Until the early 19th century Dartmoor was not considered to be a place worth visiting: in the 1540s John Leland wrote in his "Itinerary" that "Dartmore is muche a wilde Morish and forest Ground", and even by 1789 Richard Gough's opinion was that it is a "dreary mountainous tract". At the turn of the 19th century John Swete was one of the first people to visit Dartmoor for pleasure and his journals and watercolour paintings now provide a valuable historical resource.