DEVON AND SOMERSET. 327 



many parts if rain has lately fallen, so frequent 

 are the gutters and the peat cuttings and the 

 undermined water courses. 



So undisturbed is this wide tract of Lord 

 Ebrington's territory, that a herd of stags will 

 often lie for weeks together amongst the grass 

 and rushes of the silent wildernesses of 

 Lanacombe and Buscombe, Trout Hill and 

 Pinford Bog, sallying forth to The Warren 

 farm to regale themselves at night with juicy 

 rape and ripening corn, or even to pull down 

 and scatter the oaten sheaves of a late harvest. 

 It was across a part of this district, on a course 

 over Dry Hill and so round over Swap Hill to 

 Larkbarrow, that Mr. Sanders instituted some 

 highly successful point to point races, the 

 winning post being near the back of Lark- 

 burrow. Casualties however were somewhat 

 plentiful owing to the rough and somewhat hold- 

 ing nature of the ground, and the course has been 

 changed for a safer one near Hawkcombe Head. 

 With the sound ground of Manor Allotment 

 and Badgworthy Leas immediately adjoining and 

 overlooking this great tract of soft ground, there 

 is abundant opportunity of avoiding the diffi- 

 culties of a course across it, and a considerable 

 section of the held as a rule do not set foot on its 

 green expanse. Sometimes however, as in a 

 certain well remembered run from Hawkcombe 

 Head, hounds may turn due south across the 



