THE FERNY MOORLANDS. 
107 
grace. You will always have time to enjoy the 
lovely peeps of Fern-land which are to be ob¬ 
tained between Totnes and Newton; for the steep 
inclines necessarily render the eight miles of 
railway journey between the two places unusually 
long. 
Changing trains at Newton, on our way to the 
moors, we were not long in getting to our point 
of departure at Moretonhampstead. On this 
branch line, twelve miles in length, the changing 
scenes are supremely beautiful. During the whole 
distance the line passes along a valley which is 
pre-eminently Devonian. It is curious and in¬ 
teresting to watch in the early summer the gradual 
substitution of the barren moorland for the cul¬ 
tivated tract. Grand slopes of rich greenwood, 
flower-dotted meadows and June corn-crops 
standing proudly up, with rich promise for the 
autumn—the hght, waving green of the corn¬ 
stalks and ears charmingly contrasting with the 
red and full-blown poppies scattered in patches 
here and there—first meet the eye. But the cul¬ 
tivated land is shorn of no picturesque surround¬ 
ings. Hill, wood, and river, each with its peculiar 
