CHAPTER IX. 



THE FOREST OF EXMOOR. 



" When the early dawn is stealing 

 O'er the moorland edge revealing 

 All the tender tints of morning ere she flushes into day." 



Whyte Melville. 



^' What part of the wild country which extends over 

 so much of West Somerset and North Devon is 

 properly included in the term Exmoor ? And why is 

 it called a forest when the greater portion of it is 

 bare of trees ? " are questions so often asked that it 

 may be of interest to deal with these points, and, 

 without going into any abstruse historical disquisi- 

 tions, to trace briefly the history of Exmoor and 

 of staghunting, for the two are practically insepar- 

 able, from the earliest times of which we know any- 

 thing, and to see how the sport was carried on of 

 old, how the dwellers in the district groaned under 

 the cruel Forest Laws, and how, little by little, the 

 exclusive privilege of Royalty became the cherished 

 sport of the people of two counties. 



For this purpose it will be well to define clearly 

 the boundaries of the Forest of Exmoor at different 

 periods, and then to see how, and by whom, the laws 

 were administered, and what are the earliest traces 



