(S THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



lands below, or to seek change of scene and food 

 by resting awhile in such distant coverts as 

 Brymore, Swang Gorse, or Wick Park. Though 

 their home is in the hills, they know the way over 

 the vale, and many a merry chase they have led 

 Mr. E. A. V. Stanley and his gallant pack, for when 

 once the leaves have fallen the country is rideable, 

 and though the banks are formidable, and, when the 

 low ground is reached, the rhines are wide and deep, 

 there is little or no wire. West of the Ouantocks the 

 vale is more impracticable, the banks are bigger, 

 and the fields are smaller. 



Along this valley runs the railway from Taunton 

 to Minehead, the branch by which most visitors 

 travel who intend to hunt with the Devon and 

 Somerset Staghounds. 



Passing westwards across this valley we slowly 

 ascend the slope of the Brendon Hills. Whether 

 the Brendon Hills should be said to run north and 

 south or east and west is open to doubt ; they are 

 in reality a large table-land, much intersected with 

 valleys, extending some twelve miles from Haddon, 

 mighty stronghold of the deer, in the south to 

 Croydon Hill and Dunster Park in the north. This 

 length is greater than that from east to west, 

 but the backbone seems to run from Ehvorthy by 

 Raleigh's Cross along the line of the Cutcombe 

 Road. At all events, all the streams south of this 

 line find their way into the Tone, a tributary of the 

 Parret, or into the Ouarme and thence to the Exe 



