62 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
ing their characteristic grace over the whole. As 
we advance, however, cultivation becomes sparse 
and sparser still. The heights become too steep 
for anything but their own wild growth. There is, 
however, even until the unbroken moor is reached, 
a grand intermingling of wooded and barren steeps, 
of hilly corn-fields, and heather and fern-covered 
heights. Then we pause at the extremity of the 
branch line to Moretonhampstead. 
Now begins the moorland walk, extending away 
for some three or four miles to Fingle Bridge. 
Along the entire distance there is spread out for 
the fern-lover a continual feast. For a short 
way the path winds by the side of a meadow, 
then crosses, at the end of a small thicket, a 
fern-fringed brook ; then ascends a steep upland, 
and then for two miles it takes a course which 
includes all the wild and varied beauties of moor- 
land scenery. Now the interchained peaks of 
Dartmoor carry the eye away over a grand 
stretch of country, the vividly-coloured landscape 
losing in freshness, but losing nothing in grandeur, 
as the dimness of distance causes it to melt away 
