Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - The Bristol Channel District Guide - selected articles - [1934 Edition] . . . .

In line with the Nash Point on the Somerset coast Hurlistone Point, which, according to legend, was so called from the " fact " that St. Paul and the Devil stood on the spot to hurl stones over Porlock Hill.

Beyond the Hurlistone a stretch of receding shore comes into view, forming Porlock Bay, four and a half miles wide, overhung by cliffs rising in some places 300 feet high. The little town of Porlock is situated about a mile inland, and as a royal seat Wa the scene of stirring historical events. The town and its surroundings are very picturesque.

With Porlock Bay on our stern quarter, we have a short distance ahead the little village of Culbone, with its curious old church, reputed to be the smallest in the kingdom. It stands in a deep ravine facing the Bristol Channel and is so shut in by the towering hills that the sun only reaches it during the three summer months. Warner characteristically describes it as being " situated in as extraordinary a spot as man in his whimsicality ever fixed upon for a place of worship. "

We now steam past the craggy coast behind which lies Exmoor Forest, a wild tract of country, remarkable for its beautiful views, mountainous hills, sturdy ponies, and fine red deer. It is the only remaining spot in all England where red deer are hunted in their wild state.

Not infrequently, when cornered by the hounds on the cliffs, the stag leaps from these precipitous heights into the sea beneath, only to be carried away by the tide or brought ashore by the boatmen who take up the chase.

The origin of the Exmoor Hunt is lost in the mists of the ages. In the reign of Edward I the lands of Holcote, or Holnecote, were granted to Walter Barum by the service of his " hanging on a forked block of wood red deer that died of murrain in the King's forest of Exmoor. "

In the year 1825 " there was disunion in the hunt, the hounds were sold to a foreign nobleman, and for the first time in centuries the silence of the forest was unbroken by the musical discord and sweet thunder of the pack. " After a lapse of some years, however, the hunt was again established, and in a reproduction as far as possible of that of feudal times.