DEVON AND SOMERSET. 173 



hunted up to Fvldon Common. Here we were 

 assured bv two second horsemen that for the 

 last hah' hour, at least, no deer had passed that 

 way, but the hounds thought otherwise, and 

 soon brought us to the wire-topped county 

 wall on F'yldon Ridge. 



Apparently the deer had tried to jump this, 

 but had failed, and then hounds made off at 

 an improving pace down the whole length of 

 the grassv common, and so to Long Holcombe 

 as soon as the wire came to an end. Here 

 again the pace was good as we scampered for 

 half-a-mile over the yielding yellow moor-grass, 

 hopping over the innumerable drainage gutters 

 which emptied a saddle or two. Sinking to the 

 Sheardon Water just below Wintershead Farm, 

 hounds checked in the brown stream, but soon 

 cast themselves downwards, and for a mile gave 

 little indication that they were still on the foil ; 

 still there was sign enough to catch the hunts- 

 man's eve, and he held forward at a trot, until 

 hounds hit it again where the deer had left the 

 water. Another half-mile of grass and then they 

 brought it down again to the Sheardon stream 

 and checked for about ten minutes. Scent 

 seemed to fail just now, but Lord Ebrington 

 slotted the deer through a gateway leading to 

 Sheardon Farm, and hounds were soon hunting 

 steadily over the long grassy slopes of Sheardon 

 to Ferny Ball. Just above Sheardon Hutch 



