332 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



by the force of the wind, the stunted fir trees, 

 dwarfed Hke the productions of Japanese art, add 

 no inches to their stature with the flight of 

 vears. Nine months winter and three months 

 cold weather is said with some truth to compose 

 tlie cHmate of Exford, and on Culbone Plain 

 when it is cold it is very, very cold, and 

 when it is hot the Lynton coach road grinds 

 to a dusty track of fiint and powdery sand, 

 while the flies of the thickly grown combes 

 are about the most venomous and innumerable 

 of all that swarm on Exmoor. Redolent of 

 turpentine, the low tangled growth of pine 

 boughs scents the whole hill, save wiiere a 

 burnt breadth presents a clearing, and through 

 the resinous thickets hounds can never make 

 the pace. Well worn hunting paths run in all 

 directions, and from those on the seaward 

 front, noble views of the Bristol Channel and 

 the Welsh coast present themselves 



The tall deer fence erected by the Earl of 

 Lovelace, to protect his Culbone farms from the 

 ravages of the deer, consists of wire sheep 

 netting some five feet in height, erected on the 

 top of the old stone faced sheep fence that 

 bounds the lower edge of the plantations, and 

 is stoutly staked with larch poles all the way. 

 Starting from Ashley Combe, it follows the fold 

 of the ground upwards to Pitt Farm, and then 

 turns away to the Yarnor drive and so follows 



