tness. In an incredibly short
time they had disappeared, hidden by undulations in the apparently flat
moor.

These were one of the few herds still remaining on the forest. In a
short time the wild deer of Exmoor will be a matter of tradition; and
the hunt, which may be traced back to the time of Queen Elizabeth, will,
if continued, descend to the "cart and calf" business.

A sight scarcely less interesting than the deer was afforded by a white
pony mare, with her young stock--consisting of a foal still sucking, a
yearling, and a two-year-old--which we met in a valley of the Barle. The
two-year-old had strayed away feeding, until alarmed by the cracking of
our whips and the neighing of its dam, when it came galloping down a
steep combe, neighing loudly, at headlong speed. It is thus these ponies
learn their action and sure-footedness.

It was a district such as we had traversed--entirely wild, without
inclosures, or roads, or fences--that came into the hands of the father
of the present proprietor. He built a fence of forty miles around it,
made roads, reclaimed a farm for his own use at Simon's Bath, introduced
Highland cattle on the hills, and set up a considerable stud for
improving the indigenous race of ponies, and for rearing full-sized
horses. These improvements, on which some three hundred thousand pounds
were sunk, were not profitable; and it is very doubtful whether any
considerable improvements could have been prosecuted successfully, if
railways had not brought better markets within reach of the district.

Coming from a part of the country where ponies are the perquisites of
old ladies and little children, and where the nearer a well-shaped horse
can be got to sixteen hands the better, the first feeling on mounting a
rough little unkemped brute, fresh from the moor, barely twelve hands
(four feet) in height, was intensely ridiculous. It seemed as if the
slightest mistake would send the rider clean over the animal's head. But
we learned soon that the indigenous pony, in certain useful qualities,
is not to be surpassed by animals of greater size and pretensions.

From the Grange to Simon's Bath (about three miles), the road, which
runs through the heart of Exmoor proper, was constructed, with all the
other roads in this vast extra-parochial estate, by the father of the
present proprietor, F. Knight, Esq., of Wolverly House, Worcestershire,
M.P. for East Worcestershire (Parliamentary Secretary of the Poor La