2 2 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



tion or requirement of any kind save that lo or 12 acres 

 should be available for the Crown to build at Simons- 

 bath a church or parsonage, if desired. The Forest 

 was soon after made into the parish of Exmoor. 



Mr. Knight, it should be explained, was a Worces- 

 tershire gentleman who had reclaimed a great deal of 

 land in that county with much success. He made two 

 offers for the purchase of the Forest, both of them 

 very far higher than those of the next bidder, Lord 

 Fortescue, of Castle Hill, an ex-master of the stag- 

 hounds. Mr. Knight also bought Sir Thomas Acland's 

 portion of the Forest, and the adjoining property of 

 Brendon, belonging to Sir Arthur Chichester of 

 Youlston. He soon began the work of reclamation on 

 Exmoor, but with indifferent success and at vast 

 expense. He turned the old imaginary boundary into 

 a reality, by building a stonewall in lieu of the old line 

 of barrows and landmarks. He divided the interior 

 into huge allotments, built farmhouses, drained bogs, 

 all with a result lamentably out of proportion to the 

 outlay ; forgetting, perhaps, too often that Worcester 

 and Devon require different management. Thus the 

 old unbroken sweep of the Forest was limited and 

 much of its charm lost to stag-hunters who re- 

 membered its old freedom. Still the enclosures are 



