234 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



a deer could possibly go across the map. Again 

 in a great run from Culbone Stables to Stentway 

 Bridge, on the Hole Water, Arthur Real's second 

 horse arrived on the scene directly hounds 

 checked for the first time after being laid on 

 near Hawkcombe Head. At the lay on, hounds 

 in their eagerness, often flash to right or left or 

 run heel for awhile, and the field too is more 

 apt to over ride the line when starting than 

 perhaps at any other time, an hour or two of 

 waiting in the keen moorland air and the 

 opening cry of the pack seldom failing to make 

 horses, if they are really fit to go, pretty much 

 of a handful, and a delay at a crowded gate- 

 way or two while hounds are gaining an 

 irrecoverable start does not mend matters. Wide 

 though the plains of Exmoor undoubtedly are, 

 a field of three hundred or so soon makes an 

 impenetrable crowd when a hillside path is 

 encountered, or a stream has to be crossed at 

 a rocky ford, and then patience and philosophy 

 are the only supports to the good man and true 

 wlio would be forward when the chase is stirring. 

 The fine filmy dust of certain roads that are 

 much used in the dry days of August, will rise 

 and hang in a long white line above such spots 

 as the Lynton Road, from Pittcombe Head to 

 Culbone Stables, when the pack is brought out 

 in haste to be laid upon the foil of a forest- 

 going deer, and a day amongst the North Devon 



