DEVON AND SOMERSET. 8i 



and its plains of purple and sage and emerald 

 are fair indeed to look upon ; but all this is 

 only for a month or two, and then come the 

 many days of winter, when the outlook is far 

 otherwise. Then in a moment a great drifting 

 immensity of sea-fog arises upon the scene, and 

 in a few minutes blots out everything familiar, 

 and reduces all the landscape to a circle of a 

 few square yards, surrounded by an impenetrable 

 wall of fleecy vapour, through which neither 

 man nor horse may hnd his way except by 

 following a beaten path or by sticking closely 

 to the outline of some moorland wall or fence, 

 or haply by descending to the nearest stream 

 and following its winding course. 



To attempt to ride straight across the open 

 is a most hazardous proceeding, inasmuch as 

 one cannot possibly maintain a straight line of 

 progress without visible landmarks ; and sound, 

 moreover, in a fog is as deceiving as sight. For 

 hours and hours the fog will hang, and perhaps 

 for days and even weeks it will keep the hilltops 

 silent and untenanted, and then a burst of 

 sunlight or a sweeping breath of the wild west 

 wind, or perchance a rain shower, will disperse 

 the whole fabric as if by magic, and the moor 

 will stand revealed, dark and damp and gloomy, 

 but still rideable. Under clearer skies comes 

 usually the arch enemy of all hunting — the 

 frost — and very severe indeed is its grip 



G 



