8 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



and beast at the " Rest and Be Thankful " Inn, one 

 starts forth to reach the summit of Dunkery Beacon, 

 the highest point in Somersetshire, only to be 

 matched in height by one or two of the loftiest tors 

 on Dartmoor, and by Brown Willy among the far-off 

 Cornish moors, for Dunkery boasts an elevation of 

 1,707 ft. It is difficult to realise its height approach- 

 ing from the Brendon Hills, which themselves attain 

 to 1,200 ft., while the " Rest and Be Thankful " Inn 

 in the dip between the two is 980 ft, above sea-level, 

 for the ascent is gradual, through lanes defended by 

 high banks, till one comes to the end of the enclosed 

 land, passes through Dunkery Hill Gate, and finds 

 oneself at the foot of a long stretch of unbroken 

 heather extending on either hand for miles. We 

 have risen almost insensibly about 300 ft. since 

 leaving the inn, but the last 400 ft. is a hard scramble, 

 for here the purple heather only masks a stone-strewn 

 surface, on which horses' shoes rattle in a most dis- 

 concerting way. On the top is a wild mass of stones, 

 the debris of the ancient fire hearth when Dunkery 

 was a beacon in reality, and more lately of a cairn 

 put up by the Royal Engineers in the course of the 

 Ordnance Survey, for they used Dunkery as one of 

 their stations for lonej-distance observations. 



Arrived at the summit one realises as in a flash 

 that this Is the monarch among the surrounding hills. 

 One has climbed up a paltry four hundred feet of wnld 

 heathery hillside, but before one lies a steeper, longer 

 slope of longer, wilder heather, falling abruptly i ,000 ft. 



