88 RED DEER. 



in the highway. In his pockets they found 

 a gun taken to pieces for convenience of 

 concealment, a revolver, and a long bowie- 

 knife. 



Tins appears to have been the last case 

 of deliberate deer-stealing. If any have 

 occurred since it has been rather casually 

 than by deliberate pursuit. Deer wandering 

 into fields held by small farmers have, it is 

 believed, been shot, but even this practice 

 has quite died out. At this hour a red 

 stag is perfectly safe from one side of Exmoor 

 to the other, no matter whether he may be 

 in the oak covers, on the heather, or eating 

 his fill in the wheat fields. Of William the 

 Conqueror it was said that he loved the tall 

 deer as if he were their father ; the deer of 

 Exmoor have hundreds of such fathers, for 

 they are loved by every one. Red deer are 

 a passion with rich and poor. Farmers, 

 large and small, hunt and aid the hunt in 

 every possible manner, and besides those 

 who have horses numbers follow on foot. 



