LONG POINTS AND THE HEYTHROP. 217 



cub-hunting on account of a late harvest, was fired with 

 the idea of a few days in Devon, and we instantly wrote for 

 rooms and horses for a week later, and were lucky enough to 

 secure both, though September was then in its first week. 

 Meantime, we saw Diamond Jubilee win the St. Leger, and 

 Lucknow supplement the Royal victory in the Portland Plate, 

 and then, on the Saturday, we travelled all day^ and reached 

 Mineliead in the evening. There we stayed for the night, but 

 on the following day we went on to the Anchor, at Porlock 

 Weir, where we had secured rooms and horses. Mr. Pike 

 Nott provided the latter, and we called at his stables, and 

 quickly discovered that the staghounds were either not hunt- 

 ing or were too far away on the following day. We had, 

 however, asked for horses for every day in the week, and so 

 we on the following morning went to a meet of the Exmoor 

 foxhounds, at some spot about halfway between Porlock and 

 Lynmouth. The meet was at eleven, and there was no ques- 

 tion of cub-hunting, and, as a matter of fact, there wa^ a very 

 large field, composed chiefly of stag-hunting visitors. What 

 is more to the point is that we had a good deal of pretty hunt- 

 ing, and obtained a fair idea of what that particular part of 

 the country was like. 



Where the staghounds met on the following day I do not 

 remember, but the Deer Park was the first draw, and when 

 tufters were put into quite a small spinney, three of four 

 stags at once showed themselves, and all appeared to be great, 

 noble fellows. The tufters were stopped and hounds brought 

 from Tom's Hill, and laid on. Then came a pretty but not 

 a great hunt. We went to Chalk Water, Weir Water, and 

 to the Combes, near Porlock. Then we went west again, and 

 were at County Gat« and beyond, but fresh stags kept inter- 

 vening and there was no kill. It was a busy day, in which 

 hounds were never idle for some five hours, and once we 

 were going hard on the open moor for some five and twenty 

 minutos, but a great deal of the day was spent in covert. On 

 the third day we saw the Minehead Harriers, whose present 

 Master, Mr. L. E. Bligh, was then in his second season. They 

 were in the cliff country, between Hurlstone Point and Por- 

 lock, and were kept going all day by hares, which were able 

 to evade them in very strong gorse. It was terribly hot, and 



