Adventure and adventurers > Black's guide to the counties of Dorset, Devon, & Cornwall

374
FROM LAUNCESTON TO BODMIN.
Route 2
planet Neptune, was born at a small farm in this lonely district,
about 4 miles north-east.
From the Jamaica Inn it is usual for the tourist to visit the
twin heights of Brown Willy (Bron-Willi) and Rowtor (Rough
Tor), two remarkable elevations of granite situated near each
other,—the one, 3£ miles from the Inn, north, the other nearly
4£ miles north-west. The path winds round a peculiar hill, or
conglomeration of hills, the Tober or Two Barrows, 1122 feet
high, and then crosses a wild and somewhat marshy moor to
Brown Willy, 1368 feet above the sea. To the left a Tin
Stream Work is in active operation. From the summit of the
rock-piled steep the view is of wonderful extent and surpassing
magnificence. Rowtor is 1298 feet high, and remarkable for its
profuse garniture of irregular masses of granite. Though not so
high as Brown Willy, it is more imposing in character, from the
boldness and grandeur of its elevation. A little spring at its
base is the source of the Fowey. The course of the infant stream
points out the situation of another lofty height, the Garrah,
1060 feet, and the circular British camp of Arthur’s Hall. In
the vicinity of Rowtor are the remains of several Hut-circles, or
British villages, and to the west of the hiR lies a Druidic memo¬
rial—a Logan Stone, 15 feet long, 12 feet broad, and 4 feet
thick,—so easily shaken that the tourist may probably be dis¬
posed to test the quality ascribed to it by the poet:—
“ Firm as it seems,
Such is its strange and virtuous property,
It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch
Of him whose heart is pure; hut to a traitor,
Though e’en a giant’s prowess nerv’d his arm,
It stands as fix’d as Snowdon ”—[Mason.)
A Second Excursion from the “ Jamaica Inn” may also be
commended to the tourist—to Dozmare (pronounced Dosmery)
Pool, 2 miles south, a black solitary tarn, 1 mile in circuit and
5 feet deep, lying upon a table land, which is elevated 880 feet
above the sea. Just above it rises the steep crest of Bron Gilly,
1100 feet. It is at this pool that Tregeagle plies his mighty
labour, and seeks to empty its waters with a limpet-shell; but
by means of an artificial cutting they now descend into a branch
of the Fowey, which rises near the Bodmin road, at a short dis¬
tance below “ the Inn.”