From this spot [Hound Tor] the cottages at the west boundary of the common must be gained, where the road turns sharply to Manaton, leading on close under that grotesque pile, yclept Bowerman's Nose, whose fantastic configuration, taken from various points of view will allow the imagination to revel in a sphinx's head, or some of Cruikshank's hieroglyphics; it should be visited for the tourist to determine whether it be the work of man or of nature?in Carrington's "Dartmoor" page 85, and note, page 206, is an interesting description of the mystic pile which

"On the very edge
Of the vast moorland, startling every eye
A shape enormous rises! high it towers
Above the hill's bold brow, and seen from far
Assumes the human form;?a granite god!
To whom in days long flown the suppliant knee
In trembling homage bow'd?the hamlets near
Have legends rude connected with the spot
(Wild swept by every wind) on which He stands
The Giant of the Moor!"

The face of the country around in almost every direction, has such rude appearance as would lead one to think that some great commotion of nature must have occasioned these scenes of confusion exhibited by the scattered rocky fragments, which in

"Unnumbered shapes
"By nature strangely formed?fantastic?vast
"The silent desert throng."?

[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]