> actually the Smithsonian article was a little vague. I wonder if
the name
> of the original Dartmoor challenger is known? When exactly?

Last year I wrote an article on Letterboxing, which you can read on
my Web site. It provides the name of the first
Dartmoor "Letterboxer," and other information that the Smithsonion
article did not.

http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/letterboxing

Once there, click on "About Letterboxing" along the left navigation
bar.

Ruthann

Hi Great Ram (Eric)

Thanks for the email...I replied to the January posting at the time by
talking about some new stamps that I was drafting for a history of US
letterboxing...I also had some off-list chats to Susan and The Drews etc !
>
>
>"from: "Eric J. Eurto" To: Letterbox Egroup 6 Jan 2001 ...I was thinking
>just now. We have the history or at least how letterboxing began in
>Dartmoor, England. Eric J. Eurto AKA ~The Ram~"
>
>actually the Smithsonian article was a little vague. I wonder if the name
>of the original Dartmoor challenger is known? When exactly? Comments
>Graham?

The story of Dartmoor Letterboxing beginnings is very well known...and the
names of the early letterboxers looks like a "who's who" in literature,
the arts and aristocracy ..Including Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle,
and The Prince of Wales (Later to marry Wallace Simpson abdicate the
throne and become the "Duke of Windsor" in exile in Paris and never again
to return to Dartmoor)

Conan Doyle even describes Letterboxing in "The Hound of the
Baskervilles".....

Only last year I was privileged to both exchange emails, and meet up with
one of the latest and equally venerated visitors to Dartmoor...Judi (Space
Traveller ) Space.

I must say that I met up with Judi and her partner Mike not on Dartmoor
but in the comfort of a London bookshop cafe.

Space Traveller is an active LbNA member from Pennsylvania and was at the
last US meet..Check out the photos on the LbNA site !!.

She has placed a box in a wonderfully evocative site which is also roughly
where Sherlock Holmes was placing his Letterboxes on Dartmoor..though they
were for Dr Watson only of course !

Even Judi doesn't know it yet, I'm sure, but her box has just this week
appeared in our own British Dartmoor catalogue update ! (yesterday
actually ie 13/02/2001).

It will appear in print in book form with all the other extant Dartmoor
boxes on 25 March 2001...(that's clock change day for us !) Place your
orders now !!

You'll notice that we don't use all this hi-tech web based stuff.
Obviously we can't get the quality of web-mastering that you have in LbNA
land ! And, well, we like to be quaint... hiking along with a nice fat
letterboxers "bible" in your pocket has a nice solid feel to it ... The
"lap-top" with the mobile phone modem link, seems a bit out of place on
the moor imho

The entry for Judi's box "Dartmoor Style" says "Grimspound Goddess" (?---
---) No. 31,802 . 70p from the SE gate, bearing 150 degrees to a rocky
nose just above a large flat rock.

[Note that is Dartmoor letterbox, thirty-one thousand, eight hundred and
two ! ..What's the US count ? I often wonder why you don't number yours ?]

We also number our "moving boxes" , or what LbNA call "hitch-hikers" ! We
count those separately ie M-counts ..ooh dear not another code ...P,F,X,
now M ....But then there are T's ..and B's and even W's ......
...and another variety of "P".......
.....................er help !!

I would be very pleased write a longer piece about Dartmoor history for
LbNA if you wish..but the raw data is ..

The First Letterbox was placed by

" James Perrot " (with an e)

Who lived in what is still today a wonderful town, lost in time, called
"Chagford" !

The first Letterbox was

.. at a place called "Cranmere Pool"
...............(the box is close by)
...............(Cranmere Pool is a remote place !)
...............(It isn't actually a pool at all !)

..the year was 1854...

Or more simply ..this year marks 147 years of letterboxing..

Or 2004 is our 150th anniversary !

Not bad ..a ready made tradition (in a box ) !

The location is now marked on all the (Official and Govt) Maps as
"Letterbox Memorial"

......and for no reason I can fathom it is "Letterbox No 12" !!

(Yep we Brits are crazy!)

The official clue is
"Cranmere Pool" (603? 858?) No 12. Shown on map.

..It is maintained in a very very very special letterbox..by volunteer
boxers ... It has to be seen to be believed !

All the visitors books are maintained and are on public display ...

It is a top-collectors "must have stamp" to put in your book...and it
changes too !!!

Arghhhhh! So you just have to make the pilgrimage across the quaking bogs
and bottomless mires more than once !!!

Shock !! >:-o

Hope that "potty history" is what you were after Eric...

and whilst I am musing...I was thinking that a meet of LbNA members on the
"original" moors might be nice..and given enough time to plan I can gain
access to a nice big house on Dartmoor with with a dozen bed rooms
suitable for a "modest" gathering ..so should you wish to visit .. and we
can discover enough equally crazy LbNA enthusiasts ...It could be arranged
that James Perrot's "Cranmere Pool" stamp could be in your book too... !

Is that a plain F count or maybe a D count for Dartmoor I wonder ?


Finally you say :

>When the Smithsonian article came out I was immediately intrigued. I
>emailed the magazine and received a reply that there was already an
>internet link. I thought I must be really slow because no matter how I
>tried that link all I got were errors.

When I first came into contact with US letterboxers we communicated using
a long CC list in our emails ..and so I guess not many ..if any of these
exchanges survive...

Then Eric (Doc Mings) in Florida began the ILC and the first group
addresses began...subsequently Danl ran a group and now the all amazing
and sparkling LbNA site is a wonder with yahoo/egroups and lotsa brilliant
stuff.

It is hard to compare it to the first few months of excited personal
exchanges...

I am amazed to hear you spent a year in the wilderness ! It was red hot
boiling exchanges on the boxing sites in them thar days ! ...Some days
at my terminal it seemed the emails were written in blood and bile ..as
some 'oldies' will recall !!!

>I came back to the bookmark after
>a year finally actually connected to a web page. However, all my attempts
>to connect to the group seemed to fail. It was very frustrating, so I
>vented and sure enough got a reply right away! So I guess the moral for

>me was 1. be polite,
>
Well .."Polite".. was not the only way it went in the earliest days...

Its seems to me that the LbNA "web-marshalls" have tamed the Wild West of
Letterboxing now

> 2. stick to it.

Oh yes do keep hunting and trying..it is a crazy and frustrating hobby at
times..but worth it ! imho !
>
>I have not been disappointed. I have stamps from Illinois, Oregon,
>Michigan, and attempts in Minnesota, Wisconsion, and I keep thinking
>about the ??? in Ohio!.

The spirit of the true boxer is obviously with you..you are as we in
Dartmoor say "boxious" !

There is no cure now !

> My travels do not yet take me east, heavy
>sigh,someday...._____________________________

You're very welcome as far East as Dartmoor anytime !

Happy Boxing


Graham Howard
The Moorland Wizard !