Moretonhampstead, Devon

Description
Moreton Hampstead, a small town and a parish in Devonshire. The town stands on a gentle eminence on the E verge of Dartmoor, with a station on the G.W.R., 222 miles from London, 2 1/2 S of the river Teign, and 12 WSW of Exeter. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of parish, 7910 ; population, 1543. The town was entered by Sir Thomas Fairfax with his army in 1646; is surrounded on all sides except the W by lofty hills; enjoys a remarkably salubrious climate, insomuch that its inhabitants present a singulaily healthful and robust appearance; has environs strewn with huge fragments of rocks, and presenting a bold contrast of cultivated land on the foreground to the barren heights of Dartmoor in the background; consists of one principal street and two or three smaller ones, with houses chiefly old and irregularly built; contains an old cross and an arcaded poorhouse of the l7th century; and has two chief inns, a market-house, a church, dissenting chapels, and an endowed school. The church is ancient, comprises nave, aisles, tran-septal porch, and chancel, and contains a carved wooden screen. An elm tree is at the entrance of the churchyard, and the branches of it are said to have been trained to support a stage for dancing. There are Calvinistic, Baptist,. Wesleyan, and Unitarian chapels. A weekly market is held on Tuesday, and a cattle market is held on the third Tuesday in each month. The woollen trade was formerly carried on to a considerable extent, but began to decline about 1810,. and is now defunct. George Bidder, the famous mental calculator, was a native. There is a convalescent home in connection with one at Torquay. The manor belongs to the Earl of Devon. Cranbrook Castle, overlooking the Teign valley, is an ancient entrenchment, with a double fosse on the N side. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter; value, £400 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Devon.