98 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



single year, and the continuity of the chain is made up 

 by a run from Tivington Plantation to Watchet in 

 1882. On the south side of the country also deer have 

 been run since 1881 right over the distance between 

 Bridgwater and Barnstaple ; in fact from the east of 

 the Parret to the west of the Taw, two points not 

 needing a large scale map for identification, being 

 forty-five miles apart as the crow flies, about sixty by 

 road, and a two hours' journey by rail. 



It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the present 

 master should have urged upon the committee in 1884 

 the necessity of giving up the Quantocks, which formed 

 no part of the original stag-hunting country, and were 

 annexed by Mr. Bisset in the times when deer were un- 

 safe in the Forest. It has already been shown that the 

 present herd on those hills was raised, so to speak, arti- 

 ficially, and that the behaviour of the field was a con- 

 stant theme for even Mr. Bisset's animadversion. The 

 truth is that this country is too much civilised for 

 wild deer hunting. There is not wild land enough to 

 give them a fair chance of going where they will, and 

 the result is that they simply ring round and round 

 and about the small range of hills, hustled at every 

 point by an unsportsmanlike field without any hope 

 of fair play. Occasionally, it is true, they cross the vale, 



