STAG HUNTING IN DEVONSHIRE 215 



volume. This must certainly be the most exciting 

 mode of pursuit; but it appears to be going fast to 

 decay, despite the exertions of several zealous sup- 

 porters of the time-honoured sport. The wandering 

 propensities of the deer in their wild state cause them 

 to travel many miles in search of favourite food; con- 

 sequently there is great difficulty in preserving them. 

 I am informed that the damage they do is often con- 

 siderable; for on entering a field of turnips, they will 

 only partially consume the roots, leaving the re- 

 mainder, which soon rots ; and if a stag only takes a 

 single bite at a turnip it may be readily conjectured that 

 he will taste a great number before his hunger is 

 appeased; and as cultivation is gradually spreading up 

 the sides of the moors, the injuries will year by year 

 become more extensive. Their company, therefore, is 

 not welcomed by the small farmers, who require com- 

 pensation for the damages they sustain ; but considering 

 that it is the last relict of the ancient custom of stag- 

 hunting, it will be a subject of much regret if some re- 

 munerative arrangements cannot be effected. 



Those who have participated in it represent this kind 

 of hunting as highly exciting, and I can readily con- 

 ceive it to be so. To view one of these sfplendid red 

 deer come bounding from the thicket with all the energy 

 and confidence of a wild and free animal, pursued at 

 that moment by none but the tufters, whom by his 

 looks he appears to regard with insignificant contempt, 

 must be an interesting scene. And then when the 

 anxiously-waiting pack is laid on the scent the pace is 

 no doubt terrific. To follow them over so wild a 

 country perchance a distance of twenty or thirty miles, 

 where treacherous bogs and impassable ravines impede 

 the progress of the most determined horsemen, must 

 afford a zest immeasurably superior to that which is 

 experienced in the ordinary mode of stag-hunting. Not 

 that I for one should desire to ride constantly over a 

 country that cannot in most parts* be crossed upon a 

 horse that is entitled to the name of a hunter; yet the 



