STAG -HUNTING ON EXMOOR 233 



first the road and then the water for a long dis- 

 tance. Tlie pack puzzled it out slowly, both 

 Anthony and Col. Hornby dismounting to keep 

 close to them through the impassable places. Then 

 we heard a holloa ahead, and hounds were lifted 

 about a quarter of a mile to Land's Mill, when 

 they hit off the line, just owning it down the road, 

 and so recall us to the chase. 



The field seemed hardly to diminish, though it 

 kept changing ; many of those from the Minehead 

 and Dunster side stopped and went home, but every 

 hamlet, every farm we passed, brought out recruits 

 eager to see the hounds, for they do not often come 

 this way. The whole country was in a wild state 

 of commotion and excitement. A capital gallop 

 over a ridge of hills, where the chase went through 

 a field of roots, which some gentlemen were 

 just beginning to shoot over (and much I fear we 

 spoiled their sport), brought us to the Western 

 Canal, where the stag swam over, while we crossed 

 by a bridge, and went on again to the Halberton 

 lane. In the field beyond, sheep had foiled the 

 ground, but hounds cast forward, and were soon 

 running again down to the canal, which here "ran 

 a ring." Hounds feathered down the towing-path 

 and over the railway, where we had to make a 

 d^toicr. We had just rejoined them when there 



