William Crossing Memorial Stone/Monument, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park

William Crossing Memorial Stone/Monument, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park

At Ducks' Pool, in a remote section of Dartmoor's south plateau, are a letterbox and monument to the celebrated Dartmoor author William Crossing. A plaque reads:

'IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM CROSSING. AUTHOR OF MANY INSPIRING BOOKS ON DARTMOOR WHOSE GUIDE IS A SOURCE OF INVALUABLE INFORMATION TO ALL LOVERS OF THE MOOR. DIED 3RD SEP 1928 AGED 80.'

His work provides a remarkable body of knowledge about Dartmoor and is best introduced by the man himself. In his Preface to the 1909, and first, edition of his 'Guide to Dartmoor', Crossing wrote:

'DURING recent years the claims of Dartmoor as a holiday and health resort have become widely recognized. Those to whom an old world region is an attraction will find it a field of surpassing interest. No district in England of similar extent is so rich in pre-historic remains, and in none does Nature wear a wilder aspect.

To this elevated tract of land no guide book, in the true sense of the term, has hitherto appeared. It has, of course, been noticed in county guides, and there are also topographical works and handbooks descriptive of it, but in the former the accounts are necessarily superficial, while in the latter the visitor in not given any directions for finding his way over those parts of the waste remote from roads. To enable him to learn what Dartmoor really is he needs something beyond notices of the more celebrated, because more readily accessible, places and objects of interest. He should be led from the beaten track, and wander among the hills where signs of man's occupancy are not, where silence broods over the sea of fen, and the pasture grounds of the cattle that range at will are as they were when the Norman herdsmen drove his beasts there; or he should stray into solitary combes encumbered with the ruined huts and fallen rock-pillars of the people who once made this land their home. As my acquaintance with Dartmoor is a life-long one, and as it has been with me a subject of study and of systematic investigation during many years, it is with some degree of confidence that I take upon myself the task of conducting the visitor over it, and leading him into remoter parts.

This book is the first to give a complete topographical description of Dartmoor, and the reader may depend upon its being correct.'

If you have a passion for Dartmoor, we'd recommend yomping up to the William Crossing Memorial Stone/Monument and reading his famous 'Guide to Dartmoor'.