Exmoor Reclamation. 
81 
low white farm-house, flanked by a great turf stack, but with 
no signs of corn or fold-yard for cattle. This was the one 
hostelry and habitation on Lord Poltimore's moorland estate — 
•The Poltimore Arms.' Our conductor opened a gate, in a 
high stone wall capped with turf ; we drove through, left Devon, 
and entered Somerset and the Exmoor estate." 
« # « « * 
" Very dreary was this part of the journey, although, contrary 
to the custom of the county, the day was bright and clear, and a 
hot sun defeated the fogs, and kept at a distance the drizzling 
rain. We had left the smooth rock-floored road, and were travel- 
ling along what more resembled the dry bed of a torrent ; turf 
banks on each side defined rather than divided the property. As 
far as the eye could reach, the rusty tufted moorland extended, 
bounded in the distance by round-backed hills. For about two 
miles we jolted along until we came in sight of the first farm- 
house. Soon a magnificent crop of turnips came in view, close 
adjoining a heavy crop of oats. The next three miles, through 
the heart of Exmoor, was over one of the capital roads con- 
structed by Mr. F. W. Knight's father. Descending a steep hill, 
we came in sight of a view, of which Exmoor and its hundred 
districts in North Devon afford many — a deep gorge, at whose pre- 
cipitous base a trout-stream rolled along gurgling and plashing, 
and winding round huge masses of white rock. The far bank in 
places extended into natural water-meadows, where red cattle 
and wild ponies grazed, and in others rose precipitously. At 
one point, where both banks were equally steep and lofty, on 
the far side was a young plantation with thick underwood ; 
but no trees of sufficient magnitude to deserve the name of a 
wood. Passing the small pool called Simon's Bath, fences gave 
signs of established cultivation and habitation ; a rude ancient 
bridge, with two arches of different curves, without side battle- 
ments or rails, led to the small lodge, adapted from a public-house, 
for his temporary habitation, by Mr. John Knight, pending the 
completion of a mansion never completed, the unfinished walls 
of which rose like a dismantled castle from the midst of a grove 
of trees. Crossing the stream, not by the bridge but by a 
ford, and passing through the stone-built straggling village of 
Simon's Bath, we arrived in the field where the pony sale was 
to be held, some 10 acres, forming a very steep slope from the 
upper part, which is comparatively flat, the sloping side extend- 
ing on the boundary stream broken by a stone quarry, and dotted 
over by huge blocks of bleached stone." 
Amongst the few changes in the scenery wrought on Exmoor, 
within a quarter of a century, one of the most noteworthy is the 
construction of a church and parsonage on this picturesque spot ; 
VOL. XIV. — S. S. G 
