DEVON AND SOMERSET. 363 



the hounds now used, and if the days be 

 not as long and as tiring as formerly, they 

 are, at any rate, quite long enough and 

 hard enough for the greediest, and the chase 

 of the wild red deer of Exmoor may be 

 said, without reserve, to be the most severe 

 and arduous of all forms of English sport 

 carred on with horse and hound. 



To those who have only hunted carted 

 deer, it comes as a novel idea that the noble 

 animal is killed when taken, and the author 

 has often heard surprise expressed that such 

 valuable animals should be converted into 

 venison, with what appears to be at first sight 

 reckless prodigality. 



The reason why, however, of many doings 

 that appear strange to the casual visitor to 

 Exmoor, becomes evident after awhile, if the 

 enquirer mixes with those who inhabit red 

 deer land all the year round, and then by 

 degrees it dawns upon him, that a large herd 

 of red deer numbering several hundred, main- 

 tained in a cultivated country, is a tremendous 

 tax en the loyalty and sportsmanlike feeling of 

 an agricultural population, and that the death 

 of the game is truly the life of the sport. 



To give advice to professionals would seem 

 to be the chief object in life of many a novice, 

 and to offer loud mouthed criticism on rules 

 that have stood the test of hundreds of years, 



