74 In Pursuit of the Trout 



willow-wren, whose plaintive note every 

 dweller in the country must know : he, 

 like the cuckoo, is one of spring's chief 

 harbingers. 



The drive from South Molton to Simons- 

 bath is very beautiful. For the first two 

 or three miles, the road winds through a 

 hilly and thickly wooded country — a typical 

 Devonshire road, in fact. A sweet little 

 stream brawls noisily along, generally close 

 to the road, while some rich undulating 

 water-meadows delight the eye. Presently 

 we pass by a disused copper-mine, and through 

 a quiet hamlet nestling on the confines of 

 the moor itself. The meadows and birch- 

 woods gradually melt away ; and, climbing 

 a steep long hill, we breathe a different air, 

 that makes the pulse beat stronger, and the 

 blood circle more freely in the veins. The 

 Moor proper, in its wild desolation and its 

 absolute silence, now opens out before us. 

 Glancing back, we get a magnificent view 

 of South Molton and its neighbourhood, even 

 to hamlets and villages far remote. But the 



