DEVON AND SOMERSET. 79 



middle of the plain which is very apt to become 

 totally impassable. Along by the southern bound- 

 ary there runs a path which is always fairlv 

 sound, and even when fetlock deep in standing 

 water is far preferable to the soggy grass beside 

 it. Running east and west, this path leads 

 to the retaining embankments of Pinkery Pond, 

 and here a considerable length of the peaty 

 sides of the path fell in some few seasons ago 

 and caused a veritable quagmire. 



Mr. J. W. Budd, of Combe Park, near 

 Lynmouth, had this miniature landslip removed, 

 and in the midst of the debris there was found 

 the complete carcase of a moorland sheep, which 

 was preserved in all its original freshness by 

 the anti-septic action of the peat. The long 

 rank carpet of green moor grass, with which 

 all the wet ground is thickly covered by the 

 end of any summer of average warmth, renders 

 the surface very blind riding, and there is no 

 doubt that Exmoor rides actually better after a 

 drving east wind in the spring and early summer 

 than at anv other time in the year. 



In August and the hrst half of September, 

 however, if the season has been normally dry, 

 one can ride almost anywhere, except, of course, 

 on those occasional green spots at the heads of 

 the various combes where deep-seated springs 

 keep the ground permanently soft, and where 

 a mossy growth for ever overlies the peaty 



