vixen Tor, through a natural fissure of
the rock, and discovered on the top three basins cut in the
solid granite. Mr. Burt, in his notes on Carrington's beau-
tiful poem of Dartmoor, has lately made the same com-
parison.