J 66 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



the United Kingdom, and this is sometimes mentioned 

 as a reproach against it. But as was said by a recent 

 writer in Bailys Magazine, many a hound is drafted 

 from the best kennels merely because he is a beautiful 

 giant ; and most of these find their way to the Devon 

 and Somerset. Some say that smaller hounds would 

 go faster, and possibly, over an enclosed country, they 

 would ; but over the Forest the writer is inclined to 

 doubt it — from experience of foxhounds on the moor, 

 very much inclined to doubt it. In any case, when 

 there is a scent (and with a deer there generally is, 

 even on days when foxhounds cannot run a yard), they 

 go fast enough to please those who have to follow 

 them ; and it would be regretted by all were those 

 great hounds, all the more imposing for their un- 

 rounded ears, to be supplanted by a smaller pack. 



As a rule the staghounds run mute, or nearly so, 

 over the open ; but there is always more music in 

 winter than in the hot autumn, and on some days they 

 speak as merrily as harriers. It may be mentioned 

 here, speaking of harriers, that the staghounds in the 

 course of a run once crossed a pack of them In full 

 cry, and, charging them in flank at best pace, hurled 

 the poor little things sprawling In all directions. Of 

 the long-drawn file In which the staghounds usually 



