64 Hark Away, 



comforts experienced when residing at the Lion 

 Hotel, 1 wrote to Mr. King, the proprietor of this 

 pleasant hostelry, to secnre rooms, and to engage 

 horses for a few days at the commencement of the 

 season, that I might enjoy to the fullest extent that 

 which is to me the grandest sport it has ever been 

 my good fortune to fall in with during a somewhat 

 lengthened experience of hunting in many of the best 

 counties in England. Differing entirely from fox- 

 hunting, yet it has a pleasure peculiarly its own, and 

 to me nothing is more enjoyable than riding full tilt 

 through the purple heather, startling the black game 

 from their lairs as I gallop, as near as circumstances 

 will permit to the tail of tlie hounds when pursuing 

 a " warrantable stag " over hill and dale, across 

 rippling rills, along emerald green valleys and 

 densely wooded " combes," at a rattling pace, on 

 a brilliant morning in the month of August — a some- 

 what early period for the enjoyment of the noble and 

 unique pastime of hunting the wild red deer, it would 

 appear to the uninitiated, when the corn is still 

 standing, whilst the thermometer marks a high 

 degree of summer heat, the heather in full bloom, 

 and the foliage in its fullest luxuriance. But when 

 mounting the Quantock Hills, and revelling in the 

 fresh breezes that come across the waters of the 

 Bristol Channel, you come to the conclusion that it is 

 one of the most enjoyable pleasures you have ever 

 experienced, supposing you to have a taste for pic- 

 turesque scenery, combined with an ardent love of 

 the pleasures of the chase. 



The pleasantest route from the metropolis is that 

 traversed by the trains of the South-Western Eail- 



