132 CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 



say there was not a bog in Exmoor, though he 

 admitted there were soft places), into which you may 

 find yourself cast at a moment's notice, your up- 

 country horse, perhaps, strugghng and straining in 

 the mire, and you on your back, with a thousand 

 playful fountains sprinkling you with their tiny jets. 

 There is a tract called the ' Chains,' where for two 

 miles in breadth and width the soft ground ^yX^nA-s,, 

 and though generally passable in the autumn, in the 

 winter it can hardly be crossed by an Exmoor pony. 

 There is, too, a place called ' Mole's Chamber,' 

 where tradition says that a luckless wight, yclept 

 Mole, went down, horse and all, into a bog, and 

 remained underground for some fifty years, at the 

 expiration of which period the bog was drained, and 

 the deceased man and horse were found as perfect 

 in form as on the day they disappeared, the anti- 

 septic qualities of the peat having preserved their 

 form and beauty for more than half a century. 

 These are but legends, however, for with care a man 

 need never come to grief, though he may sometimes 

 be forced to make a wider curve than he likes, and 

 to flank the hounds at a more respectful distance 

 than is agreeable to his feelings. Still, ' discretion 

 is the better part of valour,' and with a horse strange 

 to the country, the sportsman should always avoid. 



