WILD STAG-HUNTING. 193 



cliance, comes nearest to those wlio hunt, but his "whole progress 

 is of so much slower nature, that it is evident he cannot see 

 so many beauties in such a short space of time. It will perhaps 

 be objected on his behalf that this is all in his favour, and that 

 he looks into and appreciates things which those in the headlong 

 rush of the chase would pass over unobserved. This I deny, for 

 I have seen one of the keenest sportsmen who ever handled 

 horn pull up on Winsford Hill to point out to a stranger the 

 beautiful stagVhead moss, and another has on Porlock Hill dis- 

 mounted to secure a specimen of white heather. There is another 

 advantage the hunting man possesses, which is what I may term 

 almost a right of free warren, to go when and where he likes. 

 Your tourist is hampered by having to put up with guides which 

 ■he must fee to get at some chosen shrine enclosed in the grounds of 

 a great man, or in following the bent of his inclination, should he 

 leave the high road, he is liable to be looked upon with a very 

 jealous eye by bailiff or gamekeeper, as some poacher or other 

 misdemeanant in prospective. The fisherman, although the 

 hills and glades, where the wild deer haunt and the trout leap, 

 are pretty much open to him, may unwittingly find himself 

 amongst private waters, and reduced to the necessity of begging 

 or buying a ticket. True, this is seldom denied, if given gra- 

 tuitously, while, of course, in the other case, money can pro- 

 cure all you want ; but there is not, after all, that liberty of 

 range the hunting man possesses. Let but the deer make his 

 way to certain reserved grounds, if such is his good choice, 

 and lo ! the note of the horn acts as an " open sesame," 

 which there is no withstanding. Keepers who would have 

 sent the solitary tourist quickly to the rightabout become at 

 once your humble servants ; gate-keepers and guides throw wide 

 their portals, and are more intent on seeing the kill than on 

 enforcing their regular duties, and entreating backsheesh, which, 

 by the way, under such altered circumstances, would be no 

 easy matter. " No public thoroughfare — trespassers wall be 

 prosecuted," however large it may be writ, loses its terrors for 



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