Hunting the Wild Stag, 79 



Forest. At this point I came to grief. Thinking I 

 could get closer to the hounds if I took a line of my 

 own, I soon found my fleet career was checked. Sud- 

 denly myself and horse were floundering in one of the 

 bogs — traps for the unwary — which are not un- 

 frequently met with in a gallop across Exmoor. No 

 sooner in than the clever little mare was out again ; 

 but only to fall into another deeper still. Dis- 

 mounting promptly, she struggled hard and slipped 

 out on her side, panting with the exertion. A few 

 minutes' rest and she was right as the mail, and I 

 rode ofi", cautiously ; for I found I had got into a part 

 of the moor that was full of suspicious-looking 

 places; and remembering that wherever there are 

 rushes growing, there danger exists, but that as long 

 as there is heather to ride on you may safely gallop 

 along, I got over the tract of boggy land, and sailed 

 away once more at a rattling pace, following the 

 hounds up the hill above Kitsford. Here we changed 

 on to the line of a stag, which we ran to Shillets, 

 then changed again on to the line of another fresh 

 stag, which we folloAved to Park Wood, where the 

 hounds were whipped off. A lovely ride over the 

 moorland finally led me back to Exford. 



It is all very well to be wandering about these 

 heather-clad hills on a lovely summer's evening in 

 the month of September ; but, supposing it was a 

 November evening at the same hour, how about the 

 ride home then 1 These lovely blue hills and vales 

 are not always so smiling ; for during the month of 

 April last one landowner in the district lost five 

 hundred and twelve sheep in a snow drift, and a 

 farmer, who lost many sheep and a pony at the same 



