CHASE OF WILD DEEE IN ENGLAND 127 



militate against hunting — and that is, that the deer 

 are gradually migrating away from their original 

 haunts. The ne plus ultra of stag - hunting is a 

 gallop across the moor, and in the old days when 

 all the deer used the coverts adjoining the Royal 

 Forest of Exmoor it could generally be relied upon. 

 The case is far different now. The Forest is no 

 longer Royal : sheep and shepherds' dogs, and, more 

 objectionable than all, tourists, disturb its repose. 

 The tendency of the deer, then, is to take to the great 

 woodlands far from the Forest, where they are not 

 only undisturbed, but can easily reach their staple 

 food, the farmers' crops, among which they make 

 such havoc. I may here say that this is promptly 

 compensated by the Hunt, whose " Deer Damage 

 Fund" pays some hundreds of pounds annually. 

 Every year now deer are reported farther and 

 farther away from the moor, in districts where they 

 have been unknown during the present century at 

 at any rate. It is easy to foresee that " Red Deer 

 Land" will ere long extend from the Severn Sea 

 to Tiverton in the south, and from Barnstaple in 

 the west to Bridgewater in the east.^ Already 

 deer have been found by the hounds within a few 

 miles of Barnstaple, and taken east of the river 

 Parret. Some seasons back a stag ran from 

 Haddon Woods nearly to Tiverton. The hunts- 

 man, meeting a yokel, asked him if he had seen 

 the stag. 



" Nay, I hannot," was the answer ; " but I zaw 

 a jackass wi' a hurdle on his head down by the 



river." 



He had never seen a stag in his life before ; but 



1 This forecast, written a good many years ago, has been fulfilled. 



