24 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



Middle Ages to bring these moorlands under cultivation, 

 as was undoubtedly the case on Winsford Hill, where 

 the old fences are still visible in the heather ; and that 

 rye was the principal produce, which last is confirmed 

 by the rye straw thatch on old houses round Exmoor. 

 Where the land was thoroughly exhausted, it at once 

 produced heather; a fact proved by actual experi- 

 ments of Mr. Knight's. Winsford Hill is certainly a 

 tract of fine heather, but so also is Dunkery, the 

 highest land in Somerset, which can hardly have 

 tempted the labourer of former times. There is, 

 further, one great chain of heather from Dunkery to 

 Martinhoe, including the great tract of Brendon 

 Common, whereof the name. Brown Down,* seems to 

 indicate the presence of heather from the beginning of 

 things. But, whatever the cause, the fact remains that 

 the heather grows luxuriantly without the Forest 

 boundaries, while within them the rough grass alone 



is found. 



* Ow as pronounced in Devon rhymes to the French eu. Brown 

 therefore nearly rhymes to the French yVz^;/^. But Brendon may also 

 be "-Burnt Down;" perhaps preliminary to cultivation. There is 

 another Brendon east of Dunkery as well as west. The process of 

 phonetic change is easily understood by those who know the dialect 

 of Devon ; but to satisfy the minds of strangers it may be added that 

 ^frt'stone Point, near Porlock, has become //w/stone, and that the 

 two words are hardly distinguishable to one unaccustomed to the 

 language. Moreover there is the old word brent^^burnt. 



