192 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



were too engrossed with other matters to hunt much, 

 we may depend upon it that the smaller squires made 

 the most of their opportunities. That a " cry of 

 dogs," able to kill a stag after a run over the open, 

 had been kept by the Tracys at Bremridge in early 

 days is duly recorded, because they were summoned 

 to the forest court for running a stag on to the forest 

 and killing it, and we cannot suppose that when the 

 forest laws came to be less forcibly administered 

 other people did not do the same. Indeed, we 

 know that in 1259 Richard Beaumont, of the county 

 of Devon, Molyns his hunter, and other servants took 

 several stags and hinds without warrant. If this was 

 done in defiance of the law when fully enforced we 

 may easily surmise what would happen when the 

 riorour was relaxed. The absurd restrictions on the 

 hunting of purlieu men would, it is reasonable to 

 suppose, be the first part of the law to be allowed to 

 drop into abeyance. 



Knowing as we do the descendants of the men who 

 then held the land, it is not possible to believe that 

 they sat quietly at home and saw their crops devastated 

 by the deer without enjoying the pleasure of a hunt. 



Roger Mortimer, the first of his line to hold the 

 office of forester, died in 1361, and was succeeded 

 by Edmund Mortimer, who died in 1 381, who was 

 followed by Roger Mortimer, who died a minor in 

 Ireland in 1398. To him succeeded Edmund 

 Mortimer, who, dying in 1424, the forestership 

 with the rest of the Mortimer property, devolved 



