XXIV THE SOUTH HAMS. 



over the Forest will get plenty of healthy exercise, but, however 

 good a shot he may he, will hardly make a heavy bag. Five or 

 six couple of Snipe, a brace of birds dropped from an unexpected 

 covey, a chance Woodcock, with a Wild Duck or Teal, used to 

 make what we considered a good reward for a long round in the 

 direction of Cosdon Beacon, and we ever found more Snipe on 

 the edges of the moor than on the central bogs. The few Black- 

 game we encountered were too wary to suffer approach, and in ten 

 years' rambling over the northern and eastern portions of the 

 Moor a single specimen of the Solitary Snipe, shot in a gale on 

 Scorhill Down, was the only rare bird which fell to our gun. The 

 uncertainty of the sport provided by the Moor is well exemplified 

 by a clever etching of a Snipe which we saw some years ago in 

 the visitors' book of the Three Crowns Hotel at Chagford, beneath 

 which were the following lines : — 



" Four ardent sportsmeu came to beat the Moor; 



The Moor beat them, with wind and constant rain ; 

 Four days tliey braved it, but it blew the more ; 

 Their sport shall thus immortalized remain. 



[Here is an etched Snipe.] 



" 'Tis he ! 'Tis he ! methinks I see him still : 

 We found him at a streamlet's mossy head : 

 lie rose ; four guns pour'd echoing o'er the hill 



Their deadh' shower ; what wonder he fell dead ? " 



However, Suipe are stated to be more plentiful on the south- 

 west side of the Moor, near Horrabridge. 



II. THE SOUTH HAMS. 



This favoured district, the " Garden of Devon,'' offers a marked 

 contrast to Dartmoor. It is included between the estuary of the 

 Teign on the east, the Tamar on the west, Dartmoor on the north, 

 and the English Channel on the south. It is penetrated by the 

 estuaries of the Teign, Dart, Avon, Erme, Yealm, Plym, Tavy, and 

 Tamar, and the long arm of the sea extending to Kingsbridge. 

 Along the coast are the curious freshwater " Leas " or '' Leys " 

 at Slapton, Torcross, Thurlestone, Milton, and Huish. These are 



