DEVON AND SOMERSET. 47 



from the moor itself, where hunting quarters are 

 by no means over abundant and locomotion is 

 a matter of difficulty and serious forethought. 

 The extreme western end of the Dulverton 

 country forms in fact a district by itself, which 

 might as truly be claimed as appertaining to the 

 moor as to the woodland district, inasmuch as 

 deer, when roused in its strongholds, betake 

 themselves to the open quite as often as they 

 elect a course over the enclosures. One large 

 covert, known as Bremridge Wood, is tunnelled 

 under by the railway, and at this point deer 

 freely cross to and fro, and hence no doubt it 

 is that they lead hounds far down into the 

 heart of Devon and bring their panting pur- 

 suers to the brinks of the salmon haunted 

 Taw, to find themselves confronted by another 

 obstacle in the line of the London and South 

 Western railway between Barnstaple and Exeter. 

 At the other extreme or eastern end, the 

 Wiveliscombe coverts lie well in sight of the 

 Quantock range, but with the red tillage lands 

 of the Bishops Lydeard vale and the West 

 Somerset railway in between, and it is only 

 occasionally that deer head that way. Every 

 now and then, however, they seem to remember 

 that there was once a red deer land upon the 

 Blackdown Hills, and try to make their way 

 towards the tall column of the Wellington Monu- 

 ment ; but once the deer has left his native 



