Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

A Perambulation of the Ancient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor, by Samuel Rowe, Vicar of Devon, published in 1848, includes etchings of some of the archeological and geological attractions to be found on the moor.

At left, a tolmen (or dolmen), a simple burial chamber; above, a fallen tolmen

A 19th-century view of Dartmoor Prison

"There's a convict escaped from Princetown, Sir."
Dartmoor Prison was founded at Princeton, on Dartmoor, in 1809 to house prisoners of war. Conditions in the prison during the 19^th-century were notorious, and there was a high mortality rate. Escapes were not uncommon. The difficulties of recapturing prisoners on the foggy moor are described in A.J. Rhodes, Dartmoor Prison (1933).