136 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



menced to run at once at a truly terrific pace, and 

 this time it was all sound going, grass fields and 

 big banks, and plenty of handy gates for those who 

 preferred them. 



We rose the slopes of Blagdon Hill, and emerged 

 on some common-like land through which the West 

 Somerset Mineral Railway runs. This we crossed 

 near Gupworthy, and on to a little heather at Lype 

 Hill, hounds driving as hard as ever. Here Arthur 

 gets his second horse, and leads the way for a w^hile, 

 hounds making as if for Dunkery Beacon, which now 

 towers above us, and on whose eastern slope we 

 exchange grass for heather again. 



The change of ground makes no difference in the 

 pace, and hounds run as fast as ever. Through the 

 Parsonage Wood they crash, and just below Horner 

 Mill they set up the stag, at exactly a quarter-past 

 one. The run up to here was nearly fourteen miles 

 as the crow flies, so that the pace was decidedly 

 better than the previous run, but the time was less 

 in all. But our panting horses were not to have 

 their well-earned rest yet. The stag had turned to 

 bay on the side of a steep cutting where no one 

 could have got at him. After facing the pack for 

 a few minutes he broke his bay, making as if for 

 Leigh Hill, but he was unequal to the effort required, 

 and turned again seaward. Past Holnicote he went, 

 and a furlong from the shore he again faced his foes 

 in an angle between two stone walls. His one horn 

 completely kept the pack off, and, strange to say, 

 his boldest adversary was a small cottager's cur 

 which had joined in the chase. Probably he did 

 not know his danger as the great hounds did. 



Presently he scrambled over the wall at his back, 



