Part 6
The climate of any country, or in other words, its average weather, by which, again, we mean its temperature, rainfall, and hours of sunshine, as well as the dryness or otherwise of its air, depends upon various circumstances and conditions, but especially upon geographical position, that is to say, upon the nearness of the country to the equator, upon its distance from the sea and its height above sea-level; partly also upon its soil and vegetation. Speaking generally, the nearer we approach the equator the hotter will be the climate, and the nearer to the sea-coast the milder and more equable it will be. The highest temperature in the shade ever yet recorded, however--127° Fahr.--was in the Algerian Sahara, at a spot not even within the tropics; and the greatest cold ever experienced, 90° below zero, Fahr., was at a place in Siberia only just within the arctic circle.
The climate of the British Isles is very greatly influenced by the great ocean current, often called the Gulf Stream, from its supposed source in the Gulf of Mexico, which, impelled by steady winds, carries a constant stream of warm water from the equatorial regions towards the north pole. This current washes the shores of these islands, and it is this circumstance which makes our winters so much milder than those of Labrador, which is no nearer to the pole than we are. Were it not for the Gulf Stream our weather would probably be more severe than that of Newfoundland.
The highest shade temperature ever experienced in Britain was 101° Fahr., at Alton in Hampshire, in July, 1881; and the lowest was 10° below zero, Fahr., at Buxton in Derbyshire, in February, 1895. A temperature of 23° below zero is said to have been measured in Berwickshire, in 1879, but the correctness of the record has been questioned. What is, however, of more importance, is the average temperature for the year, which, for the whole of England, is 48° Fahr.
The sunniest part of England lies, as might be expected, along the south coast, although the south-east and south-west coasts also get more sunshine than inland districts in the same latitude. The sun is above the horizon in this country for more than 4450 hours in the year; but, owing to the frequent presence of clouds, he is not visible for even half that time in any part of the British Isles and the average for the country as a whole is only 1355 hours. The southern coasts sometimes enjoy 2000 hours of bright sunshine in a year, but their average is probably not more than 1700 or 1800 hours, or about five hours a day all the year round. The amount decreases as we go north; while the manufacturing districts of the midland counties, owing to the smoke which so often obscures the sky, get 1200 hours or less. At Manchester in 1907 only 894 hours of sunshine were recorded for the year's total. The sunniest months throughout the country generally are May and June, and the gloomiest month is December.
The climate of a country, however, depends not only upon the sunshine, but upon the rainfall. The amount of rain that falls in any place varies according to the height of that place above the sea, its distance from the coast, and the configuration of the ground, that is to say, upon its position with respect to valleys, up which moisture-laden air may be driven by the wind, to be compressed and cooled until its moisture falls in rain.
The rainfall varies very much in different parts of England, but the average amount for the whole country is about 33 inches in a year. When we speak of an inch of rain we mean that it would lie an inch deep on a perfectly level piece of ground. Thus, if all the rain that fell in a year stayed on the ground, and did not evaporate, or run away, or sink into the earth, the water would be 33 inches deep all over England at the end of the twelve months. An inch of rain all over an acre of ground weighs rather more than 100 tons. Not only does the rainfall vary in different parts of the country, but it varies in different years. The wettest year on record was 1903, when the rainfall averaged 50 inches for the whole of England; and the driest year was 1887, when it amounted to no more than 24 inches.
The heaviest rainfall in Great Britain is in the mountains round Ben Nevis and Snowdon, in the English Lake District, and in the uplands of Cornwall and Devon. And it may fairly accurately be said that, as we cross England from west to east, the amount of the annual fall steadily decreases, as is shown in the accompanying map. The moisture-laden clouds, driven across the Atlantic by the prevalent S.W. winds, discharge their contents on meeting the cold high lands of western England, which thus act as a sort of umbrella, the driest parts of the country being on the east coast. While the average fall over a considerable part of the west side of it is from 40 to 60 inches, that on the east is no more than from 25 to 30; and round the Wash and in parts of Suffolk and Essex it is under 25 inches. Thus it sometimes happens that when the west of England has rain enough and to spare, the eastern districts are suffering from the want of it. The effect of this difference is shown in a marked degree in the character of the crops. The farms of the rainier west are to a great extent laid down in grass. The drier districts of the east grow more corn, which needs dry weather to ripen it.
The driest month in England generally is March, whose rainfall averages 1·46 inches; and the wettest is October, in which the average amount is 2·81 inches.
The pleasant climate of Devonshire, which is highly conducive to health and to extreme longevity, and which, especially in the south, favours luxuriant and even sub-tropical vegetation, owes its character to five main causes;--the fact that the county is bounded on two sides by the sea; the influence of the Gulf Stream or warm ocean current, which directly affects both coasts; the warmth and moisture of the prevailing winds; the shelter afforded to the southern districts by the high ground of Dartmoor; and the large amount of bright sunshine which the county, and especially the south of it, is favoured.
It is owing to the Gulf Stream that the temperature of the sea in the English Channel is many degrees higher in winter, even as far east as the Goodwins, than that in the North Sea. Thus, the east wind, blowing over 200 miles of warmed water, has, by the time it reaches Devonshire, lost much of its proverbial bitterness. On the other hand it is mainly owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream that the climate of Ilfracombe is more equable than that of any other town in England except Falmouth, and is, in fact, from half a degree to a degree warmer in winter and cooler in summer than Torquay itself.
It is largely the shelter given to it by Dartmoor and the Blackdown Hills that makes the south and south-east of Devonshire so famous for its warm and pleasant climate. The south-west also benefits from the protection afforded by the spurs of Dartmoor, but the rainfall of that district is heavier and the air more relaxing.
The prevailing winds in Devonshire are the west and south-west, which, blowing across the open Atlantic, are also the chief rain-carrying winds. Both are comparatively warm, the latter following the course of the Gulf Stream. But they are often violent, and vegetation fully exposed to them does not flourish.
The peninsula of which Devonshire forms a part contains the warmest districts in Great Britain. The annual average temperature of the whole county is 49-1/2° Fahr., which is a degree and a half higher than that of the whole of England; while the average for Torquay is 51°. In the three winter months, January, February, and March, in which the average temperature for London is 39·7°, that for Torquay is 41·3°.
The annual amount of bright sunshine in Devonshire naturally varies in different years. In 1906 it was nearly 2000 hours on the south coast, and not less than 1800 on the north. The average amount appears, however, to be about 1700 in the south, and 1500 on the north coast, or between three and four hours a day. The actual amount would, of course, be much more than this in summer, and much less in the winter.
The amount of rain in Devonshire in 1907, which was an average year throughout the country, was (taking the mean of the 169 stations named in Dr H. R. Mill's _British Rainfall_) 41·24 inches, falling on 210 days, or about 7-1/2 inches and 7 days above the average for the whole of England and Wales. In the same year 196.16 inches of rain were registered at the Llyn Llydaw Copper Mine near Snowdon, and only 16·6 inches at Clacton-on-Sea. The wettest part of the county is Dartmoor, which catches the moisture-laden clouds coming up from the Atlantic. In 1907 some 81 inches of rain fell at Princetown, at a spot 1390 feet above the sea. This amount was, however, much exceeded in 1903, when the rainfall at the same station was 102·32 inches, and in Cowsic Valley, a little lower down, it was half an inch more. The driest part of Devonshire is the south-east coast. In 1907 only 26·27 inches of rain fell at Exmouth, for example. Heavy as the rainfall is, the slopes of the land are so steep and the soil in general so porous that the water soon runs away, with the result that both the earth and the air are drier than might be expected.
A feature of Dartmoor even more striking and characteristic than its heavy rainfall is the fog which so frequently covers it, and which is sometimes so dense as to cause the most experienced moor-men to lose their way.
Speaking generally, the climate of Devonshire may be described as warm and moist and remarkably equable. The winters are very mild, and snow is rare, except on Dartmoor. On the south coast of the county many plants which in less favoured parts of England need protection in the winter, such, for instance, as geraniums, hydrangeas, heliotropes, and camellias, are left out-of-doors all the year. Magnolias reach to the tops of the houses, myrtles grow to a height of thirty feet or more, palms and eucalyptus flourish, and oranges, lemons, and citrons do well in the open air.
Devonshire seems peculiarly liable to seismic disturbances, and many slight shocks of earthquake have been recorded.
12. People--Race. Dialects. Settlements. Population.
The earliest inhabitants of Devonshire, the people of the Palaeolithic or Early Stone Age, have left few traces beyond their weapons and implements of flint. They lived in caves or on the banks of rivers. They were hunters, and appear to have practised no craft but that of hunting, while their arts seem to have been almost if not entirely limited to the use of fire and to the making of rude instruments of stone.
But during the Neolithic Period, as the Later Stone Age is called, the district, it is believed, was invaded by an Iberian or Ivernian race from south-western Europe, a race possessing flocks and herds, with a knowledge of many arts and crafts, such as spinning and weaving, the making of pottery and of dug-out canoes, but having at first no acquaintance with the use of metal. They were of the same stock as the Silures of South Wales, and were probably dark-haired and black-eyed, round-headed and short of stature. Their descendants may, perhaps, still be seen in the county, especially on the skirts of Exmoor, and it is quite possible that their breeds of domestic animals may be represented upon Devonshire farms to-day.
The Iberians were, it is thought, conquered and driven westward by the very different Goidels or Gaels, a powerful Celtic race, tall, fair, long-headed, much further advanced in arts and crafts, and to some extent users of bronze for tools and ornaments. It is thought by some authorities that it was they who set up the stone circles, avenues, and menhirs, and who built the rude stone huts which still remain on Dartmoor. Many of the people of Scotland and Ireland are their descendants, and their language is still spoken in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, in parts of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man.
The Gaels were, it is believed, succeeded and conquered in the fourth century before Christ by the Brythons, another Celtic race, who gave their name to our island. They took possession of Wales, and of Scotland as far as the Highlands, but they do not appear to have crossed into Ireland. They were, to a great extent, users of bronze, but they also worked in iron, and were the first of the Iron Age in this country. It is probable that they built most of the hill-forts of Devonshire, and that they made many of the roads, some of which were afterwards adapted and improved by the Romans.
Shortly before the landing of Julius Caesar, Britain was invaded by still another Celtic race, the Belgae from Gaul, a tall, dark-haired people, as may be gathered from the appearance of their descendants, the Walloons of Liège and the Ardennes.
The Roman tenure of Devonshire was of a very limited character, and can have had little effect upon the inhabitants. The Saxon occupation of the district was more of the nature of colonisation than of conquest. By the time they had crossed Somerset the Saxons were, at least nominally, Christians; and although their treatment of the original occupants was none too gentle, as, for instance, in the expulsion of the Britons from Exeter by Athelstan, it seems likely that the two races settled quietly down together, the Saxons probably becoming the land-owners, and the Celts the peasantry. It is thought that the main population of the county is Celtic, of one or other of the three waves of Celtic invasion. There are in Devonshire many Celtic place-names, especially of hills and rivers; and some of the latter, with the addition of Saxon endings, such as _ham_, _ton_, and _stock_, survive also in the names of towns. In some cases, curious English-looking names can be traced to Celtic words of quite another meaning. Thus, Bowerman's Nose, the name of a famous crag on Dartmoor, is probably a corruption of _Veor maen_, "the great stone."
The dialect of Devonshire, like the very similar speech of west Somerset, is Saxon, with strong traces of Celtic influence in its pronunciation. One of many peculiarities is the sound of the diphthongs _oo_ and _ou_, which are pronounced like the French _u_ or the German _ü_. Another peculiarity is the great variety of the vowel sounds, and the indistinctness or modification of some of the consonants. Again, _th_ and even _v_ are often sounded like _dh_. It is also very characteristic to put _d_ for _th_ as, for instance, _datch_ for _thatch_, or _dishle_ for _thistle_.
There are many words in common use in Devonshire which are almost or entirely unknown elsewhere, and which may be regarded as survivals of ancient Saxon or, in some cases, British speech. Such, for example, are:--
_whisht_, weird, uncanny, lonely, "overlooked." _cloam_, earthenware. _clam_, a foot-bridge. _yark_, lively. _stivery_, disordered. _clunk_, to swallow. _giglets_, young men or women seeking new situations. _havage_, character. _zamzoaky_, tepid. _coochey_, clumsy. _mawn_, a basket. _frickety_, heavy, sodden. _pluff_, not well. _spraggetty_, spotted. _dimpety_, dusk. _chicket_, cheerful. _spilsky_, lean. _fess_, smart. _plum_, soft. _scamlin_, irregular. _thurdle_, miserable. _sklum_, to grasp roughly. _yaw_, to bite. _shugg_, shy. _ippet_, a lizard.
It should be remembered that some of the forms of Devonshire dialect which strike the educated ear as ungrammatical are really survivals of pure Saxon speech, such as was in use at the courts of Alfred the Great and Athelstan. English in other parts of England has undergone great changes. In the West Country it has in some respects kept closer to the original forms.
The Norman Conquest left its mark in many places. Double names, such as Berry Pomeroy, Sampford Courtenay, and Wear Gifford, suggest the addition of a Norman family title to the existing Saxon name of a manor. It is quite possible that the common Devonshire word _fay_, as in _Yes, fay_ and _No, fay_, is a survival of the Old French _fay_ (for _foi_), "faith."
Huguenots and other French refugees have also at various times settled in the county, as, for instance, at Exeter, where they introduced the art of weaving tapestry, at Barnstaple, where they taught new and better methods of making cloth, and at Plymouth, where many took refuge after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. And it seems likely that Bratton Fleming and Stoke Fleming were named after Flemish immigrants, many of whom settled in Devonshire.
The population of the Geographical County of Devonshire, according to the census of 1901, is 661,314, and there are in the county 123,608 inhabited houses. A hundred years ago the population was 340,308; it has, therefore, not quite doubled during the century. In the busier county of Kent the population has in the same time increased from 268,097 to 1,348,841. In common with all except five of the counties of England, there are in Devonshire more women than men; the excess of the female over the male population being 37,096.
The chief occupation is agriculture, which provides employment for 42,000 people, or about one-nineteenth of the inhabitants--a considerably lower proportion than in the adjoining county of Somerset. Less than 3000 men are engaged in mines and quarries; 2000 are fishermen, and lace-making occupies 350 men and 1500 women.
In common with many other parts of England the small country parishes of Devonshire are much less populous than they were. In the last fifty years there has been a decline of 17,000 in the rural population.
Devonshire is a somewhat thinly-inhabited county. There are in it a little more than 2-1/2 acres to every man, woman, and child, or 254 persons to the square mile, compared with 558 to the square mile for the whole of England and Wales. Westmorland, the most sparsely-populated county, has only 82 people to the square mile, or eight acres to each inhabitant. Lancashire, on the other hand, contains more than 2300 people to the square mile, or four people to every acre; and in the county of Middlesex there are 12,669 to the square mile, which gives about twenty inhabitants to every acre of ground.
13. Agriculture--Main Cultivations. Woodlands. Stock.
The area of all the land in England is, in round numbers, 32-1/2 millions of acres, of which 24-1/2 millions are under cultivation; 10-3/4 million acres being arable, and the greater part of the rest being devoted to permanent grass. For some years past the area of cultivation in the British Islands has been gradually growing less; and in 1908 the decrease in England alone was more than 25,000 acres, chiefly in the amount of land given up to barley and oats, but extending to almost all crops except wheat, potatoes, and lucerne, which showed a slight advance. The cultivation of fruit, especially of small fruit, continues to increase, but the total space devoted to it is not quite 300,000 acres.
With regard to live stock, the Government returns show that the total number of horses in England (about a million) was 10,000 less in 1908 than in 1907; but that the number of cattle (about five millions), of sheep (about sixteen millions), and of pigs (about two and a half millions) had increased, especially in the case of sheep and pigs.
Devonshire is eminently an agricultural county, having few industrial or manufacturing centres, and still fewer mining interests, although in the past it has been famous for weaving, and for tin and copper mining. There is in the county a great variety of soil, from almost barren sand to the rich alluvial earth of the many river valleys, such as the vales of Honiton and Exeter, for example, and that not very clearly defined tract of country called the South Hams, lying south of Dartmoor, including the district between the Tamar and the Teign, and containing some of the most fertile land in England. The climate, as has been shown, is mild and equable, but the rainfall is heavy; and the farms of Devonshire, like those in the adjacent counties, are mainly devoted to pasturage, although fruit-growing is an important industry. Red Devon cattle are well known and highly valued; and the sturdy little ponies of Exmoor and Dartmoor have been famous since Saxon times.
According to the latest returns of the Ordnance Survey, Devonshire contains, exclusive of water, more than a million and a half (1,667,154) acres, of which nearly a million and a quarter (1,211,648) are under cultivation, including rather more than 500,000 acres of arable land, and nearly 700,000 acres of permanent grass. The latter, which as will be seen is more than half the cultivated area, is more than twice that in Dorset or Cornwall, rather more than that in Somerset, and is only exceeded in the much larger county of Yorkshire. It may be added that the arable land was 11,000 acres less and the permanent grass 11,000 acres more in 1908 than in 1907.
Corn crops--which in the returns are made to include not only wheat, barley, oats, and rye, but peas and beans--occupy altogether about 200,000 acres, or one-sixth of the cultivated area. In this respect Devonshire surpasses the three adjoining counties, and is excelled by only six English shires; Essex and Lincoln, where corn crops occupy one-third of the area, Norfolk, where they are two-fifths, Cambridge and Suffolk, where they take up nearly one-half, and Yorkshire, where more than half the cultivated area is thus occupied. With regard to wheat alone, the average yield per acre in Devonshire, for the last ten years, is only 26-1/4 bushels, which is lower than that of any other county in England except Monmouth.
Green crops other than permanent grass, and roots, occupy altogether about 300,000 acres, an amount exceeded only in Norfolk and Yorkshire.
Devonshire ranks very high as a fruit-growing county, and the area of its apple-orchards, about 27,000 acres, was, in 1908, greater than that of any other county in England. Apples are grown in many districts, but especially in the Vale of Exeter, in the South Hams, and in the Valley of the Dart. Much of the fruit is, however, grown only for making cider, and is of little value for the table. Plympton is said to have had the first cider-orchard in England. When pears, plums, and cherries are included in the fruit returns, Devonshire takes third place, being surpassed by Kent and Hereford. Vines are grown against many cottage walls, as is the case in other southern counties; but it is remarkable, considering the mildness of the climate, that no Devonshire vineyard is mentioned in Domesday Book, although several are included in the survey for Somerset.
The space devoted to small fruits--strawberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries--although showing a large comparative increase over 1907, amounted in 1908 to no more than 1252 acres. In this respect Devonshire is fourteenth among the English counties, producing little more than one-twentieth as much small fruit as Kent, for instance.