286 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



1 700 the forestership was vested in Mr. Walter, of 

 Stevenstone ; he was thus the first resident in the 

 neighbourhood for close on a century to hold that 

 office. That he kept the staghounds at Stevenstone 

 is accepted tradition, but there seems some doubt 

 whether he did not share the responsibilities of office 

 with Lord Orford dunng at least some part of the 

 time. About this period the Dukes of Bedford were 

 keeping hounds, and hunting the South Devon 

 country, frequently running their deer to sea in Tor 

 Bay. From a passage in Lord Graves's letter to the 

 then Viscount Ebrington in 181 2 it has been inferred 

 that these were the North Devon Staghounds, but 

 this can hardly have been the case. We know that 

 the North Devon and Exmoor districts were full of 

 deer at this time, but even allowing for frequent 

 " lying out " they can hardly have been hunted from 

 Tavistock. 



Hounds had been, undoubtedly, kept by the Abbot 

 of Tavistock, whose hunting box, and, presumably, 

 kennels, were at Morwell. Probablv the hounds 

 passed with the property to the Russell family, as 

 was the case in other instances. The black and 

 tan Welsh hounds, till recently hunted by Major 

 Lewis in Glamorganshire, are believed to be 

 descended from the pack taken over by the Lewis 

 of that day, when he received a grant of the 

 monastery property at Van. 



There is a stag's head in existence at Foy in 

 Cornwall which tradition asserts was hunted from 



