APPENDIX 277 



just below Landacre bridge; went up stream to Sherdon 

 Hutch, broke again on the left as if still determined to 

 reach the Northmolton woods, but before attaining the 

 summit of the hill, backed it again for the river, and was 

 run into and killed just by Cow Castle. This was a first- 

 class run, and the pace such that but few could live with 

 the hounds. 



April 24th, 1849. — Cloutsham the fixture, and a hind 

 roused in Sweet Tree, with a death above Watersmcet, 

 after one of the fastest runs on record. The distance, 

 over thirteen miles straight, was done in one hour and 

 five minutes. The pack was laid on on Stoke Pero 

 Common; not more than half the field in at the finish. 

 It was a race from beginning to end, and it was delightful 

 to witness the manner in which the hounds took their 

 game through a large herd of deer on Scobbill, without 

 attempting to leave the line of the hunted deer, 



September 4th. — Luxborough was the fixture ; and the 

 tufters found a stag in Slowly Wood. He was killed after 

 a run of two hours and a half, just below Minehead. The 

 pace this day was moderate, over an enclosed country, 

 and the heat most oppressive. The hounds picked their 

 game inch by inch through the coverts around Dunster 

 Park ; and to see them hunt the stag through the park, 

 which was stained by the tracks of the fallow deer, with 

 a hundred horsemen following over as beautiful a piece 

 of ground as any to be found in the kingdom, was as fine 

 a sight as a sportsman could desire to witness. The deer 

 broke from the park on to the marshes — he did not go to 

 sea — but beat up to Alcombe and lay fast in a rhine or 

 drain. Here the hounds came upon him, and after a 

 short burst he was pulled down. A very old stag. 



