the moor for the purposes of cultivation.  The heather, however, is still triumphant.  The only memorial of his ambition is a ruined mansion at Simonsbath.  The hills are all of considerable altitude—­well over 1200 ft.—­but with the exception of Dunkery few can pretend to any marked individuality.  The landscape is a mere “tumultuous waste of huge hill-tops,” which no one takes the trouble to specify.  Perhaps the least praiseworthy feature of Exmoor is its weather.  To adapt a Cornish description of something quite different, “when it’s bad, it’s execrable; and when it’s good, it’s only middlin’.”  It has a disagreeable partiality for haze and drizzle.  In such an untamed region “routes” are only an embarrassment.  The regulation drive is from Minehead to Dulverton, and from Dulverton through Simonsbath to Lynton, which virtually circumscribes the moor.  The best way, however, is to turn oneself loose in the district, and ramble over the moors at will.  The sturdy tourist will find many an exhilarating excursion.  Winsford, Exford, Withypool, and Simonsbath are all worth seeing.  Dunkery Beacon (1707 ft.) may be conveniently ascended on the Porlock side from Luccombe or Cloutsham, and on the Dulverton side from Wheddon Cross, near Cutcombe.

[Illustration:  TARR STEPS, EXMOOR]

Exton, a village 8 m.  N. of Dulverton Station, picturesquely perched on the hillside overlooking the valley of the Exe.  The church is without interest.

Farleigh Hungerford, a small village 7 m.  S.S.E. of Bath.  It is a place of some interest to the antiquarian, and should be visited in conjunction with Hinton Charterhouse from Freshford Station (2 m.).  Its attractions consist of a few crumbling fragments of a castle once belonging to the Hungerfords, and the contents of the castle chapel.  The ruins stand on the shoulder of a deep defile descending into a wooded bottom called Danes’ Ditch.  The annals of the castle are long rather than stirring.  An old manor house of the Montforts was transformed into a castle by Sir Walter Hungerford (d. 1449), who spent upon the alterations the ransom which he had obtained for the capture of the Duke of Orleans at the Battle of Agincourt.  In the Great Rebellion it was, curiously enough, held for the king whilst its owner was commanding the Parliamentary forces in Wilts.  To one of the existing towers a grim story is attached.  In the unchivalrous days of Henry VIII. a Sir W. Hungerford, who, like his royal master, was a much married man, consigned his third wife to these uninviting quarters, and kept her under lock and key, with a chaplain for her only attendant.  The lady, however, not only survived this knightly Bluebeard, but had the courage to contract a second marriage.  The general arrangements of the castle are not very obvious to the casual observer.  It seems to have consisted of a gatehouse and an outer and inner court.  The inner enclosure was flanked by four cylindrical towers, and contained the dwelling-rooms,