Legendary Dartmoor The many aspects past and present of Dartmoor
Here is a poem that speaks of a man’s desire to be up on the open moor where his soul is at home, it’s a sentiment dear to many a moor-lovers heart. If you can detect a hint of history running through the lines that is because Alexander Henry Abercromby Hamilton had a passion for it and in 1892 was president of the Devonshire Association.
| DARTMOOR
Too long have I dwelt In the valley beneath ; Too long have I felt The soft summer wind’s breath ; Too long have I lingered In evergreen bowers, And drank the air laden With fragrance of flowers.
Let me fly to the mountains, The noble, the free, Whence, sparkling, the fountains Leap down to the sea. Let me feel their fresh breezes Blow full on my breast ; For toil better pleases Than wearisome rest.
In haste, rapture-smitten, I climb the steep Tor Where the camp of the Briton Looks over the moor. Like the sea in its trouble The granite hills rave, Each hillock a bubble, Each mountain a wave. |
Oh ! wise were the oak-priests Of ancient renown, Who chose for their temples The mountain’s gray crown ; Who loved the wild moorland, And sought, not in vain, On the hills for the wisdom Denied to the plain.
Alexander Henry Abercromby Hamilton 1884 |
