CHAPTER XII. 



A ROYAL STAG-HUNT. 



To brightest beams distracted clouds give way, 

 So stand thou forth the time is fair again, 



Were the words I addressed to one of my sporting 

 companions on the morn of the day which had been 

 fixed for the visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of 

 Wales to the lovely counties of Devon and Somerset, 

 for the purpose of witnessing, for the first time, the 

 exciting sport of chasing the wild red-deer over 

 the heather-clad hills, through the emerald glades, the 

 densely-shaded coombes, the wild and romantic spots 

 which are to be found in and about Exmoor. All that 

 was needed to make the visit enjoyable to the Prince 

 was fair weather ; but so wild and wet had been the 

 spring, summer, and autumn, as far as we had entered 

 upon it, that scarcely anyone ventured to predict a fine 

 day. A friend of mine, whose temper has been sorely 

 tried, and whose ideas have been sadly muddled by 

 the novel system of weather forecasts, inquiring of me 

 how I accounted for these wonderful climatic dis- 

 turbances, I replied that it had been well known for a 

 long period that the sun had been under a cloud, and 



