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Page 17 - For men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession ; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...
Page 243 - her beauty ; like the moon from the cloud of the " East. Loveliness was around her as light. Her " steps were like the music of songs.
Page 194 - They are either low walls of stones piled rudely together in a ridgelike form, or belts of larger stones placed erect in the ground. Their general form is circular, but some examples are elliptical. Remains of habitations are in most cases found in these inclosures, so that we may justly conclude that they were originally constructed for purposes of security and defence. Grimspound is by far the finest and most extraordinary of all the relics of this class. Viewed from Hooknor tor, which commands...
Page 193 - One very perfect specimen is found in the corner of a very remarkable incloture, which is divided by irregular lines of upright stones. The hut is in a state comparatively perfect, the upper part only having fallen in. It appears to have been shaped like a beehive, the walls being formed of large stones and turf, so placed as to terminate in a point. These huts have their counterparts still extant in the shealings of the Orkneys, some of which, composed of stone and turf, have the form of ovens or...
Page 117 - We cannot lower the waters of misery by pressing them down in different places, which must necessarily make them rise somewhere else : the only way in which we can hope to effect our purpose is by drawing them off.
Page 307 - Warleigh; and have been assured, by a good observer, that martins have frequently been seen flying during mild weather even in the Christmas week, at Plympton. These birds build in the hollows of the rocks under Wembury Cliffs, as well as about the houses in this neighbourhood.
Page 247 - ... of others, a mode of writing which the Eastern imaginative writers much affect. The Gulistan is divided into eight chapters: on the morals of kings ; on the morals of dervishes ; on the excellency of contentment ; on the advantages of taciturnity; on love and youth; on imbecility and old age; on the effects of education ; and rules for conduct in life. The first seven chapters consist chiefly of moral stories, some of them apparently from real history, others fables, each in some degree bearing...
Page 195 - ... of the town. A spring rising on the eastern side supplies the inclosure with water. " Many similar inclosures on a less extensive scale are found in every district of the moor. One, however, is so essentially different in construction from all the others, that it merits a particular description. " In a small pasture field, about a furlong SE of Manaton Church adjoining a parish road, is an inclosure of an elliptical form, in an exceedingly perfect condition. The stones of which the fence is composed,...
Page 195 - The vestiges of antient habitations within this primitive fence are numerous, and occupy the whole inclosure, leaving only one vacant spot at the upper end, which might have been a place of public resort for the inhabitants of the town. A spring, rising on the eastern side, supplies the inclosure with water, and the whole presents a more complete specimen of an antient British settlement, provided with means of protracted defence, than will be found in any other part of the kingdom.
Page 193 - ... in these the stones are set on their edge, and placed closely together, so as to form a secure foundation for the superstructure, whether that they were wattle,* turf, stone, or other material. These vestiges strikingly illustrate the descriptions which Diodorus Siculus and Strabo give of the habitations of the Britons of their times. The former describes them as "poor cottages constructed of wood and covered with straw ;" the latter as "wooden houses, circular in form, with lofty conical roofs.

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