332 THE RED DEER OF EX MOOR. 



and tell stories, often in the broadest dialect of Devon, 

 their eyes and ears were thoroughly open to what was 

 going on in the combe below. These were not the 

 men to " get left " when hounds went away. 



The General, as Mr. Bisset was commonly called, 

 was not often seen in the meet field ; his usual post 

 of observation was on Horner Hill, near where the 

 summer-house now stands. He hated a crowd round 

 him, and was not long in letting them know it. 



Deer are curious creatures, and there are tastes 

 and fashions among them as among human beings. 

 For many years almost all heavy stags lay in the 

 thick oak scrub in Yealscombe, that is to say, 

 in a depression on the left, or Lee Hill side, of the 

 main valley, just below where the streams join ; there 

 is a desperately trying path up it on to Lee Hill, 

 which is a sore trial to a blown horse. In those days 

 •we had, as a rule, a long wait ere the stag was roused 

 and forced to fly. Then the fashionable quarter was 

 in the combe below Stoke Pero ; now, of late years, 

 the deer are mostly found, as they used to be a 

 hundred years ago, in the furze bushes at Sweet 

 Tree, or in the little combes on the side of Dunkery. 

 When a stag is harboured here, riders, taking post in 

 the field above the farm, can readily see across the 

 combe all that goes on, and have not, as a rule, long 

 to wait before they hear the welcome sound of the 

 horn as the Master or huntsman comes back for the 

 pack. 



Hounds meet a great many times in the season, 



