Part 7
Devonshire has no true forests. Dartmoor and Exmoor were so called in the sense of being unenclosed and uncultivated. But except on the moors, the county is well-timbered, and its fine trees add greatly to its beauty. Its woods, plantations, and coppices amount altogether to nearly 90,000 acres, or about one-eighteenth of its whole area; and it here ranks fifth among the shires of England. Sussex has the greatest proportion of woodland, about one-seventh of its total area; and Cambridgeshire, with only one-ninety-second, has the least. There are considerable woods in some of the many beautiful parks; but probably the most famous is the Wistman's Wood, near Two Bridges, the ancestors of whose stunted and fantastic-looking oak-trees are mentioned in Domesday Book.
The total number of agricultural holdings in Devonshire, in 1908, was nearly 15,000, or about one-twentieth of those in all England. This is greater than that of any other county except Lancashire, Lincoln, and Yorkshire. Nearly 3000 holdings are of five acres or less, and there are only six other counties which have more of these small farms.
The numbers of the various kinds of live stock in Devonshire are large, and the county ranks very high under the four main heads. In cattle (295,000, or 2000 less than in 1907) it stands second in all England, being surpassed only by Yorkshire; in horses (59,000, or 1500 less than the previous year) it is fourth; in sheep (900,000, or 29,000 more) it is fifth; and in pigs (106,000, or 5000 more) it is sixth. The average price per stone of fat Devon cattle was higher in 1908 than that of any other breed in England, and the value per head of three-year-old Devon store cattle was only exceeded by that of Herefords.
There is no cheese made in Devonshire to compare with the famous "Cheddar" of the neighbouring county; but Devonshire cream, although closely rivalled by that of both Cornwall and Somerset, is known all over the kingdom.
14. Industries and Manufactures.
Devonshire, although in former ages famous even on the continent of Europe for its cloth-weaving, no longer ranks as a manufacturing county. Apart from agriculture and fishing, its industries are now mainly confined to the making of lace and cider, to ship-building, and to the manufacture of earthenware.
The prevalence in the county of the names of Webber and Tucker is some evidence of the extent and antiquity of the woollen trade, which, from very early times, flourished all over Devonshire until the closing years of the eighteenth century, when it was greatly checked by the introduction of cotton fabrics. One of the most important seats of the manufacture was Tiverton, where the industry was established in the fourteenth century, and reached perhaps its greatest height in the sixteenth. It was his success as a cloth-merchant which enabled Peter Blundell to found here his famous school. The chief woollen market of the county was originally at Crediton, but it was removed in the sixteenth century to Exeter, which long ranked second only to Leeds, and in its palmy days exported annually more than 300,000 pieces of cloth. Other important centres of the trade were Barnstaple, where towards the end of the sixteenth century improved methods of weaving were introduced by French refugees; Tavistock, whose kerseymeres had a European reputation; Honiton, Cullompton, and Totnes. Now Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, where there are some manufactures of blankets and serges, are the only towns where the industry survives.
Lace-making, which has been a characteristic Devonshire industry for nearly three hundred years, is said to have been introduced at Honiton by Flemish refugees at the close of the sixteenth century, and to have been well established by 1630. The lace was a most costly product, chiefly because the special thread used in making it had to be imported from the Low Countries. In old days the price of Devonshire lace is said to have been reckoned by the number of shillings which would cover it. But the change of fashion in men's dress lessened the demand for lace; and the introduction of machinery in 1808 greatly diminished its cost. The piece of lace which in the eighteenth century would have cost £15, could be purchased a few years later for 15_s._, and can now be obtained, machine-made, for 15_d._ There was some revival of the trade after the making, at Beer, of Queen Victoria's wedding-dress, at a cost of a thousand pounds. Schools were established for the training of lace-workers; and by 1870 the industry provided employment for 8000 people. The manufacture has, however, again greatly declined, and although there is a lace-factory at Tiverton, and although hand-made or pillow-lace is still worked in many cottages in the south-east, especially at Beer, Colyton, and Seaton, the total number of lace-workers in the whole county, at the last census, was less than 2000.
Carpets in imitation of those of Turkey were first made at Axminster in 1755, but in 1835 the looms were removed to Wilton, near Salisbury.
There are valuable deposits of various kinds of potter's clay in Devonshire, and although much of this is exported, a good deal is used in the county. There were formerly many small, scattered potteries in North Devon, but the chief seats of the industry now are at Bideford, where a good deal of rough pottery is made; at Annery, noted for its glazed bricks and tiles; and at Barnstaple, where are extensive and long-established potteries of what is called Barum ware, which has been compared to the Italian _sgraffito_. The potteries of Bovey Tracy, which use both local and imported clay, employ from 250 to 350 hands. The fine red clay of Watcombe is used to make terra-cotta; and at Lee Moor, near Plympton, whence much kaolin or fine china clay is exported, the silicious refuse is made up into bricks of high quality for use in metallurgical furnaces. The kaolin deposits of Devonshire were discovered by Cookworthy, who made porcelain at Plymouth from 1772 to 1774, after which date the works were removed to Bristol.
Devonshire is one of the chief cider-producing counties, and its apple-orchards are the most extensive in our island. Some of the best varieties of apples for cider-making--an industry which is carried on throughout a very large part of the county though Totnes, Whimple, Crediton, Exeter and Tiverton are perhaps the best known centres--are Kingston Black, both the sweet and the sour Woodbines (known locally as Slack-me-girdles), Sweet Alford and Fair Maid of Devon.
It is interesting to note that printing was early introduced into Devonshire. In 1525 the fifth printing-press in England was set up in Tavistock. There are paper-mills at Cullompton, iron-works near Kingsbridge, glove-factories at Torrington, umber-works at Ashburton, tanneries and shoe-factories at Crediton, and agricultural implement works at Exeter.
In addition to the very important Government works at Devonport and Keyham dockyards, there is a considerable amount of ship and boat-building, especially on the Dart and at Brixham, and the industry employs altogether about 3500 men.
15. Mines and Minerals.
There was a time when mining, especially tin-mining, was the most important industry of Devonshire. Traces left all over Dartmoor show that at a very early period tin was obtained there by the process called "streaming," that is to say by the washing of grains of the metal out of the disintegrated and crumbling granite. Vast numbers of abandoned shafts sunk in search of tin, copper, iron, manganese, and even silver, remain, together with their too often ugly buildings, as evidence of the former magnitude of the industry. At the present day, however, only twenty-four mines are in active operation, providing employment for no more than 700 men, who, in 1907, raised less than 1700 tons of metal of all descriptions.
The tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall were early formed into a corporate body whose affairs were managed by a Stannary parliament that met on Hingston Down. At a later period, probably at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Devonshire men held their own parliament, which assembled on Crockern Tor. They were governed by a Warden--Sir Walter Ralegh held the office for some years--appointed by the Duchy of Cornwall, who collected the Duchy dues or royalties, and having ascertained the purity of each block of tin by "coinage," that is, by cutting off for analysis a "coin" or corner, stamped it with the Duchy arms. A miner convicted of selling impure tin was punished by having some of the melted metal poured down his throat. Lydford, Tavistock, Chagford, and Ashburton were called Stannary Towns, since at each of those places blocks of tin might be tested; and the arbitrary nature of the Stannary Court is hinted at in the proverbial expression: "Lydford Law; hang first and try afterwards."
The chief mining district of Devonshire begins at the Tamar and extends across Dartmoor and along its borders. The most important centre was Tavistock, but there were rich mines at North Molton, where several kinds of metal were worked, near Ashburton, and elsewhere.
The principal ores are those of copper and tin; some iron is worked, and there are rich veins, believed to be not yet exhausted although not now worked, of galena or silver-lead.
The Devonshire mines formerly produced more tin than those of Cornwall; but since the fourteenth century the output of the latter county has been the greater. The quantity now raised in Devonshire is inconsiderable, and in 1907 amounted to only 94 tons. Tin is very largely used in making what is called tin-plate, which is really sheet-iron dipped into the melted metal. It is also mixed with copper to make bronze or machine-brass, and it was for the manufacture of bronze that it was so much sought after by the ancient inhabitants of the country.
Copper-mining in Devonshire is believed to be a comparatively modern industry. It is not known whether the ancient Britons made their own bronze from native tin and copper, or whether they imported it from abroad. The Devon Great Consols Mine, four miles from Tavistock, once by far the richest mine in England, and one of the richest in the world, has shipped as much as 1200 tons of copper in a single month, and has produced altogether 3-1/2 million pounds' worth of ore; but it now yields little but arsenic. In 1907 only 652 tons were raised in the whole county. The ore is not exhausted, but the cost of raising it from deep mines is too great to withstand foreign competition.
Ores of iron and zinc are widely distributed, but are little worked; and the annual yield, both of these metals and of manganese, of which this county was once a chief source of supply, is inconsiderable. Very rich silver-lead ore was formerly worked at Bere Alston and at Combe Martin, but the mines in both places have been abandoned. A very massive cup, made of Combe Martin silver, given to the Corporation of London by Queen Elizabeth, is still used at the inauguration of each Lord Mayor. Arsenic and arsenical pyrites, ochre, and umber are obtained, especially from some mines whose more valuable ore is exhausted. Cobalt, tungsten, and uranium also occur, and gold has been found in small quantities, generally in streams, as, for instance, in the West Webburn and below Lethitor.
Although the metal mines of Devonshire have lost their old importance, there are other minerals of great commercial value, of which altogether more than a million tons are obtained in the course of a year. China clay, or kaolin, a product of the natural decomposition of granite, is worked at Lee Moor, and more than 75,000 tons--which, however, is only one-tenth of that obtained from Cornwall--are annually exported, especially to Staffordshire, for the making of fine earthenware. Other kinds of potter's clay, white at Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracy, and red at Watcombe, are dug in still larger quantities.
There are many quarries in Devonshire, the most important of them being of limestone, of which more than half a million tons are worked every year. Heytor granite was used in London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, and Lundy granite in the Thames Embankment. But the stone is not considered equal to that from Cornwall. The same remark applies to the slate, of which only 5000 tons are now raised annually. There are old quarries of it near Kingsbridge, and also at Tavistock and other places. Colyton slate is used for billiard-tables. Marble is worked at Chudleigh, and a finer quality at Ipplepen, Torquay, and Plymouth. There are large quarries at Beer. The material for whetstones has long been dug in the Blackdown Hills, where the refuse from the workings, like lines of railway embankment, is a feature in the landscape.
There is no coal in Devonshire, but there is much lignite at Bovey Tracy, where, in the bed of an ancient lake, a deposit of layers of it occurs, alternating with clay and sand, to a depth of 100 feet. On account of its disagreeable smell while burning and its low heating-power it is not used for fuel except for firing bricks, and to some extent in the pottery-kilns. There are also extensive beds of anthracite or culm near Bideford; but this, again, is not of a quality to serve as fuel, except for lime-burning, and the product of the one solitary working is ground up to make a paint called Bideford Black. There are vast and valuable deposits of peat on Dartmoor, in some places as much as thirty feet deep.
16. Fisheries and Fishing Stations.
The fisheries of the British Islands form one of our most important industries, providing regular or occasional employment for nearly 100,000 men and boys in the catching of the fish; for a very great number of persons engaged in secondary occupations connected with the industry, who probably far outnumber the actual fishermen; and for innumerable people of all grades engaged in distributing the eight million pounds' worth of fish brought into the ports of England and Wales each year by British ships alone. The fisheries also furnish an immense quantity of cheap and wholesome food, which, by rapid methods of transit, is available in all parts of the country.
By far the most productive of our fishing-grounds, although not as predominant as it was some years ago, is the North Sea--an area of more than 150,000 square miles, in which are taken more than half of all the British-caught fish, not including shell-fish, which are annually landed on the coasts of England and Wales. More fish are brought, every year, into Grimsby, Hull, Lowestoft, and Yarmouth than into all the other fishing-ports of England put together. It is interesting to note that, while according to the latest returns there were 1731 British steam-trawlers and drifters, exclusive of ordinary fishing-boats, engaged in the North Sea fisheries, there were only 451 similar craft belonging to the ports of Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France put together. In other words there are four British steam-trawlers in the North Sea to every foreigner. Much fishing is also done by English trawlers off the shores of Iceland, Norway, and the Faroës, and the boats now go as far even as the White Sea and the coast of Morocco.
About half the fish are taken by trawling, which consists in dragging a beam of wood, with a net attached to it, along the bottom of the sea, in comparatively shallow water. Very many different species are caught in this way, but haddock, plaice, and cod are by far the most numerous, and make up between them nearly half the total amount of all the fish landed in England and Wales in a year. Much fishing is also done with seine nets, or with drift nets, both of which are long nets, attached to floats of cork or to air-bladders and let down into the sea without regard to the depth, and sometimes at a considerable distance from the shore. Stake nets, fastened to poles fixed in shallow water near the land, are also much used. Herrings are the chief fish caught in drift nets and seines, and more of them are landed than of any other kind of fish. The latest return gives the total quantity of herrings annually brought into English ports as rather more than 200,000 tons, of cod as about 100,000 tons, and of plaice as about 50,000 tons. Pilchards, which are full-grown sardines, and much resemble herrings in appearance, are caught in large quantities--which, however, seem trifling in comparison with those of the three fish named above--in seine nets off the coasts of Cornwall and Devon, and nowhere else in the British Isles. Many fish, especially halibut, cod, and ling are taken with hook and line, sometimes at great depths. Crabs and lobsters are caught in wicker traps or baskets called pots, and oysters are usually taken by dredging.
In spite of its two long stretches of seaboard, the fisheries of Devonshire are not equal in productiveness to those of Cornwall, and are insignificant in comparison with those of the east coast; and the total value of the fish landed at all its ports taken together amounted, according to the latest return, to no more than £150,000, or one-nineteenth of what is landed at Grimsby alone. It was far exceeded at five other east-coast fishing stations.
The fish of the English Channel differ considerably from those of the North Sea. Haddock, the most abundant species on the east coast, is very rare in the south, and practically none are caught at any of the Devonshire fishing stations. The cod, again, is a northern species, and is almost entirely absent from both the Bristol and the English Channels. Whiting is one of the most abundant of English Channel fish; and in this species, as well as in soles and turbot, the south coast is of all the British fishing-grounds second only in productiveness to the east coast. More conger-eels are caught in the English Channel than anywhere else off our islands, and there is also a great abundance of gurnards, skates, and dogfish.
The Devonshire fishermen catch great quantities of whiting, herring, mackerel, sprats, and pilchards, together with considerable numbers of soles, turbot, plaice, pollack, skates, congers, crabs, lobsters, and prawns. Herrings were formerly very abundant off Lynmouth. The last great shoals appeared in 1823. A skate caught off the south coast of Devonshire measured nine feet by six and a half feet, and weighed 560 pounds. The quantity of sprats annually caught in Devonshire waters is very great, but, as in other districts, varies very much in different years. Thus the amount brought into Torquay in 1905 was more than 500 tons, or more than were landed at any other port in the kingdom; but in 1906 the quantity was only 100 tons. Pilchards, as has been already observed, are confined to Cornwall and to the south coast of Devon; but by far the greater quantity are taken at the fishing stations of the former county. Almost all the pilchards caught in Devonshire waters are landed at Plymouth. None are taken further east than Dawlish. These fish, which are particularly oily, are mostly salted and exported to the Mediterranean. Dogfish, which are very abundant and formerly thrown away as worthless, are finding an increasing market, especially in London, where they are filleted and sold as "flake."
The most important fishing stations are Plymouth, Brixham, and Torquay, the annual value of whose fisheries according to the latest return is about £66,000, £60,000 and £8,000 respectively. There is also a good deal of fishing off Exmouth, Teignmouth, Dartmouth, Torcross, and Budleigh Salterton, where the annual values vary from £4000 to £750 a year. It is interesting to compare these figures with the annual value of the fish brought into Grimsby, which, by the last return, amounted to nearly three millions sterling.
There are valuable salmon fisheries at Exmouth, Teignmouth, and Babbacombe; and most of the Devonshire streams abound with trout, although the fish as a rule run small. Thirteen Devonshire fisheries are named in Domesday Book. The most valuable was that at Dartington, for which two fishermen paid a yearly rent of eighty salmon.
17. Shipping and Trade.
The ports of Devonshire once ranked among the first in England, and her sailors have for many centuries been famous for their enterprise and daring. It was from this county that the first English trading-expeditions sailed to Africa, Brazil, and North America. They were Devonshire men, who, by taking possession of Newfoundland, established the first English colony--in which most of the old families are of Devonshire descent. Devonshire ships were long the terror of the Spanish Main. Devonshire men were among the very foremost in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. A Devonshire captain was the first Englishman to sail round the world; and although we remember with regret that his friend and comrade was the first Englishman to engage in the iniquitous traffic of the slave-trade, we are proud to think that few men did more than he to improve our ships and the condition of our seamen.
In their palmy days, in the century or more following the flight of the Armada, Bideford and Topsham had each of them more trade with the young colonies of North America than any other English town except London. Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Dartmouth, Brixham, and Appledore were once important seaports. At the present day not one of the whole seven has sufficient trade to be honoured with a separate entry in the Government Shipping Returns. Plymouth is now the only maritime town of commercial importance. Even its traffic, large as it seems, is small in comparison with that of London or Liverpool, and as far as trading statistics go, it stands no higher than thirtieth among the ports of the United Kingdom.
Several causes have contributed to the decay of the Devonshire ports. Most of them are situated on river-estuaries which, in the lapse of ages, have become silted up by mud and sand brought down by the rivers, or obstructed by shingle washed up by the waves. The harbour of Sidmouth was destroyed by the encroachment of the sea and the fall of the cliffs which formerly protected it. Again, the tonnage of ships, and consequently the amount of water they draw, have very greatly increased since Tudor and Stuart times, when these ports were in their prime; and it would be impossible for the large vessels of to-day to navigate the shallow and danger-strewn waters of our estuaries, even if they could cross the bars by which they are obstructed. Nor is it worth while to improve the navigation by dredging, as is done to so great an extent on the Thames, the Mersey, and the Clyde. The industries of Devonshire are now of small importance, and the county has no great manufacturing centres to supply freights. Plymouth Sound is the only busy waterway, and Plymouth is the one populous town requiring large quantities of imports.
The only harbour in North Devon given in the shipping returns is Barnstaple, with which are associated Ilfracombe, Bideford, and Appledore. Ilfracombe, the only port in the long stretch of coast between Bridgwater and Padstow, had formerly a good deal of traffic with Wales and Ireland, but its tidal harbour is now visited only by excursion steamers and small coasting-vessels.