DEVON AND SOMERSET. 275 



days in August the tield is thickly sprinkled 

 with very keen critics. It must be remembered, 

 however, that, except in the New Forest, there 

 is no criterion by which to analyse the ways 

 and methods of the chase of the wild stag as 

 carried on on Exmoor from time immemorial. 

 French methods no doubt adhere more closely 

 to the old established ideas, but the establishment 

 at Exford has moved with the times as they 

 are in modern England, and the changes made 

 have been proved necessary by the march of 

 events. On a broad survey they would seem 

 to lie chiefly in the increased speed of the 

 chase and its adaptation to the entertainment of 

 greatly increased fields, that while peopling the 

 whole country side in the short autumnal season, 

 demand a far greater quantity of their favourite 

 sport than was the case in the years of which 

 former works on this subject tell. 



Being the senior pack by a very long lead 

 indeed, the other packs which pursue foxes, 

 hares, and otters in the wild west country defer 

 their appointments to the arrangements made 

 at Exford ; but the shifting habits of deer 

 frequently falsifv all calculations, and the best 

 laid schemes for the rousing of some particularly 

 heavy deer are apt to go wrong, especially after 

 harvest has once begun. For when an old stag's 

 favourite feeding ground amongst the succulent 

 corn has all at once been invaded by noisy 



