4.S8 mms ot tbe ir?untint3*jftelD 



on the turf, I woke, and found the keeper staring, not at 

 them, but at me, who, I verily beheve, had something 

 very Hke a tear in these excitable eyes of mine." 



' No doubt you had, Claude. I felt very much the 

 same when first that vision beneath the waterfall burst 

 on my sight, or, rather, when I had time to drink in its 

 full volume of beauty. As I have said, how that deer 

 was killed I know not ; sufficient is it that I saw him 

 dragged to land, and " the hounds' fee " distributed. 

 Here was one — nay, two pictures — comprised within the 

 space of ten minutes, such as no artist ever painted, or 

 ever will paint, not even Landseer himself 



Who will say after reading that passage that there is 

 no poetry in sport, or deny that the best place to find it 

 is in the chase of the red deer over the combes and 

 chines of Exmoor ? And there alone must you seek the 

 sport, for nowhere else is the wild stag hunted in Great 

 Britain. How long stag-hunting has been practised on 

 Exmoor it is impossible to tell — perhaps as far back as 

 the Conqueror or before, for there must have been red 

 deer there from time immemorial. The first authentic 

 mention of hounds in the district is found in the reign 

 of Elizabeth, when Hugh Pollard was appointed ' Ranger 

 of the Royal Forest of Exmoor,' and kept a pack at 

 Simonsbath. 



When the i8th century dawned it found Mr Walter 

 of Stevenstown in possession of the hounds, which, it is 

 presumed, had been continued since Hugh Pollard's 

 time. To him succeeded Lord Orford, and he was 

 followed by Mr Dyke, who hunted the country, it is said, 

 with great success for many years. 



Sir Thomas Acland next took the hounds and hunted 

 in princely style. The Hon. John Fortescue, in his 



