We left Hope Cove House (very nice food, great spot with views, friendly, smart and relaxed place, bed a bit uncomfortable, no tea and coffee in the room so had to make an expedition downstairs to get it in the morning, 7/10) and went to the New Bridge (16th Century). We parked at the side of the road and walked up the River Dart through the woods.
It was damp and a bit drizzly early on. The oak trees were hanging with wet lichen and moss.
Back at the New Bridge we watched a Dipper for a bit.
We went to Princetown and had lunch in the Prince of Wales hotel.
It was a large pub decorated with military insignia and, presumably a temporary thing, festooned everywhere with tacky Hallowe’en stuff including animatronic ghouls which kept moving and speaking every time anyone walked past them. Nice pint of Jail Ale, though.
After lunch we drove down the road a few miles and parked near King’s Tor. We walked up to the tor.
The walk included some bog-paddling, and jumping across streams was needed.
There were sheep.
Half an hour later we were at Lewtrenchard manor. It’s a Jacobean manor house originally built in the 1600s.
It was occupied and improved by Sabine Baring-Gould in the late 19th century. He was the squire and parson. He collected many folk songs, and had 15 children, and wrote lots of novels and non-fiction books, and he wrote the hymn ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’.
We walked round the grounds and had a look at the kitchen garden.
Indoors it’s all oak panelling and ornate ceilings and oil paintings.
Lovely food and wine. Chicken-of-the-woods, terrine, pigeon, risotto…