61. Buckland Monachorum. Many of the finest ecclesiastical edifices in the county are to be found in the vicinity of Dartmoor, of such the Church of Buckland Monachorum is an example. It is a large and handsome structure, and its west front, with a lofty tower surmounted with bold pinnacles, and flanked at the base with the north and south aisles, each having a beautiful window of the perpendicular gothic, is very imposing. Its situation also adds to its beauty, the churchyard being partly surrounded by lofty trees, which form so beautiful an adjunct to a country Church. […].

In the church-yard is a grave-stone showing the spot where a witty blacksmith of the place, named George Chowen, lies buried, and on which is the following curious epitaph written by himself.

" My sledge and hammer both declined,
My bellows too have lost their wind,
My fire 's extinct, my forge decay'd
And in the dust my vice is laid,
My coal is spent, my iron's gone,
My nails are drove, my work is done."

The beauty of this Church may be owing in a great measure to the existence of an Abbey of the Cistercian order in the parish, for it is well known that no pains or labour were spared by the monks in raising and decorating the temples of their God. […].

Buckland Monachorum is in the hundred of Roborough and deanery of Tamerton, and lies about four miles from Tavistock.

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