THE WILD PONIES OF EXMOOB. 225 



North Devon affords many a deep gorge, at whose 

 precipitous base a trout-stream rolled along, gurgling 

 and plashing, and winding round huge masses of white 

 spar. The far bank sometimes extended out Into natu- 

 ral meadows, where red cattle and wild ponies grazed, 

 and sometimes rose precipitously. At one point, where 

 both banks were equally steep and lofty, the far side 

 was covered by a plantation with a cover of under- 

 wood ; but no trees of sufficient magnitude to deserve 

 the name of a wood. This. is a spot famous in the 

 annals of a grand sport that soon will be among things 

 of the past Wild Stag Hunting. In this wood more 

 than once the red monarch of Exmoor has been roused, 

 and bounded over the rolling plains beyond, amid the 

 shouts of excited hunters and the deep cry of the 

 hounds, as with a burring scent they dashed up the 

 steep breast of the hill. 



But there was no defiant stag there that day ; so on we 

 trotted on our shaggy sure-footed nags, beneath a bum- 

 ing sun a sun that sparkled on the flowing waters as 

 they gleamed between far distant hills, and threw a golden 

 glow upon the fading tints of foliage and herbage, and 

 cast deep shadows from the white overhanging rocks. 



Next we came to the deep pool that gives the name 

 to Simon's Bath, where some unhappy man of that 

 name, in times when deer were more plentiful than 

 sheep, drowned himself for love, or in madness, or 

 both long before roads, farms, turnip crops, a school, 

 and a church were dreamed of on Exmoor. Here 

 fences give signs of habitation and cultivation. A 

 rude, ancient bridge, with two arches of different curves, 

 covered with turf, without side battlements or rails, 

 stretches across the stream, and leads to a small house 

 built for his own occupation by the father of Mr. 



