DEVON AND SOMERSET. ii 



While the earHer scenes of the chase are 

 seen to more or less advantage by the greater 

 proportion of the mounted field, and by many 

 a score of the more enterprising of those attend- 

 ing the picnic meets on foot or on wheels, it 

 is what happens later on that has a more special 

 interest for those who for one reason or another 

 cannot be actually in the front rank. When the 

 great eager hounds have streamed away over the 

 purple plains of heather at Langcombe Head, 

 when the long extended line of bobbing heads 

 has passed and gone beyond the distant skyline, 

 the twang of the horn has evaded the reach of 

 the keenest ear, the drumming of a thousand 

 steel shod hoofs on the sunbaked peaty soil can 

 be heard no longer, it is then that the many 

 who are left behind, and the many who still 

 ride the chase by the aid of memory, would fain 

 see what is happening, as the old, old contest 

 goes on between cervine speed and craft and 

 endurance on the one hand, and the hounds' 

 wondrous instinct coupled with human skill on 

 the other. 



From hill-top to combe and from splashing 

 ford to lonely wilderness of grass and fern, by 

 lane and field and woodland to tumbling river 

 and deep rocky pool, the chase goes on. A 

 gleam of sunlight between the soft grey moor- 

 land clouds throws out everything in a moment 

 into most brilliant colouring ; what was just now 



