12 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



grim and sombre becomes all at once a picture 

 so entrancing, and so full of movement by reason 

 of a rift in the skv and the sudden advent of 

 the chase in full cry, that it may well be carried 

 home in the mind's eye to form food for reverie, 

 or to lighten the dull, dark days of winter. 

 When the elements are propitious there is no 

 English landscape more beautiful than that of 

 Exmoor proper, and there are times when the 

 moor has very weird and impressive aspects, 

 which are onlv seen by the very few whose 

 occupation calls them to its lonely wilderness 

 in times of storm and tempest, blizzard and 

 thundercloud, or under a frosty mid-winter 

 moon when the whole expanse lies white. 

 While the colouring of the Quantock combes is 

 generally more vivid, Exmoor is clothed for the 

 most part in neutral tints, and its chief charm 

 lies in its desolate loneliness and wide range. 

 The network of railways which elsewhere covers 

 English ground is here far distant ; here are no 

 cottage chimnevs at the corner of every other 

 field : here are no busv farmsteads and creaking 

 ploughs : onlv grass and rushes, heath and fern, 

 the whistle of a nesting curlew, the harsh croak 

 of that diligent fish poacher the heron as he 

 flaps up disturbed from his banquet of small 

 trout, or the whirring flutter of blackcock and 

 greyhen as they rise with their brood from their 

 feeding ground amongst the whortleberry stems. 



