IVAYS OF RED DEER. 93 



grown till the season returns in due course. 

 Unhesitating goodwill alone can explain 

 the continuance of stag-hunting under 

 these risks ; unhesitating goodwill and an 

 enthusiasm not to be matched by that aroused 

 in any other sport. Only, indeed, the noblest 

 sport of all — the chase of the red deer — 

 could excite a whole country to such gene- 

 rous enthusiasm. Deer may be said to eat 

 as much as the small Devon cattle which are 

 kept in this part of Somerset ; they feed 

 sometimes with the bullocks that are turned 

 out on the moors. 



They will have the best of everything, 

 and roaming about at night select the 

 meadow with the most succulent grass. They 

 enter orchards, too, in spring for the long 

 grass that grows between the ajlple-trees. 

 Turnips are a favourite food, and leaving 

 the moors they wander miles down into 

 the cultivated fields to find them. The 

 stag as he walks across the turnip-field bites 

 a turnip, draws it from the ground, and 



