DEVON AND SOMERSET. 209 



the wind and their nobihty, and the carefully 

 arranged day's sport be entirely spoilt. Many a 

 disappointment might be traced to neglect in 

 watching the noble animal until the actual 

 moment when he is wanted. 



On August 8th, igoo, the meeting field saw 

 more than usual of the alarums and excursions 

 of the chase, for first of all a procession of 

 huntsman, harbourer and master, and four and 

 a-half couples of tufters moved slowly, but as if 

 on business bent, across the crowded field to 

 begin tufting amid the fern and thorn bushes of 

 the yonder part of the Ball itself, and then 

 some fifteen minutes later, the master came 

 cantering back with the welcome words "They've 

 found" writ large all over him. Taking the 

 direction of Stoke Ridge one watched him 

 speeding towards the moor with the shrewd 

 suspicion that if all went well, and the good 

 stag roused below in the combe of East Water 

 was only being driven straight by the bustling 

 tufters, there must soon be a start in the best 

 of all directions, that of the open moor, and so 

 it proved. Many an elegant luncheon was 

 nipped in the bud, many a flirtation was all 

 too quickly interrupted — to be continued in our 

 next, no doubt — by the twang, twang, twanging 

 of the master's horn as he returned for the 

 waiting pack, and gave the welcome word that 

 the stag had gone right away to the moor and 



p 



