190 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



All farm work was done till quite recent times with 

 pack-horses and sleds (the use of the latter, indeed, 

 has not been entirely abandoned where there is 

 much steep ground), and a load of manure in the 

 old farming agreement means a pack-horse load. 

 The pillion was in use in this district long after it 

 was unknown elsewhere, and the late Mr. George 

 Catford, of North Combe, used to tell how his father 

 and mother always rode pillion to Winsford Fair. 



The diflficulties of locomotion in the district, 

 especially in bad weather, gave rise to many curious 

 tales, and there is reason to suppose that many of 

 them are authentic. There can be little doubt that 

 the stories that at some outlying farms it was 

 necessary to "salt in" a dead body, till it was 

 possible to convey it to the churchyard are true, 

 though it is scarcely credible that anyone who had 

 lost his wife could be so thoughtless as to forget 

 all about her, and leave her " salted in" in an oak 

 dower chest for his new bride to find on her return 

 from the wedding. 



