CHAPTER IV. 



OF THE HARBOURER. 



P'irst came the harbourer 



Before the dawn was clear ; 



And here he stooped, and there he stood, 



And round the combe he made it good, 



And harboured in the lower wood 



A warrantable deer. — Whyte Melville. 



One of the first things a sportsman from " up the 

 country" should do on arriving in the West for a 

 season with the staghounds is to disabuse his mind 

 of the idea that the chase of the stag, because it is 

 " hunting, " must necessarily be carried on in the 

 same way as fox-hunting. Fox-hunting and stag- 

 hunting are as utterly different as fox-hunting and 

 otter-hunting. One is frequently asked which is the 

 better sport — a question it is utterly impossible to 

 answer. Both are equally good sport, each of its 

 own kind ; but whether any individual will enjoy one 

 more than the other depends to a large extent on 

 the individual himself. The man who comes down 

 to Exmoor expecting the pack to bustle a stag out 

 of a thick woodland, many hundred acres in extent, 

 as if it were a gorse covert in Leicestershire or 

 Meath, will go home sorely disappointed. 



