WA YS OF RED DEER. 87 



able tc them, causing, as it does, so much 

 money to circulate in innumerable ways. 

 Without stag-hunting there would be abso- 

 lutely nothing doing about Exmoor — no life, 

 no movement — so that it proves of the great- 

 est value to all. The cottager, as well as the 

 sportsman, drinks the toast inscribed on the 

 silver buttons worn on the scarlet coats of 

 the hunt, ' Prosperity to Stag-Hunting.' 



Poaching, however, did not quite die out 

 for some years, and if they were not very 

 good shots still if the deer was but wounded 

 they would follow him up for days till they 

 got him. Some twelve years since a man 

 returned from the gold-diggings, and who 

 seems to have been an adventurous not to 

 say desperate character, shot a stag, one out 

 of three lying in some heather not far from 

 his home. The horns till lately hung in the 

 cottage. The fact soon came to the know- 

 ledge of the harbourer, who hunted him, 

 as it were, by slot, till at last he captured 

 him, with the assistance of a police-constable, 



