The Stars of the West. 317 



self. I would say of tlie country of the Stars of the 

 West^ as I would say — and in no cavilling spirit — of 

 Devonshire as a whole : Here is where a man may go 

 who — when the pleasures of tumbling about have 

 palled upon him, or when aged bones rebel against the 

 shock of the flying leap — still retains his love of 

 hunting, centred in a fondness for the hound at work. 

 He can no longer compete, or even share, with a 

 crowd : yet, unless he shifts his scene of action, he is 

 altogether debarred from a delight of which he is still 

 as keenly appreciative as ever. He may possess as 

 vivid a sense of the charms of foxhunting as when he 

 pulled on his first pair of tops ; why should he give it 

 up altogether because he has to resign to younger men 

 his pride of place in his accustomed sphere ? In the 

 wild west country he may hunt nearly all the year 

 round, and daily see hounds at work on a good scent, 

 without his ever being compelled, or even tempted, to 

 ride over a fence. If his previous life has been spent 

 in a flying grass country, his soul may still find re- 

 freshment in a brushing gallop across the open face of 

 Exmoor, where foxhounds can dash along as vigorously 

 as over the best scenting pastures of the Shires. Mr. 

 Snow will hunt a travelling fox down on the open 

 Moor in the middle of May, and be rousing the cubs 

 on it again at daybreak in early August — while for 

 summer exercise he will often let his pack work about 

 in the enormous cliff-woodlands of Culbone and 

 Porlock. Cubhunting is a term seldom used — because 

 scarcely applicable — to the autumn foxhunting of this 

 wild country. An Exmoor cub learns to roam as soon 

 as it can see, and requires none of the rattling so 



