Dartmoor Tapestry

“Easdon Lane” by Marika Tyler-Clark

DARTMOOR TAPESTRY by Mark Beeson

Shy violet stillness under the trees: a moment of contemplation till the sun and the ground in a gust of  wind stir into conversation through the mixing of light with shadow. Constellations of yellow  tormentil star the green roads of turf, that lead where pink cross-leaved heath and purple bell-heather will glow on the edge of mustard gold western gorse, and a sleek stream slides into the length of a  pool with otter-like ripples and bubbles. A cloud shadow rests on the hill flanks, tenderly as a head laid against a stomach. Primrose sun-flare and saxifrage patterns under the alder and willow among  clumps of wild daffodils whose stalks are blued by the wind, are all different moods of light with  different thoughts attached to them in a human observer. The spring turf is full of the flowers of pink  lousewort and heath violet beside the faded brown dry dead bracken, or the vivid maroon drenched  dead bracken, under the high bushes of coconut-scented spring-flowering gorse; and in wet places  wild iris, pink purslane, marsh violets, water crowsfoot, opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, wood  sorrel, wood anemone, with primroses in the shade as hard to look at closely as the sun. 

The summer turf follows on with (letting the names alone do the work): bluebell, heath  speedwell, little kneeling eyebright, heath milkwort, tormentil, birdsfoot trefoil, fairy flax, heath  bedstraw, daisy, whortleberry, bell-heather, ling and western gorse; and in the hay meadows and  hedges: dog violets, wild strawberry, thistle, narrow-leaf hawkweed, dandelion, meadow buttercup,  cuckoo flower, early purple orchid (dead men’s fingers), wall pennywort, cowslip, cow parsley, rough  chervil, wild carrot, hogweed, hemlock, greater stitchwort, lesser stitchwort, forget-me-not, yellow  rattle, hedge vetch, doves-foot cranesbill, garlic mustard, round-leaved cranesbill, hop trefoil,  meadow cranesbill, red clover, herb Robert, herb Bennet, white dead-nettle, archangel, shepherd’s  purse, chickweed, dog-rose, field rose, honeysuckle, pineapple weed, ragwort, foxglove, frog orchid,  twayblade, greater butterfly orchid, heartsease, devil’s bit scabious, purple hoarhound, red campion,  ragged robin, meadowsweet, rosebay willowherb, broom, purple loosestrife, betony, self-heal, corn  poppy, hedge parsley, bramble, field bindweed; and in the bogs cottongrass, lesser spearwort, bog  pimpernel, bog asphodel, common (blue) butterwort, pale butterwort, sundew, ivy-leaved bellflower,  cross-leaved heath, marsh St John’s wort, heath-spotted orchid and southern marsh orchid, all among  the sphagnum moss, some in the water, some in raised places. Grasses: cotton grass, purple moor  grass, common bent, mat grass, bent rush, jointed rush, wood rush, sheep’s fescue, Yorkshire fog. Ferns: polypody, male fern, lady fern, lemon-scented fern by the streams, hart’s tongue, common  maidenhair fern, royal fern. Lichens – a fungus and an alga: fruticose, foliose, crustose, lungwort,  string of sausages, old man’s beard, Smith’s horsehair lichen and speckled sea-storm lichen. Fungi:  field mushroom, puffball, chanterelle, cep, destroying angel, death cap, stinkhorn, honey fungus,  chicken of the woods, fly agaric, amethyst deceiver, velvet shank, hare’s ear. Mosses: pendulous  wing moss, common tamarisk moss, narrow-leaved fringe moss, dwarf haircap, smaller white-moss,  greater fork-moss, broom fork-moss, and grey-cushioned grimmia. Liverworts: Hutchin’s hollywort, star-headed liverwort.  

And the trees: semi-natural Western Atlantic sessile oak woodland (some call it, rather  grandly, temperate rainforest), high altitude pedunculate oak copse, alder carr in the valley bottoms,  alder, alder buckthorn, wild apple, ash - under threat from fungal die-back, black-budded ash tree,  swept concave buds velvet-textured, as delicate as deer hooves, boughs knobbly as antlers, last into  leaf, keys hanging in bunches - beech (green, copper), birch, (downy, silver), bird cherry, blackthorn,  sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, damson, elder, hawthorn, hazel, holly, hornbeam, oak (pedunculate  and sessile), aspen, rowan, sallow, sycamore, whitebeam, willow and wych-elm. Birds flit and sing among them: chaffinch, bullfinch, gold finch, green finch, siskin, blackbird, robin, house sparrow,  redstart, pied wagtail, grey wagtail, dunnock, willow warbler, chiff chaff, whitethroat, nuthatch, tree creeper, garden warbler, blackcap, swallow, house martin, sand martin, swift, wood pigeon, stock  dove, collared dove, great tit, blue tit (ackymal), coal tit, willow tit, song thrush, missel thrush,  kingfisher under the bridge arch, Dartford warbler of the gorse groves, miniscule wren with ear rinsing song and upright tail, jackdaw, rook, chattering magpie, jay’s brilliance, moorhen, starling,  nightjar churring in the moonlight; raptors threaten: merlin, goshawk, sparrowhawk, red-trousered  hobby into the hayfield, flying as fast as the hirundine it chases, startled out of the silence of a sun dried afternoon, hallucinatory manoeuvre blurring of wing beats, a turn of speed beyond what seems  possible - contrasting with the still hover of the kestrel adjusting, balancing its aileron feathers against the wind on the hill-slope with its head kept level; on the high moor: curved bill curlew bubbling like  a fountain, heron fishing silently on a rock, invisible skylark pouring out streams, dipper walking  underwater against the current, stonechat, wheatear, meadow pipit, ring ouzel, snipe drumming, jack  snipe, red grouse in the ling heather, teal, golden plover, dunlin, lapwing that lures the walker away  from her ground nest with a drooping wing and a limp, the whicker of the peregrine, the purr of the  raven, the mew of the buzzard, and at dusk the hissing of barn owls, the screech and round hoots of  tawnies under the stars. A swallow swoops past, azure-black, dips into the pond to drink, flown eight thousand miles from the cliffs and high plains of sub-Saharan Africa, to find his missed-one, perched,  waiting in exactly the same place he left her last summer, alone on an aerial, chattering excitedly - a  journey and reunion as improbable as the thin band of atmosphere that holds us in its hands on the blue ball of the nurturing Earth. 

Mammals: pony, Galloway, red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, Blackface sheep, fox, badger,  otter, brown hare (longear), rabbit, grey squirrel, hedgehog, stoat, weasel (fitch), field vole, dormouse,  yellow-necked mouse, harvest mouse, house mouse, brown rat, common shrew, pigmy shrews  holding each other’s tails in their tiny grey snouts that process through the cover of dead bracken as if  they were a large human family holding hands among the bluebells; bats: pipistrelle, pipistrelle  soprano, Nathusius’ pipistrelle, whiskered, horseshoe (greater and lesser), Daubenton’s, barbastelle,  brown long-eared, grey long-eared, Leisler’s, Natterer’s, noctule, serotine, Brandt’s, Bechstein’s.  Cold-blooded vertebrate creatures: adder (nadder, longcripple), grass snake, slow worm, lizard, frog,  toad, newt, brown trout, stickleback, minnow, eel, sea-trout, salmon (alevin, parr, smolt, grilse, kelt) - anadromous, that go down river to the ocean and spend years in the cold seas off Greenland, rich in  oxygen and herring, returning to the same small stream to spawn, away from the jaws of the porpoise,  that rollicking half-moon blade of the deep - away from the bark of the seal, whiskery watch-dog of  shorelines - away from the estuary fishermen's nets with their shadows of ripple like ribs on the  innocent sand of a bay - away from the thickness of salt, the sea-louse’s suction - to force a course up  the river’s bitter and difficult purity. Compromised purity, with sewage and nitrates. 

Water: blue river smokes at dusk, singeing the night air with its animal heat of rush and slither  and gulp and exhalation, catching breath as it turns on its back in the dark-skinned pools - shillet,  ream, jet, rill, channer, scour, stickle, riffle, waterfall, rapid, spate, Brad-stones, stepping stones, weir, leat, stream, brook, burn, lake, pool, well, reservoir. Terrain: tor – some well-known names:  Houndtor, Bowerman’s Nose, Haytor, Bonehill Rocks, Kestor, Heltor, Blackingstone Rock, Fur Tor,  Fox Tor, Lynx Tor, Hare Tor, Yes Tor, Bellever Tor, Yar Tor, Sharp Tor, Sheepstor, Trowlesworthy  Tors with their pink granite, Pugh Tor, Vixen Tor, Branscombe’s Loaf where a lost hungry Bishop  was tempted by a moorman with horns and hooves under his cloak, Hookney Tor that keeps guard  over Grimspound on the Hameldown ridge, graceful Greator Rocks, Honeybag Tor with its tall  whortleberry bushes; and some lesser known ones, often in trees: Brett Tor, Blackadon Tor above the  meet of the two Webburns where the feckless Cavalier hid, Leusdon Tor, Rock Copse Tor, Badger  Rocks on the west slope of Easdon where the play The Badgers was once rehearsed, Logwell Rock,  Loughten Tor, Cripdon Tor, Pixies’ Holt in Huccaby Cleave above the West Dart, a tor in woodland which conceals a natural cave, the largest on the moor, wide and long enough for a human to live in - rock, down, hill, ball, beacon, common, ridge, nose, stones, head, barrow, piles, coombe, marsh, mire,  valley bog, featherbed, blanket bog, pool; field names: Clayhanger, Homer, Reefer’s, Gratnar,  Newtake, Pitts, Platt, Rocky Field (because there are several immoveable rocks in it), Meadow, Park;  the high moor: grazing rights - turbury, estover, common in the soil, piscary, pannage – beam works,  gulley, stamping mill, blowing mill, wheel-pit, wheal, adit, mine-shaft, clapper bridge, quarry, ice  factory, tramway, reave, lynchet, hut circle, pound, stone-row, stone circle, cairn, cist, dolmen,  menhir, logan stone, church, granite gravestones, sheep-walk, peat hags, sog of peat and the scent of  peat. Buildings: Princetown - funded by a granite prison built to house French prisoners of war on the  initiative of Thomas Tyrwhitt of Tor Royal, private secretary to the Prince of Wales, Lord Warden of  the Stannaries and Member of Parliament for Okehampton; longhouse, central passage, inglenook,  spiral staircase, hipped roof, crucked beam, ashlar masonry, shippon, corn barn, ash-house, root  house, hayloft and linhay. Forestry: darkness of conifers, sitka spruce, douglas, Scots pine, the  remnants of phytophthora-ravaged larch with sparrow-hawks at dimmets hunting the small birds,  firecrests, gold-crests, long-tailed tits that congregate like huge mosquitoes on the brown skin of the  forest. Rocks: crystaline quartz, amethyst, shining mica, (muscovite and biotite), feldspar - orthoclase and plagioclase – hornblende, tourmaline, luxullianite, elvan dykes, cassiterite, copper pyrites, micaceous haematite, gold-bearing pegmatite, zinc, arsenic, lead, silver, gold, apatite, topaz, hornfelised culm, black marble, carboniferous Namurian shale and sandstone, the Crackington  formation. What have the rocks seen and keep to themselves? Weather: snow, frost, ice, Ammil, gale,  mist, fog, mizzle, drizzle, rain, hail, sun and drought. Dead things: a sheep’s carcase beside the stream  with a pair of ravens feeding on it; insects digested by the honey trap of sundew; withering of plants,  branches rotting, the decay of fungi, dung dispersed by flies and beetles. 

Storm, the thundering of wind, the slash of horizontally driven rain: pony in the night storm sheltered in the lee of a boulder, the lee of a hawthorn, buffeted by bullets of hail, or the deceptive  softness of snow that turns bitter slowly, wind’s thud denting her hide, wind whipping her fringe into  her half closed long-lashed eyes, cold creeping through her wet damp fur, iciness from the north; wind  in the night howling all round her, roaring and clapping, swirling with the coldness of river current, a  baltic pouring, gripping and ripping its tide-race, hammering like water canon in a sudden flash of  lightning, crash of thunder, while the tortured pony stands four square, thinking of better times, dreaming of June grass before the fly hatches, hesitating to move - to find a spot a little more  sheltered, a tor, a gully, the edge of the forestry – because of the maelstrom, the whirlwind - not  knowing what to do to relieve the painfulness, the distress, except to shift uneasily from one hoof to  the other, waiting for dawn. 

Sunrise over the sea, over Teignmouth, south east on the bay, piercing the clouds with a new  day, light’s wings, different world. Butterflies: tortoiseshell, red admiral, painted lady, peacock, holly  blue, common blue, orange tip, brimstone, clouded yellow, skipper, meadow brown, wall brown,  marbled white, white admiral, speckled wood, pearl-bordered fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary flying strongly close to the ground through glades of oak and rock silently beside the sounding of the  river, searching for the nectar of brambles and thistles, laying its eggs on dead vegetation next to  violets, its wings the same colour as the gravels in the pools where the trout and the salmon spawn,  high brown fritillary, marsh fritillary with its web of caterpillars, huge silver-washed fritillary, dark  green fritillary, cabbage white, green-veined white, copper, comma, green hairstreak, brown argus,  small heath. Day-flying moths: cinnabar, fox moth, Tiger moth, yellow underwing, oak eggar, humming bird hawk-moth. Other insects: mayfly, azure damselfly, rare southern blue damselfly, blue tailed damselfly, dragonflies: southern hawker, emperor, golden-ringed - a voracious predator that  will eat other dragonflies; oil beetle moving stately, its glossy beauty parasitic, that has come from the  nest of a solitary bee, its larva having climbed from its own nest onto a flower visited by the bee,  clung onto it and been flown back to the bee’s nest where it feeds on the bee’s eggs and then emerges  as an adult; antlers of stag beetle, May bug droning – in 1320 a court in Avignon sentenced Maybugs  to withdraw to a special reserve on account of the damage they were doing to crops, and when  predictably they failed to comply they were thereafter permitted to be killed if found - wood ants with  their glistening cities, honey bees murmuring on the sweet dangling flowers of sycamore all over the  tree, white-tailed bumble bee, hoverfly, horsefly, tick, wasp, ichneumon wasp, horntail wasp, hornet,  hornet robber fly, giant house spider, money spider, gorse spider mites and green orb-weaver spider that leaves a field of grass gemmed with dew-sparkling webs on a summer morning. 

Human names: Jay’s Grave, Stephens’ Grave, Fitz’s Well, Drake’s Leat, King’s Oven,  Abbot’s Way, Cater’s Beam, Tor Royal, Princetown, Figgy Daniel, Watching Place, Frog Mire,  Frogs’ Parlour, Dragonshill, Whippet Richard, Roof on the Hill, Fearweathersmore, Shadyback Tor,  Peppercornbeme, Breakbackbeme, Hangman’s Pitt, Hangman Stream and Gibbet Hill. And the river  names, most ancient of all: Bovey, Wray, South Teign, North Teign, North Wallabrook, Headon (also  Wallabrook), Blackaton Brook, Taw, East Okement, West Okement, West Walla Brook, Lyd, Tavy,  Walkham, Meavy, Newlycombe Lake, Plym, Yealm, Erme, Aune (also known as Avon), Dean Burn,  Mardle, Cowsic, Blackabrook, Cherrybrook, West Dart, O Brook, Venford Brook, East Dart, Double  Dart – valley of sacred oak, water lapping at a willow stick makes a nub on the driftwood proud of the  current it engorges above, swelling to a dark liquid mound that’s silken as a wormcast, but with  strength to send waves out on the solid mass of moving water, stirring the surface with a small  disturbance widening, a steady pulsing store of ripples distributed, darkling energy becoming a  sunbeam on the blackness of the deep pool, laughing and lapping in its light turn at the lips of the  banks - Swincombe, Strane, Wallabrook, Red Water Brook, Nipril (also East Webburn), West  Webburn, Lemon, Sig, Ashburn, Becka Brook.