Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/538

Of Dartmoor and its Borderland, 157 the ground, and built into a modern wall. It has been suggested that it is the pedestal of a cross, and this is not improbable. There is no socket cut in it, but upon it may have been placed the stone in which the cross was set. It is two feet in height, and the lower part is square, but having the corners chamfered, the side facing the road measuring just over three feet. Fourteen inches from the bottom the corners are cut away, forming the top into an octagon, the sides of which are seventeen and eighteen inches across. It is known as the Bishop's Stone, and some faint carving on one of its sides is said to represent the arms of Bishop Grandisson, who, according to a tradition, dined upon it, when passing on one occasion through Lustleigh. But there seems to be a better explanation of its name ; it is probable that the stone once marked the boundary of some episcopal possessions. The late Mr. J. B. Davidson in a paper relating to a document now in the Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, setting forth some ancient boundaries in this and adjoining parishes, suggests that this stone, or an inscribed stone that is now in the south porch of Lustleigh Church, is one of the bond-marks named in the manuscript the Writelan Stone. He states that he considers it probable that the lands comprehended within the boundaries mentioned on the document were in some way connected with the See of Exeter, one fact tending to confirm this supposition being that the ancient piece of writing was found among the Cathedral archives. If then the tract of land in question was really so connected, it would seem more likely that the granite block now known as the Bishop's stone is identical with the Writelan Stone, than that we see this old boundary mark in the stone at the church. The latter is laid across the south entrance, a situation from which it certainly ought to be rescued, as although it is now kept covered by a mat in order that the characters upon it may not be utterly effaced, it is by no means one likely ta aid in its preservation. The inscription upon it has been read as Catvidoc Conrino, but some of the letters are not very distinct. From Lustleigh we shall proceed to Bovey Tracey by the road connecting Moretonhampstead with that town, and just as we enter it shall notice the lower portion of the shaft of a cross, fixed in a base of granite, and standing on some