4 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



Mole. But here we will forsake Mole for Bray, and, 

 following the last to its source, shall see whither it will 

 lead us. The character of the valley continues the 

 same, though the woods for two or three miles are 

 more sparsely distributed on the banks, till at last the 

 hills to our left roll back and display a little plain of 

 park land, with a large house wreathed in tall beech - 

 trees looking southward over it. That is Castle Hill, 

 where the stag-hounds were kept from 1812 to 18 18, 

 as many a pair of antlers bears witness. There are 

 also antlers of later date, from 1881, namely, to 1885, 

 with probably more coming in the future to bear 

 them company. 



But we must follow our merry little river past the 

 little village of Filleigh (the first group of houses 

 worthy to be called a village that we have met), and 

 on into a park of fallow deer, whence we catch far 

 ahead a glimpse of a great hill range, covered with 

 yellow grass as it seems, towering high above us. 

 Still upward (though possibly the traveller might 

 prefer to linger in the park), under a grey stone 

 viaduct (alas ! a railway viaduct) ; and now the great 

 oak coppice woods begin once more to approach the 

 water, till they fairly stride right doWn to it on both 

 sides. Here we are really in a stronghold of the red 



