214 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



stems and lichened branches, and away he 

 goes with hounds ahnost at his haunches up 

 the Hne of Badgworthy and away by Hoccombe 

 Water, hard pressed and making his last effort. 

 With a short turn he comes back over Badg- 

 worthy Lees and up the Doone Vahev, where 

 a young male deer springs startled from the 

 fern : then he backs it again over Brendon 

 Common to the Hoccombe Water, as though 

 he would gain Farley. He climbs Buscombe 

 with staggering strides and comes down to 

 Buscombe Water in evident distress ; a drainage 

 grip entraps a horse that falls and lies apparently 

 back broken — a dreary place in which to die. 

 Regaining the Deerpark, the stag meets Sidney 

 with live couple of hounds, which forthwith 

 make the pace and put the final touch to the 

 stag's troubles. Sinking to water he skirts the 

 lower fringe of Badgworthy Wood, and the 

 gorge rings again with the cries of the chase 

 as the hounds close with their noble quarry. 

 In Yealscombe he tries a double, but it is all 

 no good — there is nothing left him but the 

 water. On and on, down the valley the good 

 hounds drive him from pool to shallow, from 

 slippery rock to bubbling pool again, and then 

 at Cloud Farm he can go no farther. 



To and fro he doubles, and leaps fences in 

 desperate effort to mount a rocky knoll, leaping 

 the wire boundary to the river, and threatening 



