THE OLD TIMES. 35 



journal kept by different members of the family of 

 each day's sport during the seasons of 1812— 1818, 

 which, added to a letter from Lord Graves to the then 

 Lord Ebrington, on making over the mastership to 

 him, give us a tolerably clear account of the practices 

 then observed and of the numbers of the deer then in 

 the country. The best preserves were then the North 

 Molton and the Porlock countries, deer being very 

 short both at Bratton and in the Dulverton country. 

 "We have been unpopular for some years at Dulver- 

 ton," writes Lord Graves, -and the deer have con- 

 stantly been disturbed and killed in the Hawkridge 

 Bottom and at Bratton ; during Mr. Chichesters hos- 

 tility they had no rest, and great numbers fell victims 

 to that gentleman's resentment." (What the quarrel 

 with Mr. Chichester was about is not recorded, but it 

 was probably one of the feuds which were perpetually 

 recurring between county families in those days, when 

 locomotion was difficult, and folks had little recreation 

 except squabbling with their neighbours.) Then fol- 

 lows a calculation of the number of deer in the country, 

 about two hundred head in all, - perhaps one hundred 

 short of what there was in the old Sir Thomas Acland's 

 time, but still quite enough for sport ;" the bulk of 

 them in the Bray, North Molton, and Porlock covers. 



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