DEVON AND SOMERSET. 133 



to the left for Landacre Bridge. Here are 

 certain springs and streamlets, and one of them 

 entraps Barber's horse, the big lop-eared chestnut 

 Sunbeam, and down he comes a regular thump. 

 The horse is too much shaken to rise again 

 at once, but presently he struggles to his feet, 

 registering vows, no doubt, that he will take 

 care to jump when he next meets a blind water 

 course. Up stream go the hounds, till nearly at 

 Sherdon Hutch, when a fisherman is encountered 

 who is able to give verv valuable information. 

 The stag has blanched at sight of him and borne 

 straight over Landacre Common through the ferns 

 to the Picked Stones fields on the plain above. 

 Anthony stops hounds for a few minutes and 

 gives his field a welcome chance to close up, 

 for horses are failing now, even the verv best 

 of them ; the pace and the soft ground have 

 thinned the ranks to some purpose. Away go 

 the hounds up the slope, flashing prettily to 

 right and left, then over the Picked Stones fields, 

 and away by the White Water till close to 

 Honeymead. Here they check and we pick up 

 a recruit in the person of Mr. R. L. Riccard, 

 who is just in time to see a very prettv finish. 

 Casting back to the White Water, hounds own 

 the foil for an instant just opposite Ash Plan- 

 tation and then throw up again, but while 

 Anthony is in doubt a tail hound speaks loud 

 and plain. 



