DEVON AND SOMERSET. 211 



horizon to horizon in apparently endless width. 

 At first the ground was yielding as the great 

 hounds swung down from corrie to glen in 

 Embercombe, settling by degrees with more and 

 more steadiness to the ample scent ; down 

 through the rushes and the fern and from one 

 glancing sunlit pool to another, down past the 

 overhanging brim and the stunted thorn bush 

 at the bottom. 



See, yonder goes the stag, and what a heavy 

 one he is ! He has waited so long in Chettis- 

 ford Water that hounds will be close at him. 

 Up the opposite slope with its mingled growth 

 of grass and heather he springs, and labours in 

 his stride, but his strength is all in him as 

 yet, and he gains at every bound on the wide- 

 spread array of his pursuers. If he heads for 

 the Forest now there will be a run indeed, if he 

 makes for Culbone there will be a nice run all the 

 same, if he joins the herd there will be trouble, 

 but a run perhaps, if his heart fail him and he 

 sinks again to Horner, he will die but a less 

 glorious death. See now he climbs the hill, and 

 has disappeared over the skyline, his head is set 

 for the great plain of Exmoor, and now there 

 will be sport if he only descends the Weir Water, 

 but with Black Mires before him he has an 

 ample choice and no one to bar the way. 



On Babe Hill two saddles are empty, Mr. 

 Hugh Nickals disappears beneath his horse, but 



