RED DEER LAND. 15 



distance, but with this exception no one can 

 move from his doorstep without going up 

 hill, unless it be to wade along the river. 

 Fonr principal roads and some lanes leave 

 the place, and by each of them there is an 

 ascent of two miles length. Two miles up 

 hill must be got over before rider or walker 

 reaches the summit, and then he is only 

 anions the hills and has not surmounted them. 

 Some considerable part of the first two miles 

 on the slopes above the Exe is cultivated. 

 It is good land and yields well though late, 

 and has all been enclosed from the moor. 



One owner encloses a piece one year, 

 another the next ; and thus Exmoor is nibbled 

 at. The circle slowly spreads, but so slowly as 

 to make no apparent impression ; some fields, 

 too, have fallen back to rushes. When the 

 first slope above the Exe has been climbed, 

 when the wayfarer has got out of the deep 

 valley, he comes at once to the moor, to 

 heather, and whortleberry. There are sheep 

 and bullocks in the fields, but the whistle 



