56 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



At Castle Hill the man who had practically held the 

 mastership in 1812 was still alive, but gradually 

 sinking under the weight of half a century of active 

 political life, and it so happened that for three years 

 previously to his death in 1861 there were none of a 

 younger generation living there with him. Over and 

 above these houses there was only Holnicote that lay 

 anywhere near the haunts of the red deer, and the 

 many good runs from Horner and the Winsford 

 covers are evidence enough of the help that the 

 Aclands gave. 



In fact, the natural paucity of country houses has 

 always been the great difficulty in maintaining a sub- 

 scription pack in the stag-hunting country. A glance 

 at the list of subscribers at the time when the hounds 

 were sold in 1825 shows that South Devon are almost 

 as numerous as North Devon names. The country 

 was then of much greater extent southward and west- 

 ward. A stag, for instance, was killed on the edge of 

 Dartmoor in 1805 ; and a kill in and across the Taw 

 was a common occurrence. As soon, however, as 

 agricultural improvement and the gun of the poacher 

 began to limit the range of the red deer, the range of 

 subscribers became limited also ; and hence, until the 

 deer began to spread once more, and strangers began 



