brightly and gaily it danced with the " stickles,"
and through its crystal glass showed the pebbles
below! We stopped at the bridge and looked
down upon the trout and the gravelings which
were pursuing one another in the transparent
current. And then those noble woods which rise
above the waters, and the combes, rich in green
pasturage which runs up to the very foot of the
distant hills; and the songs of the birds, sweeter
even than the music of the rills,

in the leafy month of June,
Singing their quiet tune!

As we made our way through the wood,
through which we then ascended from the side
of the river by a rough and narrow road, the
banks were covered with bilberry-bushes, among
whose green and red-brown leaves hung that
pretty little purple fruit, with a blem (bloom)
softer than that of a plum, known to Devonians
by the name of worts or wurtleberries. Of these
I ate enough to stain my lips, which told the
tale of our lingerings, but which helped somewhat
to cheer the journey. I fancied withal it
would never come to an end; and great was
my joy when the farmer said, " We shall soon
get to Blackinstone Rock," so I knew that
Blackinstone Rock was not far from our destined
goal. I have experienced, after a long
monotonous voyage, the pleasure of hearing from
  the topmast, "Land ahead!" but never were
those words more acceptable than the three
short syllables, " Here we be!"

The farm-house lay at the bottom of a rough
half-cultivated basin, set on the very edge of
the down. There were two means of access to
it—one through a narrow winding lane, whose
banks were covered with flowers, eglantines,
hazel, brambles, bullace, and briony, intertangled
above; while below, sometimes covering the
whole way, flowed a clear brook which was
never dry except in the hottest of the summer
and autumn season, and, even then, lingered
in shallow morasses, where the reeds and
rushes were almost as verdant as the duckweeds
spread carpet-like upon the surface.

The sisters of my guide and guardian
rushed out with eager welcomings. " Zo glad
to zee 'e, and how be 'e? and how be all at
whoame? And now zit down, fur you be tired;"
and, scarcely being seated, one of the
rosycheeked maidens presented me with a lusty slice
of a brown loaf, covered with the matchless
produce of the Devonian dairy. It has transferred its
colour and its fragrance to the Rosa Devoniensis.
"Now you know the law. If the craim is not
as thick as the bread, 'tis'n good for nort."

The family consisted of six personages—the
good old father, the warm-hearted son, a
Martha and a Mary, by which I mean, "a
loving" and " a serving" daughter; a quiet cat,
whose business it seemed to be to keep watch
in the house as a sentinel, marching backward
and forward, and coming now and then to be
rubbed on the back, and to return the
attentions to poor pussy with a grateful purr; then
a virtuous and intellectual dog, named Shepherd,
the object of general admiration for his
many excellences, natural and acquired. In
truth, he was a model of attention and
obedience. He knew every sheep in the flock,
and would single out and separate any one to
which his eye was directed by his owner. When
noticed, he would have willingly wagged his tail,
but that he had no tail to wag—there was only
a stump about an inch long; and I learnt that
the shorter the stump, the greater the aptitude
of the animal for the special service in which he
was engaged. I have seen him hang his head
in sorrow and shame when detected in some
sin of neglect, insubordination, or other impropriety;
and if "Fie, Shepherd!" fell from his
master's lips, then would he slowly and
reverentially lift his head, look into his master's
face, as if inquiring, " What is to be done?"
On being restored to favour, he would run
about, wild and delighted, in circles round the
farmer as he accompanied him to the moor,
and announced their advent to the scattered
flock.

What a wonderful vitality upon the heath
and among the heather! The earwig galloping
over the ground, the bee that announces his
departure and his arrival from flower to flower,
the bird whose flight is swifter than the eye
can follow, the clouds that roll along in their
serene majesty—all things seem impelled by
an unwonted activity; the breezes blow more
briskly, the sun is more gloriously bright, the
golden gorse whose splendour called from Linné
such an outbreak of enthusiasm; the
mauve-coloured ericas, which put forth a claim to vie
with the green of the forest, or the blue of the
sky—each has a territory of its own over which
it rules supreme. Every object bears the same
impress of independence and freedom. You may
see the rabbits far away from their holes,
running about on the moor, never dreaming of
molestation or interruption. If you meet a rustic,
one of the sparse population of those wild
regions, he will no more hesitate to address you
than he would to speak to his brother, and,
perceiving you to be a stranger, will invite you
to admire " the pixie rings where they dances,"
"pixie stools where they zits," or the pools in
the granite rocks where " they washes thersells."
He will point out a " gunny," and probably
exclaim, "Hurn! hurn! Look at the little tail o' en
how he hoppeth;" and if you will but encourage
him to talk, you may learn the name of
every squire—though there will probably be
only one of them, of the passen and the jistis—
and, of every " varm," and " varmer," and
sheep-dog; and he will laugh and be delighted
if you ask him the name of every purty girl
within a circuit of half a dozen miles. He will
tell you where the divil played at quoits with
the conjuror, and how the divil's quoit—as big
as an ordinary parish church—stuck upon the
top of a Tor, "dree miles away," while the
conjuror's, though not "haff" so big, did'n go haff
"zo vur," but drapped in the " combe" below;
ami lie will assure you, Faiks! fath! on his
honour and honesty, that he don't "mistry"