264 SOMERSETSHIRE COOMBS 



The pools which it was intended to stock were a 

 chain formed in one of the lovely coombs that run 

 down from the Quantock Hills towards the Bristol 

 Channel. At the head of it is a pass which the red- 

 deer stag usually take when hunted in this neighbour- 

 hood, and making for the sea. Lower down, where 

 masses of deep purple heather and bracken almost hid 

 the little stream, the owner had made one or two 

 small pools, by throwing a few stems of Scotch fir 

 across, and banking them with turf. The experiment 

 grew more interesting the lower down the valley he 

 descended. The pools grew larger, the trout more 

 numerous, and the satisfaction which attends minor 

 engineering feats, prompted further efforts. At length 

 he plunged boldly into building, and made a fine stone 

 wall across the coomb, and gained an additional pool 

 larger than a tennis lawn. All went well during the 

 summer, though the farmer who lived lower down 

 sometimes expressed a doubt as to what might happen 

 in winter rains. There was a small farmyard and 

 piggery below, and a kitchen garden, and further down a 

 long narrow lake in the grounds of the owner's house. 

 One night the farmer was awakened by dismal sounds, 

 and a sound of waters. The stone dyke had given 

 way, the water was rushing down, and had washed the 

 pigs into the gooseberry bushes. Soon it tore these up, 

 and pigs, garden, and gooseberry bushes went rolling on 

 to the lake. The lake burst its lower end, and went 

 on an excursion down the road, and far into the valley, 

 taking with it thousands of tench and eels, which were 



