Himtino- the Wild Stao^, 



83 



solitude he can seek it at Exford, in the very heart 

 of the conntry, and he can obtain comfortable quar- 

 ters and good stabling if he should take his own 

 stud. If he prefers to hire, Mr. King, who is also 

 the proprietor of the AVhite Horse lun, will mount 

 him ; and if he is as fortunate as I have been, he 

 will be certain to obtain horses that are used to the 

 country, and will carry him right well — animals for 

 whom the day is never too long or the hills too 

 steep, and that the longest run will not tire — at 

 least that has been my experience. 



Those ardent spirits, who consider a burst of 

 twenty-five minutes at a racing pace over the pas- 

 tures of Leicestershire is the correct thing, will pro- 

 bably, unless they are thoroughbred sportsmen, as 

 well as hard riders, dissent from my views as re- 

 gards hunting the wild red deer. But every man 

 to his taste. I have ridden to hounds in nearly 

 every crack county in England, but I never felt the 

 same amount of excitement at seeing a fox break 

 cover, as I have when witnessing a noble stag start 

 up from amidst the purple heather, and go " a 

 clinker " across the beautiful country which is 

 hunted by the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. 



