290 THE EXETER ROAD 



who will, with the village of Askerswell lying deep 

 down, immediately under this ridge on which the 

 road o'oes, the roof of its villaoe church tower 

 apparently so near that you could drop a stone neatly 

 on to its leads. But ' one trial will suffice,' as the 

 advertisements of much-puffed articles say, for the 

 stone goes no nearer than about a quarter of a mile. 



Very charming, this panorama, on a summer's day ; 

 but how about the winters' nights, in the times when 

 the 'Traveller's Rest' was better named than now; 

 when the coaches halted here, and coachmen, guards, 

 and passengers alike, half-frozen and breathless from 

 the blusterous heights of Long Bredy, tumbled out 

 for something warming ? For this hillside was reputed 

 to be the coldest part of the journey between London 

 and Exeter, and it may be readily enough supposed 

 by all who have seen the spot, that this was indeed 

 the fact. 



XLI 



The last mile into Bridport has none of these terrify- 

 descents, although, to be sure, there are sudden curves 

 in the road which it behoves the cyclist to take 

 slowly, for they may develop anything in the way of 

 traffic, from a traction engine to the elephantine 

 advance-o;uard of a travellino; circus. 



At Bridport, nine miles from the Devon border, 

 the country already begins to lose something of the 

 Dorset character, and to look like the county of 

 junket and clotted cream. As for the town, it is 



