Dartmoor. i6i 



satisfaction he gets out of the goods the gods 

 supply; but I have always made it a rule, 

 however plain, to have the best I can get 

 of its kind. 



Well, if with the little comforts I have 

 alluded to, a man cannot make himself com- 

 fortable, always supposing his object be sport, 

 health, and exercise, then I think he must be 

 hard to please. 



The old Dartmoor sheep, which were very 

 small, are being gradually improved off the 

 face of the earth ; as the auctioneer says, " you 

 have more wool and more mutton." That is 

 quite true, but they have not the quality of 

 the old stock, nor the flavour, but the mutton 

 is still excellent. Everything is being altered 

 in these fast days of- raihvays, steamboats, 

 telegraph wires, and electric lights, and in a 

 few short years the whole face and character 

 ofj Dartmoor may be considerably altered. 

 Already railways have penetrated its bleak and 

 barren wilds ; weekly markets have been estab- 

 lished in all the httle neighbouring towns, and 

 even what were not long since mere villages ; 

 the very moor men are losing their pruiii- 

 tiveness and simplicity, but whether for the 



