6o THE RED DEER OE EXMOOR. 



many readers will remember long draws on the wet 

 ground by Pinford when the harbourer has reported 

 that it was too thick to see anything in the early 

 morning. 



The harbourer's fee is one sovereign, and well he 

 has earned it by the time a warrantable stag has 

 " gone away." Fred Goss, who is now Lady 

 Carnarvon's head keeper at Pixton Park, was trained 

 by Miles, who for many years combined the duties 

 of keeper to the late Earl of Carnarvon at Haddon 

 and harbourer to the Devon and Somerset Stag- 

 hounds — an employment much more to his taste. 

 He was a hunting man by instinct, a brilliant horse- 

 man, and frequently, his harbouring work over, was 

 to be seen going with the best in the run that 

 followed. 



Miles got his tuition partly from old Jack Wensley, 

 of Hartford, who is still in the land of the living and 

 as keen as ever, and partly from old Jem Blackmore, 

 who had harboured on the Dulverton side all his life 

 and had in turn succeeded his father. This takes 

 one back nearly if not quite to the beginning of the 

 last century. All in turn inhabited the Keeper's 

 Cottage at Frogwell Lodge, though Goss has now 

 moved to the Head Keeper's Lodge at Pixton. 



Neither the Blackmores nor Miles harboured over 

 the whole country, as various owners were prevailed on 

 by their gamekeepers to insist on their own servants 

 having the job in their own coverts. The system 

 never worked satisfactorily. It was all very well on a 



