CHASE OF WILD DEEK IN ENGLAND 133 



Exe Head. Here hounds are racing half a mile 

 ahead of us, beyond the dreaded bog known as the 

 " Black Pits." Some few risk it ; I with most of the 

 others turn along under a fence, and find the going 

 quite bad enough. At last w^e come out on a steep 

 hillside, and on to the Brendon Boad. This gives 

 our horses a chance to get their wind, and at Brendon 

 Two Gates we get on to the moor again. Mr Kars- 

 lake and two other kncwinof ones have second horses 

 waiting here, which some envy, but my young one is 

 going strong and well, and now for the first time I 

 can let her go and extend her tremendous stride 

 through the heather. 



As I gallop down Badgeworthy Lees I have time 

 to look round. For miles behind the moor I have 

 crossed is dotted with horsemen — and footmen too, 

 by Jove ! for here is a riderless horse galloping close 

 behind me. There, a mile in front, is a grey patch 

 fleeting across the moor — the pack. I push on, and 

 in a minute or two am galloping down the grassy turf 

 of the Doone Valley. Now Badgeworthy Water is 

 forded, and I gallop up the long slope of Mr Snow's 

 Deer Park (so called). Here I jump my second and 

 last bank, the first having been coming up to Yard 

 Down. There is very little jumping on the moor, 

 though there are plenty of falls. 



Directly after I made a bad mistake. An excited 

 shepherd holloaing led me to think I had overridden 

 the line, and that the stag had turned short back to 

 Badgeworthy Water. I turned round, and actually 

 rode nearly back there till, meeting a couple of tailed- 

 oif hounds holdinof on the line, I saw I w^as mistaken, 

 and once more retraced my way to the Exford Boad. 

 The rest of the leading division had now gained con- 



