DEVON AND SOMERSET. 253 



the action of a recent hill fire of great 

 magnitude which swept away the covering 

 of hundreds of acres, and then rushed on 

 Its path of fierv destruction into the 

 Broadwood Plantations of the Dunster Castle 

 estate, and projected belts and tongues of 

 destroying fiame amongst the coppice and 

 scrub oak of Longwood. In former years a 

 run from Slowlev towards the Aville Brook 

 invariably produced a certain number of empty 

 saddles as the chase in its progress swept 

 over Croydon Hill, but blind though the 

 stones were by reason of the growth upon them, 

 they formed far preferable riding to their 

 present condition, indeed the shingle of the 

 beach in Porlock Bay is nearly as suitable for 

 a galloping ground as this denuded hilltop. 

 For the first year or two wide tracts of black, 

 dusty ashes and burnt sandy earth proved an 

 insuperable obstacle to hounds, in that they 

 carried absolutely no scent at all even when 

 Avet, so that on coming to such an expanse, 

 the huntsman had no alternative but to lift 

 his pack bodily fowards, following the slot as 

 he might without much difiiculty do, until the 

 burnt tract had been crossed and left behind 

 and natural ground succeeded. 



Adjoining this stony area is a wide tract of 

 the very spikiest and toughest gorse of the 

 whole west country, and into the middle of 



