DEVON AND SOMERSET. 123 



up the sky-line of the enclosure from which 

 the stag has come, Anthony's hunting cap first, 

 and the rest at intervals, and here come the 

 hounds streaming over the fence from the direction 

 of Tinerlev. 



Down in the gorge below us is a shepherd 

 with his collie rounding up a little flock of 

 the prick-eared Cheviot sheep ; how surprised 

 the man looks at the sudden incursion on his 

 solitude I At one moment he fancies himself 

 far away from human ken and at the next he 

 is aware of a panting labouring stag, after which 

 his collie courses ; then come a string of hounds 

 running mute, but always striding on. Then 

 the nearing twang of the horn sounds on his 

 ear, and two little parties of pursuers converge 

 on the line from right and left, ploughing along 

 through the morasses, their horses in every 

 different stage of exhaustion. Now let us turn 

 tail and scamper away back with what speed 

 we may, by the very same path we have come, 

 for the stag does not mean soiling in the pond, 

 but is careering along the ridge of the Chains, 

 passing within a hundred yards of the tempting 

 little loch now shining blue under the August 

 sky. Now we are back at last on Exe Plain, 

 and there are the hounds running fast, in a 

 close drawn string, down the side of Long 

 Chains Combe to the round ruin at the ford. 

 Now thev check at the water and for about ten 



