RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 



moor, seems to flap his way across it with as 

 much confidence as a bittern or a curlew. Could 

 I discover how he accomplished this feat I would 

 tell you, but I can only advise you to ride his 

 line and follow him yard for yard. 



There are certain sound tracks and pathways, 

 no doubt, in which a horse does not sink more 

 than fetlock deep, and Mr. Knight, the lord of 

 the soil, may be seen, on a large handsome 

 thorough-bred hunter, careering away as close to 

 the pack as he used to ride in the Vale of 

 Aylesbury, but for a stranger so to presume 

 would be madness, and if he did not find himselt 

 bogged in half a minute, he would stop his horse 

 in half a mile. 



Choose a pilot then, Mr. Granville Somerset 

 we will say, or one of the gentlemen I have 

 already named, and stick to him religiously till the 

 welcome heather is brushing your stirrup-irons 

 once more. On Brendon, you may ride for 

 yourself with perfect confidence in the face of all 

 beholders, bold and conspicuous as Dunkery 

 Beacon, but on Exmoor you need not be ashamed 

 to play follow my leader. Only give him room 

 enough to fall ! 



As, although a full-grown or warrantable stag 

 is quickly found, the process of separating it from 

 its companions, called " tufting," is a long business, 

 lasting for hours, you will be wise to take with 



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