only by
the weird cry of some nocturnal bird or the distant sound of a rushing
stream, to imagine, far away, the baying of this spectre-pack.

The old country folk hold that the man or beast who hears the devilish
music of the Wish Hounds will surely die within the year, and that
any unhappy mortal that stands in the way of the hunt will be pursued
until dawn, and if caught will inevitably lose his soul; for the dark
huntsman, they say, is the devil, whose power is great over that rugged
country between sunset and sunrise.

Even to-day some of the older people will tell you stories of escapes
they have had from the Midnight Hunter, or of the fate that befell some
friend or neighbour very many years ago who never returned from a night
journey across the moor.

But grim as it may be after nightfall, the country which the Abbot's Way
traverses is one of amazing beauty. You may pick up this old track on
the moors a mile or two from Princetown, or strike north to join it from
South Brent or Ivybridge station. To the west there is a stretch of it
clearly marked near Sheepstor where it crosses the head-waters of the
Plym.

Some think the old Way got its name because it was the means of
communication between the Abbeys of Buckfast on one side of the moor and
Tavistock on the other. Others say it was an old wool-trading track to
the west.

Dartmoor all around this district is at its best. It is a riot of rugged
boulder, fern, and heather, through which rushing streams, full of
trout, flow swiftly southward to the Channel. The Tors here are not the
highest of the moor, yet many of them rise well above the 1,500 feet
level.

It is a country easy of access, for the Great Western main line skirts
the southern edge of Dartmoor between Totnes and Plymouth, and railway
and coaching services enable the tourist to visit some of the most
remote parts of the moor in a day trip from Torquay, Dartmouth,
Teignmouth, or in fact any of the South Devon seaside resorts between
Dawlish and Plymouth. But the visitor who wishes to explore Southern
Dartmoor at leisure will find Newton Abbot the most convenient centre.

[Illustration: _The Abbot's Way_]

[Illustration]

THE LOST LAND OF LYONESSE

There is a lot of truth mingled with the old legends that tell of
the lost land of Lyonesse, a fertile and prosperous country that
once extended west from Cornwall as far as the Scillies. According to
those old traditions a vast number