Devon always used to be called Devonshire but somewhere along the line the ‘shire' bit seems to have dropped off.
From Dorset we follow the Jurassic coast westwards: the greater part might be in Dorset, but there are still 30 miles of it along the south coast of Devon. Some of the beaches are pebbles, but there are glorious stretches of sand which make Sidmouth and Dawlish popular destinations for family seaside holidays. Also in the east of the county is Axminster, world famous for its carpets. The county town of Exeter is one of England's smaller cities but no less attractive for that. The west front of the cathedral, which is 850 years old, is stunning. Moving south-west we come to the towns of Torquay, Paignton (pronounced Painton)and Brixham which are collectively known as the English Riviera. Agatha Christie was born at Torquay.
The pointy, southern part of Devon is where we find the yachting fraternity at Salcombe, Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. Dartmouth is also the site of the Royal Navy's officer training establishment, Britannia Royal Naval College, the naval equivalent of Sandhurst, and was also the port into which the Pilgrom Fathers called on their journey from Southampton to the New World with their ships Mayflower and Speedwell. Some 300 miles west of Land's End, they realised that the Speedwell was unseaworthy and both ships returned to Plymouth - the Mayflower then departed alone to complete the crossing to Cape Cod. Plymouth, with its good, natural harbour, is one of England's main naval bases - although technically the dockyard is in Devonport, the adjoining town. It was on Plymouth Hoe that Sir Francis Drake was reputedly playing bowls when the Spanish armada was sighted approaching England. The drum which accompanied Drake on his journeys is kept at Buckland Abbey, Drake's old home. Legend has it that the drum will sound whenever England is in peril or has defeated a great enemy, or to honour another great hero. When it beats, the spirit of Drake will return to aid his country.
Inland lies Dartmoor, 368 square miles of moor and bog, home to Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles, wild ponies - and Dartmoor prison, originally built to hold French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars. The Widdecombe valley cuts into the moor and the village of Widdecombe-in-the-Moor is a popular tourist destination.
Devon is one of only two English counties to have both a south and a north coast. The northern coast is quite different from the southern. There are sandy beaches alongside the estuary of the River Torridge, but most of the coast is rugged with steep cliffs dropping to small coves and picturesque fishing villages. Our picture this week is of one of the better known of those villages - Clovelly, where donkeys are used to carry goods up and down the steep, cobbled streets known as Down-Along and Up-Along.
To me, Dorset has always seemed an out-of-the-way sort of county. I drove through it on a good many occasions when we were on our way to Devon for family holidays. There was also a period when I travelled by train to Plymouth two or three times a year and would think, as I gazed out of the window at the Blackmoor Hills, what an attractive county it is. But it was not until about six years ago that I really visited Dorset when Mrs BP and I decided to spend a few days there on our way back from a family party in Somerset.
To me, Dorset means Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far From the Madding Crowd etc. As well as Hardy's cottage, one can see several of the places mentioned in his books. One of the most famous streets in the country - Gold Hill - is to be found in Shaftesbury. Gold Hill became even better known when it was featured in a series of television advertisements for Hovis bread.
But many of the better-known parts of Dorset are on the coast. Close to the large resort of Bournemouth in the far south-east is Poole Harbour where Lord Baden-Powell held the experimental camp which led to him founding the Scout movement on Brownsea Island. Moving west we come to Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door before we reach Weymouth, where the sailing events in the 2012 Olympics are to be held. Running south from Weymouth is the narrow isthmus with the road leading to the Isle of Portland. Portland stone has been used in many important buildings and the Cenotaph in London is made from it, as are all the headstones in British war cemeteries across the world. The we pass Chesil Beach and the Abbotsbury swannery before reaching Lyme Regis, the scene of The French Lieutenant's Woman.
Inland again, we must not forget Corfe Castle and Maiden Castle, the largest Iron Age hill fort in Britain (some say in Europe), covering an area of 45 (some say 47) acres.
I am trying, during this tour, to use pictures of places I have visited so this week's picture is of Thomas Hardy's cottage.
The iconic British pillar box carries the royal cypher and I always understood that one could estimate roughly when houses in the area around a pillar box were built by looking at the cypher. When I came to look at this one it gave me pause for thought. You see, the cypher is that of Edward VII. The trouble is, he died in 1910 and the houses round there - the box is at the junction of Wilmington Way and Greenfield Crescent - were not built until the 1930s at the earliest, and most are post-war. So why does this box not carry the cypher of George V as most of the boxes in the area do, or even George VI? I suppose it is possible that the original box had to be replaced and this one happened to be available, but it is still most unusual.