THE DOMAIN OF THE RED DEER. 15 



north-west, the Barle, Exe, and Haddon Covers at the 

 south-east. Small wonder, therefore, if there be many 

 a noble chase from refuge to refuge, from end to end 

 of the moor. Sometimes, of course, the deer run clean 

 away from their wild home over the enclosed country, 

 and this more frequently since the Quantocks were in- 

 cluded within the range of the stag-hounds. There is 

 indeed more than one line by which deer have crossed 

 before the hounds between the Parret by Bridgwater 

 and the Taw by Barnstaple ; but it is on the banks of 

 Barle and Exe, Bray and Lyn, Haddeo and Horner 

 Water, that most of the deer first see the light ; and 

 it is in their waters that nine-tenths of them die. 



