Fox-hunting Past and Present 



who know them, what can compare to the cHffs 

 from Ashley Combe to Countisbury Foreland ? 

 Here there are paths and byways that overhang 

 a rock-bound beach by a giddy drop of three 

 hundred feet. Deer, after betaking themselves 

 to the sea here, have swum ashore only to find 

 themselves confronted by hounds and huntsman. 

 It is some years now since his Majesty the King, 

 when Prince of Wales, despatched the first Exmoor 

 stag near Badgworthy Water. 



This year a stag jumped over the cliffs at 

 Desolate near the Foreland, and in 1884 one was 

 killed at Glenthorne, followed by five hounds ; 

 the stag and three of the hounds were killed. 

 The famous Bratton Run was one of twenty-six 

 miles — time, two hours and twenty minutes. Any 

 stag with two long points on either top may be 

 run ; one with three atop on each horn is gene- 

 rally sought for ; the animal is then probably not 

 under seven years old. It is a grand cleft in 

 the moors, the Badgworthy Water Valley, called 

 Badgery — one of the grandest on Exmoor. There 

 is no forest here now. Rock and woodland en- 

 circle the romantic Doone Valley ; here the ruined 

 dwellings of outlaws with whom ^' Gert Jan Ridd " 

 tried conclusions more than two centuries ago 

 may be seen. 



One of the finest heads in stag-hunting history 



was taken on October 25, 1893, that last day of 



86 



