H ADDON. 



341 



Valley, all of which are commanded by a most 

 excellent driving road from which everything can be 

 seen; so when the deer takes to the Exe Valley, the 

 field consists mainly of a surging crowd of carriages 

 and motor-cars, most of the riders, except the few 

 who have learned how to get along the Exe Valley 

 without going on the road, having abandoned as 

 hopeless all attempt to see hounds. 



Though the carriages and motors are without doubt 

 one of the main causes of the unpopularity of Haddon, 

 It is only fair to say that, though they may spoil the 

 fun of the riders, they do not as a rule interfere with 

 the hounds or with the run of the deer, for, being in 

 the valley, the top side of the covert is always open 

 for deer to break away towards the better country, 

 and they frequently do so ; and then the horsemen 

 who have faced the dust and the crowd to keep near 

 hounds reap their reward. 



The Haddon coverts are entirely surrounded by 

 enclosed country, and it is only naturally to be 

 expected that deer, bred and born in such a district, 

 should show a greater tendency to run the coverts 

 than do their cousins, whose nightly wanderings lead 

 them over wide expanses of open moorland, and 

 whichever way a deer may make up his mind to go, 

 the field has of necessity to cross some few miles of 

 enclosed ground, going from gate to gate, and from 

 road to lane, ere horsemen find themselves on any 

 open ground such as Court Down or the heather 

 above Red Cleeve. 



