DEER IN SUMMER. 59 



road to the mill ; it is used to draw loads to 

 and from the place, and comes to the edge 

 of the haunts of the deer — the most modern 

 of machines beside the ancient chase. 



Eeturning to the Ball, the path up it 

 over the loose stones seems yet steeper than 

 when descending. On the summit it now 

 goes among oaks standing wide apart ; 

 through these, deer sometimes run, one of 

 their tracks leading up here and over the 

 mount. Cloutsham Farm stands where the 

 neck of land connects the round green mount 

 with the general level of the moors. The 

 old thatched house — it is one of Sir Thomas 

 Acland's thatched houses — has a hearth as 

 wide as that of a hunting lodge should be, 

 and an arched inner doorway of oak. A rude 

 massiveness characterises the place. A bal- 

 cony on the first floor overlooks the steepest 

 part of the vast natural fosse surrounding 

 the mount, and the mountainous breadth 

 of Dunkery Beacon rises exactly opposite, 

 shutting out the lower half of the sky. 



