338 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



valley, which is also attacked on the opposite 

 side by the Deerpark herd, and straggling 

 bands of deer from all parts of the moor, but 

 its general effect on the sport has been 

 beneficial. 



The Devon and Somerset is a hunt much 

 affected by the gentler sex, of which a large 

 part of the field is composed during the fine 

 weather months. Long and tiring as the days 

 frequently are, and rough as is the ground to 

 be traversed, many ladies go extremely well 

 with the staghounds, and in the longest and 

 fastest chases some of them are sure to be 

 up at the finish. 



The rapid growth of everything connected 

 with the sport has had its outward and most 

 visible sign in the tendency to multiply the 

 packs that do the work. The successful 

 initiation of Sir John Heathcoat Amory's pack 

 has led to an establishment on the Ouantock 

 Hills, where the lines laid down for the 

 regulation of the Tiverton Hunt have been 

 followed in almost every particular. Whereas 

 in former days the Devon and Somerset Hunt 

 Committee was the only authority as regarded 

 the deer and their welfare, wider interests are 

 now involved by the establishment of each 

 separate pack. The preservation of each herd 

 has become a matter of still more widely spread 

 interest, and has become thereby more firmly 



