Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-17
THE WAR PRIMER Dy Nssjensl Geographic Society.

Dsr4mssr sne Its prises--Tbe de- eislon of the British Government to ssoss the great convict grizon ef history. 4 bu.1ss5n fss9sd Sy. tf5s Ma tt0na1 Geozraphic Society from 1ts Wzs5sintt0B Headquarters s3vss the following iBtsfsstfns account of this 5nsfitut5ep aBd it's eBviFonss
 The prison was built fB the 1fst 1n@ prisoners who had fsl1sn into British hands in the ceafss of tbe Nageseen5e 1908, and its walls rose speedily. q was pfono1pcsd the last word tn psB- 1le1fc architecture. apd in tti1 tie administration at Darta11or wss wide. y Z, praise praised esessss - Rsfsaltisa sst aS G without the walls, and t0 receive q snuau stipend for their iabors,
 "Fo,lowine the cioss of the War unused for some yssrs, though many plans were proposed for t.tfllzing it's buildings, and fn fste, at the ssgfes4, ton Of the Prince consort, the place to a general prison ssch as t has since remained. The criminals sent to Dartpoor were aIi from t5e l0Bg- term class and many transfers wege fui and brscipE climate, due to its sj- evatfon-about i,40D feet was fouBd especially efieaetous in the first stages Of pulmonary disease.
 Town, SO named for the Prince Regent who was Lord Of the land at the time the convict station was erected, and is situated in the so-caiIed west guar ter" of the 'aneIept and Royal Forest or chass' of partruoor,
 Dartntoor Forest lies in the County of Devon, fn the northwest of the western peninsula of the United King .ien. and since iss! 1t has been perm anent;y Joined 10 the Dpchy of Corn wall. which constitutes the major property Of the heir to the throne. It thus belongs to subject, rather than 70 the Crown; and, in consequence, is not legally entitled to the privileges of Ia Forest, though Dartmoor has ai- ways retained them. - t."I
 "The Forest. now wooded no longer, is exceedingly rough fin contour; is which obtrudes upon the heights in the craggy tors" with which the Moor Is studded. It embraces more than zso,ooo acres. which fife wholly Eighty years ago William Hewitt writing of Rural Life in England" advised one to pass into Dartmoof If you want sterness and loneliness granite. views into far-off districts and the sound of waters hurrying away over their rocky beds" From generation to generation Dartmoor mas been DFdu0Gu Uy LTA0lLlOndI pre- judice with an ill-name. r. has been proverbial as the spot where bleak skies and brooding storms have re- naained undisputed and andisturbed; and the classieally inclined have known it as a modern fatherland of rains corresponding to the Simborum Pa trsa of Virgil.
 "Yet the rivers of Dartrnoor made the meads of Devon, that Canaan of the West of England whose fertility and loveliness are due almost wholly to the refreshment poured down upon them from the perennial fountains of the misty moor where every hollow is a granite cup from which are fed perpetually the streams which pierce the rough peat soil and carry bless ing from the rugged steeps of the central wilderness of Devon to the lowlands on either side. These rivers. dozen in number, bear historic names. especially the Dart, whence the Moor itself is known, which takes It's origin from the Celtic dwr, or water and which eInpties into the Teign discharges at Teisnrnouth and the Piym at Plymouth. Among them. too. is the Avon-bat not that of Shakespeare-one of the half dozen of the name that England claims.
 "Dartmoor is sometimes claimed as the last stronghold of prehistoric man in England, but his remains go back no farther than the days Of the Nav Stone Age. His marks are plW1eifel however. and betoken. once thick population. Ceft and Saxon have left but little trace, and the Romans none at all.
 Though here the Celts conquered the Iberian tribes. they did not exter- lninate them. The conQuerofS con- tended themselves with the fringes of the wilderness and as one penetrates into the midst of the MOOT. following in the wake of that advancing civilie ration which halts not for any of the frowns of nature, he finds numerous traces of the age that was The pass ing of Dartmoor prison is only a minor phase in the aeons of changes which this central highland has seen."