STAG-HUNTING 269 



The men of Devon are all good sportsmen and 

 loyally preserve the stag, which will often do more 

 damage in one night to crops than a fox will in a 

 whole season amongst the hen-roosts. Hunting 

 in this county is said to go on all the year round, 

 either with the stag, the fox, the hare, or else the 

 otter. The yeomen are not only keen about 

 every form of hunting, but they understand it 

 and appreciate the work of hounds. 



In the New Forest the deer are just as wild, 

 but not having the strength of the red variety 

 they do not make such good points. They have 

 excellent sport and occasionally some very good 

 runs, but it is in the late spring, when fox-hunting 

 is over, that this hunt becomes most popular and 

 its doings chronicled far and wide. From the 

 north and from the midlands sportsmen hurry 

 down south, to hear once more the cry of hounds 

 before the season is closed. 



Hunting the carted stag is a very harmless 

 amusement, and affords many people the oppor- 

 tunity of hearing the cry of hounds and riding 

 across-country who cannot find time for the 

 legitimate thing, but it is not sport, and is only 

 a degree above the ' red herring.' 



