DEVON AND SOMERSET. 337 



sweetest and most luxuriant. Down go their 

 long grey muzzles to begin the tempting meal, 

 and in a moment the munching bite of their 

 keen cutting teeth can be heard all over the 

 field. Then from the shadow where he leant 

 against the bank, the farmer's deputy leaps 

 out with a shrill whoop that puts consternation 

 into every cervine brain. Away go pele niele, 

 these nocturnal pillagers, and in less time than 

 it takes to tell, they have put half a mile 

 between themselves and their spoilt dinner. 

 Back to his ambush goes the watcher, and the 

 warmth engendered by his little chase dies 

 slowly out of him, while the frosty rime settles 

 thick and white on every rigid bough and 

 frozen leaf. A shooting star careers across the 

 sky, and at last the deer, bold and hungry, 

 come trooping back to complete the interrupted 

 feast. First one great antlered head and then 

 another surmounts the slippery bank, and stands 

 out clearly defined against the starlit sky, the 

 great ears flap enquiringly, timidly, doubtingly. 

 Then some movement of the frosty vapour 

 floats a whift' of scent from the hidden human 

 being to the sensitive nostrils, that are question- 

 ing the air with every breath. With alarm the 

 deer swing round, and are gone to return no 

 more that night. 



The Culbone deer fence has turned many 

 a deer to seek his nightly meal in the Oare 



X 



