DEVON AND SOMERSET. 325 



bound to be a run and a good one, though 

 many ditftculties mav intervene ; there mav be 

 checks amongst fresh deer and checks at the 

 Forest streams, that thread every combe until 

 Sir Henrv Carew's pkmtations at Woolhanger 

 are reached, or again, and more likely still, the 

 stag may swing round by Larkbarrow bog to 

 Hurdle Down and Horner, or may even make 

 the ring more complete still and gain Culbone 

 by wav of Hawkcombe Head. But in either of 

 these cases a huntsman will have had a good 

 chance to pit his hounds' endurance against the 

 stag's speed and length of limb, and that over 

 many miles of the best possible scenting ground. 

 Badgworthy Water is the biggest, as it is 

 also the best known, of all the Forest streams, 

 and below its junction with the Oare Water is 

 known as the East Lvn, under which name it 

 foams and tumbles down its rockv channel 

 through the Brendon Valley, the gorge growing 

 wilder and wilder as it proceeds, until at Waters- 

 meet it is joined by the other Forest streams, 

 flowing in one, that have come clown from the 

 heights of the Chains, always excepting those 

 that fiow further westward still, combine to 

 constitute the West Lyn, and join in in Lvn- 

 dale. When hunted deer betake themselves to 

 the Lynmouth and Countisburv coverts, it is a 

 hard task indeed to follow them, so precipitous 

 and so unpathed are the wooded cliffs that 



