DEVON AND SOMERSET. 247 



swiftness and certainty over these close cropped 

 solitudes, and immediately choose the most 

 prickly of the ground over which to lay their 

 course. Grabhist Hill at the back of Dunster 

 Town is a very favourite spot for hardy pedes- 

 trians on all days when the staghounds are 

 anywhere in the neighbourhood, and from the 

 grassy paths that line its long ridge much 

 hunting can be seen, whether the chase lies 

 over the stony sides of Croydon Hill or threads 

 the thicket of the Broad Wood coverts or 

 passes away to Timberscombe Common or Great 

 Headon Plantation. Many a time and oft has 

 a Slowley stag fled by way of Long Wood or 

 Kitswall Farm to ford the Aville Brook and 

 climb the steep front of Grabhist hillside to 

 the great delight of the patient watchers who 

 have chosen this spot to await the chase. Then 

 while the fugitive climbs with heaving flank 

 and panting breath to the crest of Grabhist, 

 hounds appear on the southern skyline, a scarce 

 visible distant mass of small white specks, while 

 the field, a larger collection of moving objects, 

 presses on in their wake, dividing into numerous 

 strings and sections as hounds pass through the 

 leafy depth of Long Wood, and streams from 

 one covert to another of the Dunster Castle 

 estate, until they come down with unerring 

 instinct to the spot where the quarry has 

 splashed through the stream which comes down 



