io8 RED DEER. 



believed, been shot, but even this practice 

 has quite died out. At this hour a red stag 

 is perfectly safe from one side of Exmoor 

 to the other, no matter whether he may be 

 in the oak covers, on the heather, or eating 

 his fill in the wheat-fields. Of William the 

 Conqueror it was said that he loved the tall 

 deer as if he were their father ; the deer of 

 Exmoor have hundreds of such fathers, for 

 they are loved by every one. Red deer are 

 a passion with rich and poor. Farmers, 

 large and small, hunt and aid the hunt in 

 every possible manner, and besides those 

 who have horses numbers follow on foot. 



Deer are extremely nervous at the sound 

 of a gun. A single report will drive them 

 all away, and as the echo rolls along the 

 wooded hills every stag will start. Those 

 whose orchards are entered by the deer 

 sometimes fire off a gun to drive them 

 away, the noise being sufficient. Though 



