TROUBLOUS TIMES. 289 



daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Wroth, who 

 was descended from the old family of de Wrotham, 

 in whom, as we have seen, the forestership in fee of 

 Exmoor was vested before it passed to the Mortimers, 

 Earls of March. The claim of the Wroths to this 

 hereditary right had never been completely abandoned, 

 and although they do not seem to have taken any 

 very active steps to assert it, the existence of the 

 claim is said to have been sufficient to prevent the 

 sale of the forest on one occasion. 



On the death of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 

 seventh baronet, in 1770 he w^as succeeded by his 

 son, who was for many years known as " Sir Thomas 

 his honour"; during his mastership the hunt was 

 carried on w^ith unexampled success till 1776. 



In this year the hounds, though apparently not 

 the forestership of Exmoor, were handed over to 

 Colonel Basset, of Watermouth, who also showed 

 great sport over a wild stretch of country till i 784, 

 but here again we have no record of the runs or the 

 number of deer killed, until the year 1780, from 

 which date the diary of the Rev. J. Boyse, of 

 Withypool, now in the possession of Mr. Robert 

 Collyns, of Dulverton, gives many accounts of runs, 

 the most notable of w^hich are published in the appen- 

 dix to Dr. Collyns's " Chase of the Wild Red Deer." 



At this time the great strongholds of the deer 

 seem to have been in the Arlington and Marwood 

 districts, if one may judge from the runs thought 

 w^orth recording. 



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