OF THE STAG'S HEAD. 35 



under the writer's notice was that of a stag found 

 in Court Wood when Col. Hornby was Master. 

 He only ran to the lower end of Bye Hill, about 

 a mile and a half, and hounds rolled him over 

 in the water without an effort. He was no bigger 

 than a two-year-old, but carried a small, well-spread 

 head with brow, tray, and three on top on each side, 

 the beam being very light and the points between 

 two and three inches long. He had hardly any teeth, 

 and his slot was like that of a two-year-old, which, 

 no doubt, accounted for the harbourer never having 

 harboured him. He was ear- marked with a peculiar 

 mark which Mr. Bawden, of Hawkridge, recognised 

 as an old sheep-mark of his. It transpired that he 

 had rescued a two-year-old male deer badly 

 mauled by some hounds, had nursed it in his farm 

 buildings, ear-marked it, and turned it out in the 

 year before Hawkridge Church was restored ; this 

 enabled the date to be fixed, and the consequent 

 age of the stag was nineteen. This is the only 

 instance known to the writer of any considerable age 

 being adequately proved. 



It has been said that deer are at their prime at 

 fourteen ; this would certainly not be true on 

 Exmoor, where ten or eleven would be a more 

 likely age. 



Two points which have been much debated are 

 whether the heads in Devon and Somerset areas big 

 as North-country heads, and whether they are as 

 big as they were in days gone by. 



D 2 



