indefinite. These are all that remain of the Doones' houses, but
recent research denies that the Doones ever existed!

From the top of the hill above the water-slide there is a very beautiful
view of the winding glens opening out of each other, and at this point
one is able to follow their curves for a long way before the hills shut
them out of sight. With the sun shining through the haziest clouds, and
the radiant glow of a diffused light calling out delicate tints on the
distant slopes, the whole scene seems most fitly described by the old
words of praise, 'a fair country.'

Retracing the path to Malmsmead, one is irresistibly tempted to go a few
steps into Somerset to look at the tiny church of Oare, where, Mr
Blackmore says, Lorna Doone and Jan Ridd were married. The church is
very narrow, and it stands among trees on the slope above the stream. On
the south side of the nave, close to where the old east wall stood (the
chancel is new), is an early piscina of a curious shape; it is supported
by a large carved human head, with a hand to each cheek, and there is a
thick, solid cap on the top.

Challacombe is a small village on the western border of Exmoor, seven or
eight miles south of Lynton, and the church looks far over the moors.
Westcote derives the name from 'Choldicombe, or rather Coldecombe, from
its cold situation, next neighbour to Exmoor;' and he speaks of 'divers
hillocks of earth and stones ... termed burrows and distinguished by
sundry names,' in the parish, and hints at their uncanny nature by
telling how 'fiery dragons have been seen flying and lighting on them.'
Such tales he dismisses scornfully, but he tells of 'a strange accident'
that happened 'within these seven years, verified by oath of the party,
who otherwise might have had credit for his honesty.' A labouring man,
having saved enough money to buy a few acres of waste land, began to
build himself a house on it, and from a burrow near by he fetched stones
and earth. He had cut deep into the hillock, when 'he found therein a
little place, as it had been a large oven, fairly, strongly, and closely
walled up; which comforted him much, hoping that some great good would
befall him, and that there might be some treasure there hidden to
maintain him more liberally and with less labour in his old years:
wherewith encouraged he plies his work earnestly until he had broken a
hole through this wall, in the cavity whereof he espied an earthen pot,
which