STAG-HUNTIXG ON EXxMOOR 231 



pack is at length laid on, the sweet scent fills the 

 big hounds with delirious joy, and in long drawn 

 file they race forward, and the chase begins. 



We had a nice gallop over Skilgate Common and 

 down a steep, root -grown slope, through the Bitts- 

 combe plantations. The stag turned down the 

 valley to Eaddington. Despite the blazing sun and 

 intense heat, hounds ran fast, but Devonia's wilds 

 are not everywhere to be invaded, and here the 

 sobbing horses must pound along the road, while 

 the hounds turn up over a grass field as steep as 

 the side of a house ; some riders indeed climbed 

 up, some cast forward, others like myself cast back 

 towards Skilgate, on the chance of the stag swing- 

 ing round towards Haddon again ; but we were 

 wrong, as he went straight over the top, past Hove 

 and Quarterly, into the Exe valley by Morebath, 

 running through several little coverts. From this 

 point I was beaten out of my country and hardly 

 know how to tell of our wanderings. 



The stag worked the line of a brook past Shilling- 

 ford as far as Hockley bridge where he soiled, but 

 the eager hounds gave little respite, and our new- 

 found stag went away up a little valley to the left. 

 Hounds ran on fast, keeping about a hundred yards 

 from the lane, which helped us to get along, for 

 Devonshire banks with the leaves on cannot be 



