134 CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 



will not ask in vain that as he has a pack worthy of 

 their game, the game may be preserved from the 

 bullet of the poacher, and the attacks of the keeper. 

 If there be any virtue in the good-fellowship and 

 kindly interchange of feeling preserved by friendly 

 meetings at covert-side, surely the good squires who 

 overlook the lovely vale of Taunton will not forget 

 that they can, by a little trouble and timely exertion 

 of authority, confer a boon upon their fellow-sports- 

 men which will not be lightly estimated or unduly 

 appreciated. The horn of the stag-hunter has for 

 many a long year ceased to wake the echoes of the 

 woods around Cothelston and Bagborough ; let us 

 hope that it will be no longer silent. The cheer 

 that greets the stag, as he bounds from his lair, is 

 grand enough to send the blood at double-quick 

 time through the veins, and make an old man young 

 again. May our children's children have their 

 pulses stirred by that welcome sound, even as ours 

 have been many a time and oft. 



