OF THE TAKING OF THE STAG. 103 



seashore, though it must be confessed that boots and 

 breeches are badly adapted for climbing. Some- 

 times a stag will stand at bay among the rocks, and 

 often, if the sea is very rough, he will stand among 

 the breakers facing the shore, a position in which he 

 is very hard to capture, and one of great danger to 

 the hounds, for when the rollers are coming right in 

 from the open sea they keep the heavy rough shingle 

 where they break continually on the move, and 

 crushed toes and bruised joints are very likely to 

 result. Between Glenthorne and the Foreland the 

 hills slope down almost precipitously, with nothing 

 but short grass and loose stones, from a height of 

 about 900 feet to the top of the cliffs about 50 to 

 200 feet above the beach. A green path about 

 three feet wide at its widest and some two miles and 

 a half long runs along the face of the cliff — for the 

 whole may well be called cliff — about 500 feet above. 

 These cliffs are a very favourite place for deer to 

 make their last stand : they run through the Glen- 

 thorne Woods and find themselves on this precipitous 

 slope; thev are too exhausted to get up it, and, 

 pressed by hounds, they make their way to the edge 

 of the cliffs. There are places where they can get 

 down, and others where they cannot. 



The most perilous position the pack can find itself 

 in is when some are on the face of the rock baying 

 the stag from above, others on the beach baying him 

 from below. The position is not a nice one for men or 

 hounds, for every time the stag moves he dislodges 



