here and there over the moor; and my mind drifted
back to the days when, long before that pathway was worn, men clad in
the skins of beasts hunted wild animals over the ground on which I was
treading, and lived in caves and holes of the ground.

I wondered, as I thought of them, whether the cultured monks and the
uncivilized Britons delighted as much in the rugged scenery of the
moor as I did that morning. For many miles in front of me the moor
stretched out wild and treeless; the sun was shining brightly upon the
mass of yellow furze and deep-red heather, drawing up the moisture
from the ground, and causing a kind of watery haze to shimmer over the
landscape; while the early mist was rising off the _tors_, or
hill-tops, in the distance, curling in fanciful wreaths around the
rugged and stony summits, as it dispersed gradually in the increasing
heat of the day.

The cattle which were scattered in groups here and there feeding on
the dewy grass were enjoying the happiest time of the year. The moor,
which in winter affords them scarcely a bare subsistence, is now
richly covered with fresh young grass, and the sturdy oxen fed
solemnly and deliberately, while the wild Dartmoor ponies and their
colts scampered joyously along, shaking their manes and long flowing
tails, and neighing to each other as they went; or clustered together
on some verdant spot, where the colts teased and bit each other for
fun, as they gambolled round their mothers.

It was a pleasure, there on the open moor, with the lark soaring
overhead, and the butterflies and bees hovering among the
sweet-smelling furze blossoms, to see horses free and joyous, with no
thought of bit or bridle, harness or saddle, whose hoofs had never
been handled by the shoeing-smith, nor their coats touched with the
singeing iron. Those little colts, with their thick heads, shaggy
coats, and flowing tails, will have at least two years more freedom
before they know what it is to be driven or beaten. Only once a year
are they gathered together, claimed by their owners and branded with
an initial, and then left again to wander where they will. True, it is
a freedom which sometimes has its drawbacks, for if the winter is
severe the only food they can get will be the furze-tops, off which
they scrape the snow with their feet; yet it is very precious in
itself, for they can gallop when and where they choose, with head
erect, sniffing at the wind and crying to each other for the v