"Throughout North Devon and Somersetshire and wherever ponies are famed, the Exmoor breed have a great reputation, not without reason, for they are not only hardy and sure-footed, but from their earliest years the foals follow their dams at a gallop down the _crees_ of loose stones on the steep moorland sides; they are extraordinarily active and courageous. The writer once saw an Exmoor, only 44 inches high, jump out of a pound 5 feet 6 inches in height, just touching the top bar with his hind feet." Well, let a visitor go to Bampton Fair, and see the pranks of these wild, beautiful creatures, and note as well the skill with which they are managed by the men experienced in dealing with them. Such a sight will remain in his memory, and when he gets back to town he will have something to talk about at dinner, and if he has a bit of descriptive power in him he will hold the ears of those who are near him at table. NOTE.--HARDING (Lt.-Col.), _The History of Tiverton_. Tiverton, 1845. CHAPTER VIII. BARNSTAPLE The _stapol_ of Branock's district--The Irish settlers--Branock badly received in South Wales--Situation of Barnstaple--Huguenot refugees--Samuel Pepys's wife--Jacques Fontaine--French names altered--Barnstaple the starting-point for Ilfracombe and Lynton--The coast road--Exmoor--Combe Martin--The Valley of Rocks--The Wichehalses of Lee--Brendon--S. Brendan's voyages--Churches near Barnstaple. This town was the _stapol_, port or mart, of the district of Barum, Braun, or Brannock, an Irish saint, confessor, and son-in-law to Brychan, King of Brecknock, who settled at Braunton, formerly Llan-Brynach, then Brannock-stow. The northern cheek of Barnstaple Bay is formed by a peninsula, the centre of which is this same Braunton, where Branock had his monastic establishment. As intimately associated with this district, a few words on him may be allowed. In the fifth century the whole of North Devon and North-east Cornwall was invaded and occupied by Irish and half-Irish hordes. Irish accounts relate that these invasions began about 378, and continued till the reign of Dathi, 428. [Illustration: QUEEN ANNE'S WALK, BARNSTAPLE] The Irish had made themselves masters of Brecknock, where their prince, Aulac or Amalghaid, claimed the throne in virtue of his wife Marchell, daughter and heiress of the native Welsh king. Brychan, the son, succeeded him; he had as tutor to his children an Irishman named Brynach or Branock, who was his confessor, and to whom he gave one of his daughters in marriage. Branock did not have a pleasant time of it in South Wales, and he migrated to North Devon, where, by some means, he obtained a grant of a considerable tract of country.