THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY. 187 



map, and there was much trouble in persuading 

 an enthusiastic cyclist staying at Porlock Weir, who 

 had an implicit faith in his map, that he would not 

 be able to ride his machine that way. 



On some of these old tracks are to be found the 

 old pack-horse bridges over the streams : narrow 

 bridges, with parapets low enough not to interfere 

 with the loads hanging in the " crooks." The best 

 specimens are that at Millslade, over the Brendon 

 Water, and that where Hackety Way crosses the 

 Horner, just below Horner Green. There was an 

 old pack-horse bridge of four arches across the 

 Barle at Withypool — the present roadway and bridge 

 are quite new — and the old piers and abutments exist 

 to this day, while the line of the old North Molton 

 track skirting the hillside, avoiding the wet ground 

 and turning abruptly down to the old bridge, is 

 plainly to be seen. The old, narrow village street 

 which led down to the bridge has mostly been pulled 

 down. 



Nothing has tended to alter the look of the country 

 and the ways of life of the people more than the 

 metalling of the roads and the introduction of wheeled 

 traffic. Dwellers in more civilised lands find it 

 4iard to realise how lately these improvements were 

 introduced into the hill country. 



Collinson's history of Somersetshire was published 

 in I 791, and he says of Withypool: " Here no carts 

 nor wagons are ever used, the roads being impassable 

 for wheeled vehicles and scarcely pervious for horses." 



