the President of the Royal Geographical Society,remarked in his address at the Anniversary Meeting, 29th May, 1922,that the time had arrived for the emer gence of a new type of explorer—viz. the Homeland explorer,who will explore, observe and describe his own homeland

.In this direction he noted that Thomas Hardy and Maurice Hewlett had made Wessex and Sussex known In is Encouraged by these examples I have endeavoured, magno intervallo no doubt, to throw some light upon what may be termed“

Ancient Dumnonia.

”This is a point in which all Devonians” and, indeed, dwellers in the three western counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall may be especially interested.

“ Dumnonia,” like “ Demetia ” and “ Demetica regio," is a very ancient geographical termand the Dumnonii certainly go back to Roman times and were noted for their sea faring qualities. 

In King Alfred’s time “ Dumnonia” was used by the King’s Biographer, Bishop Asser,and would certainly mean a good deal more than we now mean by the County of Devon which meets Somerset at Countisbury Gate and Exmoor.

But until we are sure of the exact meaning of, say, " Dumnonia ” and “ Demetica regio ” how can we follow King Alfred’s great Danish campaign of 878 ?

Historical problems wait for their real solution upon the proper explanation of geographical terms.Many disputes have turned and still turn upon the exact site of Cynuit and Ethandune, two very momentous fights in our island history.

There is an EdingtonDumnonia Ancient Dumnonia.what time the existing boundaries between West Somerset and North Devon were universally acknowledged is not clear and this uncertainty,dating far back in County annals,has continued even up to modern times.

Florence of Worcester (a.d. 1118) in his Chronicle,when recording the Danish Foray up the Severn Sea in a .d . 997,described it as made upon " Watchet in Devonshire.” Watchet or Wacet, the small Saxon port on the north coast of Somerset,lies many miles within the County borders and, in Domesday (1086) was certainly located within the County as a place of ancient importance.Moreover,in the Somerset Exchequer Lay Subsidies Watchet figured as a Somerset “ Burgus ” or Burgh.

There was the same popular uncertainty about Exmoor and Exmoor Forest,that well-known Royal preserve, which,according to all records we have of Forest Courts and Forest proceedings from the earliest times,was always reckoned a Somerset Forest.This undoubted fact seems to have been lout sight of, or forgotten,when,in the days of Charles I Kmlymion Porter,a Court favourite asked for Simonsbath ioi a porquisite for himself describing it in his application as lying “ within Devon.”Even Sir Henry Spelman in his < 'dialogue of Royal Forests, c. 1670,places Exmoor in Devon.1 I *SV<; Spelman’s Glossary “ Forestae.”2 Dumnonia In this particular case of Exmoor Forest where the Devon Parishes of Countisbury and Brendon and,it may be added, Lynton, and Parracombe, are so close to the north-west corner of the Forest,and Devon landowners and farmers have for so long exercised Common rights on the Forest and along its “ purlieus,” some confusion may be natural. It was a question about which many appeared to be ill-informed or careless.The antiquary Leland knew the boundaries hereabouts when he wrote in his Itinery (a .d . 1538) :“ The bounds of Somersetshire go beyond the stream (i.e. the Barle) one way by north west a 2 miles or more to a plain called the Spanne and the Tourres ;for there be hillocks of yerth cast up of auncient tyme for markes and Limites between Somersetshire and Devonshire and hereabout is the Limes and Bounds of Exmoor Forest.” This would be in the neighbourhood of what is now called “ The Duck-Pool Allotment ” and “ Moles Chamber,” and “ Shoulsbury Castle,” the latter being in Devonshire.But leaving one antiquary for another what can be said of the learned Sir William Dugdale who, in his Epitome of the “ Monasticon,” locates the alien Priory of Stoke Courcy in Devonshire whereas it lay close to the mouth of the River Parret ?] Or what indeed, to the Reverend Richard Warner of Bath, a west country topographer and pedestrian in his day, who when crossing the Parret at Comwich during one of his “ Walks ” to the West (1800),noticed what he termed the “ hills of Devon ” as seen from Comwich Passage,meaning - surely the Qpantock Hills or, perhaps the “ triple-crowned ” Dunkery, all in Somerset.To this day, indeed, many visitors to the West think or speak of Exmoor as lying in Devonshire.The very expression of “ The Devon and Somerset stag hounds ” fosters the illusion although, as a matter of fact,neither the runs or meets of the pack take place as a rule,within Devon,but almost always within the accepted borders of Somerset. There is, we believe, some grounds for these historical uncertainties about the geography of North Devon and West 1.See Strachey’s List of Religious Houses in Somersetshire—Stoke Courey.Ancient Dumnonia 3Humor,not, both countries appearing to have fallen largely within the bounds of one geographical term that covered both, ill any rate as far as the mouth of the Parret, if not further on i and the term was a general one,viz. “ Dumnonia,” pre- norvod in the ancient “ Dyffneint” We feel sure that, in King Alfred’s time,when the biographer Asser spoke of Dumnonia ” he meant a larger geographical term than what l« meant now by Devonshire.The block of country along the Nurl, 1 1 Somerset Coast, comprising the Hundreds of Canning- luii, VVilliton and Carhampton,all Royal Hundreds at Domesday, may have been a debateable region.Exmoor Forest wan a kind of non-Parochial area, and indeed, it was not until I h l m that Exmoor Parish,as an ecclesiastical unit, was called Into being, after the Royal Forest passed by purchase into private hands, the buyer being Mr. John Knight of Worcester shire.In the twelfth century there was an “ Archdeacon ul Heyond Parret,” so described, meaning the present Arch- deacunry of Taunton. The whole question of the evolution u| a " Shire” is interesting especially as Somerset and Dorset Inn I I liu same Shire Reeve (sheriff) up to 1566. Asser, in King Alliol I i mo describes the county as “ Summurtunensis Paga ” in r e gion round Somerton (Sea-moor Town). He also men- liimi a “ Coorl Dumnoniae Comes” who with the help of Diinmonii fought in 851 against the Pagans at Wicgambeorg, * r Wigborough near South Petherton. At Domesday (1086) wn «l and upon clearer ground although even then the “ Shire ” In iiuI i ii definitely stated as we might expect. (>1 certain well-known border families it might be said in i iih way that they hardly knew whether to call themselves I Invi in or Somerset. Ancient place-names such as Wootton- I 'mirli>imy under Dunkery, recall the family of Courtenay, beil known at Powderham Castle in South Devon: Cut- eiiiiibe Mohun, the original Domesday possession of the Mohuns of I lim iter Castle, reminds us also of the Mohuns of Oke- l.i..ttpl<>n in the Dartmoor country : Cutcombe-Raleigh the liwrllagn of the Nettlecombe Raleighs on the Brendons, bor- dmlnu: mi ICxmoor, (a kindred branch, surely, of the Raleighs wlio lived at Challacombe-Raleigh, not far from Barnstaple), ill lent (lie ramification of a family equally rooted in Devon