•:'i--i THE AVILD PONIES OF EXMOOP!. 



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 w^liite 

 spar. The far bank sometimes extended out into natu- 

 ral meadows, Avhere red cattle and wdld ponies grazed, 

 and sometimes rose precipitously. At one point, w^herc 

 both banks were equally steep and lofty, the far side 

 w^as 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 

 liounds, as wdth 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 

 such a burning sun as does not often shine upon Ex- 

 moor in the autumn of the year — a sun that sparkled 

 on the flowing waters as they gleamed between far dis- 

 tant hills, and threw a golden glow upon the fadiug 

 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, 

 there drowned himself for love, or in madness, or both. 

 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. 



