DEVON AND SOMERSET 



71 



fastening a strong stick to its final loop, casts it 

 deftly across the wide spread antlers, swings a 

 turn round the corrugated beam, and then 

 indeed the stag's time is short. Even then, 

 however, some stags, especially towards October, 

 will give their captors some awkward moments, 

 and the author well remembers a lassoed stag 

 turning short on the holders of the rope in a 

 bend of the Exe under Curr Cleave, whereby 

 thev all fell hurriedly on the slippery sod, and 

 for some anxious seconds were very much at 

 his mercv. On another occasion in Horner the 

 huntsman found himself obliged to mount a tree 

 with all speed, a roped stag swinging round with 

 such celeritv that nothing but tree climbing was 

 possible for the chance of an escape. 



