316 The Hunting Countries of England. 



THE STAES OP THE WEST.* 



An immense tract of extreme Nortli Devon is coloured 

 in the hunting maps as the Country of the Stars of 

 the West. For practical purposes the brush need have 

 touched only about half the area — for, though Mr. 

 Nicholas Snow has undisputed right within the sea 

 limits, of which Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Lynton and 

 Porlock are the chief points of mark, Exmoor Forest 

 and its immediate environs form an area more than 

 sufficient for a two-days-a-week pack. This is the 

 cream and pith of his country ; and to this he 

 naturally and necessarily almost restricts himself. 

 Eough and wild indeed it is : but no country in the 

 three kingdoms carries a better scent. On the great 

 Moor you may gallop to hounds anywhere : amid the 

 barriered slopes adjoining the open Forest you must 

 get about from point to point as you would in the 

 Dulverton country, putting all vaulting ambition under 

 firm restraint, and trusting yourself to the guidance of 

 some one familiar to the roads and paths and gates 

 till, if you stay long enough, you learn them for your- 



* Vide Stanford's " Hunting Map," Sheet 19. Also Hobson's 

 Foxhunting Atlas. 



