Quartz and feldspar: Dartmoor - a British landscape in modern times

Synopsis

Granite, A Tough Composite Of Quartz, Feldspar And Mica, Is The Stuff Of Dartmoor, The Most Formidable Of The Five Granite Bosses Punctuating Britain's Southwest Peninsula. A Miserable Place Of Rain And Bog Or A Sunny Upland Of Exquisite Natural Beauty, Here The Elements Are Raw, The Sky Huge And Nature Seems Ascendant. But It Is No Less A Place Made By Human Beings. Stone Circles, Stone Crosses, Dwellings And Boundaries Speak Of The Ancient, Medieval And Modern People That Extracted A Living From The Moorscape And Created What It Is Today. Where Convicts Are Incarcerated, Backpackers Roam Freely; Where Commoners Graze Livestock, The Army Is Trained; Where The National Park Authority Exercises Control, The Duchy Of Cornwall Claims Ownership. And Dartmoor Remains A Place That Provides. Reservoirs Hold The Water Drunk By Local People. China Clay Is Extracted From Its Mineral Reserves. Not Long Ago Granite Was Quarried From Its Hillsides. What Is Modern Dartmoor And What Should It Be? Did Druids Officiate Here? Can The Bog Be Drained And Crops Grown? Is It The Place For A Prison? And What Of Its People's Future, And The Fate Of Its Ponies, Cows And Sheep? For Three Hundred Years Such Questions Have Been Asked Of The Moor. Quartz And Feldspar Does Not So Much Provide Answers As Unearth Those Who Did And The Arguments They Provoked. Pt. I Antiquarianism And Archaeology Perambulation -- Samuel Rowe And His Antiquarian Antecedents -- Cornish Contexts And Druidical Dartmoor -- Romantic Reverie And Protestant Purpose -- The Archaeological Turn And A Dartmoor Of Race -- Becoming Adult -- Pt. Ii Improvement And Incarceration Perambulation -- Prisoners Of War: Dartmoor Becomes A National Question -- Drainage, Manure And Redemption -- Punishment And Reformation -- Bogs And Fogs -- Pt. Iii Preservation And Amenity Enter William Crossing -- Dartmoor For Devonshire? -- Dartmoor: A National Park? -- Designation And Television -- Wood -- Water -- The Services -- Conserving A Resource -- Pt. Iv Commoners And Conservation Perambulation -- Ancient Rights And Modern Usage -- Animal Welfare -- Achieving Balance -- New Thinking. Matthew Kelly. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 435-474) And Index.