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The captain of the British steamer Exford, captured by the Emden, informed his owners that Captain von Mueller said that before he sank the Exford he intended to take on board his cruiser the 7,000 tons of steam coal with which the Exford was laden." Captain von Mueller must indeed be a capable officer," said Jack. "He is," said Lord Hastings. "But to continue.
The uninformed traveller, whose principle it is never to look at a guide-book, is surprised to find that the small village of Exford contains no fewer than half a dozen inns. He asks how they are kept going; and the natives, astonished at his ignorance, proceed to enlighten him.
Exford is the headquarters of the stag-hunt: thither the hunters flock in August, and spend so much money during thir brief season that the innkeepers grow rich and fat, and for the rest of the year can afford to doze peacefully behind their bars. Here are the kennels, and when I visited them they contained forty or fifty couples of stag-hounds.
There really was a highwayman, however, whose adventures are said to have suggested one of the characters in the romance of 'Lorna Doone. This desperate fellow had of course his houses of call, where he could get refreshment safely, on the moors. One bitter winter's day the robber sat down to a hearty dinner in an inn at Exford.
So many are the villages, towns, and places of interest seen, so many the adventures met with in this walk, starting with the baby streamlet beyond Simonsbath, and following it down to Exeter and Exmouth, that it would take half a volume to describe them, however briefly. Yet at the end I found that Exford had left the most vivid and lasting impression, and was remembered with most pleasure.
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. 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.
S.S.E. of the village is the commanding eminence of Creech Hill, where there seem to be traces of earthworks, and whence a fine view is obtainable, with the town of Bruton in the valley to the S., and Stourton Tower conspicuous on the hills to the E. Exford, a village on the fringe of Exmoor "Forest," near the source of the Exe, 12 m. N.W. from Dulverton Station.
From Exford to Dulverton it runs, singing aloud, foam-flecked, between high hills clothed to their summits in oak woods: after its union with the Barle it enters Devonshire as a majestic stream, and flows calmly through a rich green country; its wild romantic charm has been left behind.
The village of Exford printed itself thus sharply on my mind because I had there been filled with wonder and delight at the sight of a face exceeding in loveliness all the faces seen in that West Country a rarest human gem, which had the power of imparting to its setting something of its own wonderful lustre.
I sought for and found it where it takes its rise on open Exmoor; a simple moorland stream, not wild and foaming and leaping over rocks, but flowing gently between low peaty banks, where the little lambs leap over it from side to side in play. Following the stream down, I come at length to Exford.
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