DEVON AND SOMERSET. 343 



again a railway forms an effective line of 

 demarcation between a local pack and the 

 Exford country, so that the Devon and Somer- 

 set territory is now contained in an irregular 

 parallelogram, marked out by three railways 

 and the coast line of the Severn Sea. 



Ouantock deer make their headquarters chiefly 

 within a mile or so of the Stowey road, and 

 amongst the extensive plantations of Bag- 

 borough. When they wander further afield, 

 they find warm lying and security in the 

 wooded combes towards St. Audries, or among 

 the Cothelestone or Buncombe Hill coverts. 

 Long periods of tranquility have always tended 

 to make the deer herd together in their favourite 

 combes, whereas continued hunting scatters them 

 into remoter hiding places, and the establishment 

 of the Ouantock pack should tend to spread 

 them far and wide into every available wood- 

 land from Fairfield to Kingscliff. 



The Stowey road is a rubicon over which 

 deer sometimes return in safety, but more often 

 if the stag be a heavy one, and well tufted 

 withal, his doom is sealed wlien once he has 

 set his nose for St. Audries, and has left the 

 dusty line of the hilltop road behind him, 

 where his friends the Stowev broomsquires are 

 always waiting on fine hunting days to greet 

 his appearance from the depths of Ramscombe 

 or the recesses of Govett's Copse, and to send 



