SECTION THE FIRST. Tavistock. LOCAL ATTRACTIONS-HISTORICAL NOTICES-DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN, WITH ITS VARIOUS BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. "The duteous river laves Fair Tavistock! thine Abbey's mould'ring walls, And flows complaining by." CARRINGTON. HE home of an Englishman connects itself with his dearest interests and affections. Bid him describe it, and you instantly command his gratitude; sympathize with his admiration of it, and you make him your friend: it is his heart's best treasure; and every thing connected with it is viewed through the magnifying medium of the association which endears to him one favoured spot. I will not stop to explain the untold yet deeply felt charm of local attachment. "Ad ogni uccello Il suo nido par bello." * Time urges me onward to scenes which will repay even an uninterested spectator for their survey, however slight and casual that may be. "To every bird Its own nest appears beautiful." B The vale in which Tavistock is situated is rich in mingled attractions. The Tavy, in its devious course through field and woodland renders fertile every spot of ground within the influence of its liquid stores. On either side of the river small eminences frequently appear, dotted with trees, and backed by the noble tors of Dartmoor, frowning in barren grandeur on the quiet beauty of which they are themselves totally destitute. From the marshy waste innumerable little tributaries take their source and after dashing aud foaming through their rocky channels, precipitate themselves by a thousand mimic cataracts into the larger stream. Amongst these the Walla, celebrated by the poet Browne, claims our first notice as "bride of the vale." Whether some secret converse is carried on, in subterraneous caves, between the two rivers, we cannot presume to say, but certain it is that the Walla, after visiting the narrow vallies of Kilworthy and Ina's Coombe; losing itself in the shady retreats once haunted by the pixies; and practising sundry vagaries of a like nature, at length emerges into broad daylight and is married to the gentle Tavy in the centre of the vale. A gay affair is that never-ending wedding, for thither resort "the coy beauties of the meadow" displaying their richest bloom, and sweetest fragrance. Much more remains to be said respecting these wandering rivers, but it becomes us now to return to the town of Tavistock, which we shall consider as a central point of the attractions of its neighbourhood. This place is rendered venerable by its undoubted antiquity. Tracing its history to the earliest times, we may suppose from its sheltered and agreeable situation that it afforded a principal residence for the Dan-monii* or inhabitants of * The Rev. W. Evans gives me the derivation of this word from the |