OF THE TAKING OF THE STAG. 95 



in the forests of France. Lord Graves, however, was 

 of opuiion when he was Master that Exmoor stags 

 went down the wind. 



A wind right astern is not so noticeable as a wind 

 meeting one in a run, and therefore does not impress 

 itself so clearly on one's mind, but the writer fails to 

 recall any big run right down a strong gale. There 

 probably have been many such, but the wind was not 

 a point to attract special attention. 



On the other hand, we have all seen hounds run 

 their hardest, both after stag and hind, dead in the 

 -teeth of the storm when the wildest of gales were 

 sweeping over the hills, and the deluges which fell 

 upon us seemed verily to realise Lindsay Gordon's 

 description, " Sharp spikes of rain and splinters of 

 hail." Lucky is the man then who is clad in three- 

 ply Melton or has a real mackintosh coat. The thin 

 ventilated things that fold up and go in the pocket, 

 or in a little bag on the saddle, are useless on those 

 occasions. The rain drives through them like a 

 sieve. Few who were out will forget the weather on 

 the Dunster day in 1905. How the storm howled 

 over the hills, and how the rain pursued its course 

 almost parallel with the ground in blinding torrents ! 

 Yet a big stag, after going away down wind, swung 

 round and treated us to a gallop of the best by way 

 of Treborough Common, Lype, and Dunkery to 

 Horner, right in the teeth of the gale the whole way. 



When Lord Ebrinorton was Master there was an 

 awful day of wind and rain on the Quantocks in 



