232 STAG-HUNTING ON EXAIOOR 



ridden over in September. The heat and dust were 

 something to be remembered, but hounds pushed on, 

 hovering a minute where bullocks had been over 

 the line, and again where a mare and foal charged 

 them in a most determined manner doing, luckily, 

 no harm. Huntsham seemed to be the point, a 

 good old-fashioned line often travelled by deer 

 fifty years ago, but most unusual now. 



Leaving Huntsham on the right, we went on by 

 Cudmore to Hole Lake, hounds running on grass, 

 horses again pounding along the road. !N'ow we 

 turn into the fields and gallop alongside the pack, 

 which kept on in most determined manner, and 

 with more music than is nsually given on so hot 

 a day. We soon got into a maze of small combes 

 running down to the brook which passes under 

 Huntsham Wood. From gate to gate, and gap to 

 gap we liie, keeping as near hounds as may be, 

 and passed a farm which I was told is Eedwood. 

 A patch of ferny gorse-covered ground is Bere 

 Down, across which hounds ran fast, much dis- 

 turbing a pony at grass, who jumped the fence 

 down the biggest drop I ever saw anything except 

 a deer come over in safety. The stag went down 

 the line of the brook till its junction with the 

 bigger Loman Water near Chief Loman. Here a 

 long check refreshed us, the stag liaving worked 



