DEVON AND SOMERSET. 233 



he too was promptly seized and despatched, 

 rolhng down with the leading hounds over a 

 long grassy bank w^hich sloped steeply to the 

 water below. 



The tufting, which is often the severest 

 part of the huntsman's work, is done for the 

 most part on ponv back, a smart ponv of some 

 thirteen hands being a far more desirable 

 mount for nine stone weight amongst the 

 bushy paths and rocky by-ways of the big 

 woodlands than a mettlesome hunter, but when 

 the tufters have been stopped at last, and the 

 pack has come to the starting point, then the 

 huntsman's second horseman produces his first 

 galloper all fresh from some cool stable wiiere 

 he has been waiting his turn, and then the 

 little pony goes home to Exford to prepare 

 for another busy morning amongst the fern 

 brakes and covert paths. 



The duties of the second horsemen require 

 no small knowledge of the country and of the 

 habits and customs of deer, the bringing up of 

 a fairly fresh second horse at the critical 

 moment of a great moor run being a by no 

 means easy feat. In the great run from 

 Hawkridge to Glenthorne, in the autumn of 

 1 899, the huntsman's second horse was brought 

 to him at the end of the first nineteen miles, 

 in which there had been no check worthy of 

 the name, and the line had been as straight as 



