226 STAG- HUN TING ON EXMOOR 



At noon we reach Yenniforcl Cross and find our 

 horses who were sent on yesterday, little short- 

 legged animals with perfect shoulders and forelegs 

 of iron ; as well they may have, to climb almost per- 

 pendicular hills and gallop over the rugged Devonian 

 slate country, which attains its greatest elevation 

 on Exmoor. The stream of traffic was enormous, 

 or so it seemed in those unfrequented parts. The 

 countryside was agog, and for twenty miles round 

 few Devonians able to sit a liorse can have been 

 absent from the meet. Here leaked out a change 

 of venue : it had been determined to draw the 

 sorse and the combes which seam the side of 

 Dunkery, and so for some miles we jogged on by 

 road, sometimes at a walk, often at a fast trot, but 

 always ascending higher and higher. We seemed 

 to be climbing heights of stupendous proportions. 



Cloutsham is at length reached, and on the 

 plateau assembled the sort of " field " that Devon 

 and Somerset turn out w^hen the staghounds are 

 afoot. There are the sporting farmer, a doctor or 

 two, boys on ponies, parsons on cobs, strangers 

 from London, neighbours from South Devon, the 

 master of Pixton and other " county " people, and 

 of course every hunting lady of the district, not all 

 of whom use the side saddle ! Among tliis goodly 

 company hardly one is there wliose thoughts and 



