270 STAG-HUNTING 



every deer that you do see there is pretty certainly 

 another that you do not. 



It may be added that in 1520 the number of deer 

 reserved on the royal forest of Exmoor was 100 ; 

 that Lord Graves in 1812 put the stock at 200, 100 

 fewer than it had been forty or fifty years earlier ; as 

 only 1 08 were killed in the next six years, it seems 

 likely that his lordship's estimate was too liberal, or 

 else there was a great deal of poaching. 



Strangers inquire as often about the weight of 

 our West-country stags as about their numbers. We 

 always weigh the carcase dressed and clean, without 

 head, skin, or slots, so comparison with Scotch 

 records is not very easy. Stags nowadays seem to be- 

 heavier than they were a century ago, and it may be 

 questioned whether the common explanation of better 

 feed is the correct one ; for though turnips were not 

 grown in the days of the old war, yet, as the furrows 

 still show, there was land tilled for grain then that has 

 long -relapsed into heather, and the deer no doubt 

 took tithe and toll of it then as they do now. Only the 

 weight of the haunches is given in the old records, 

 and this but occasionally. The following entries may 

 be quoted : Aug. 23, 1780, 'The great stag,' his 

 haunches weighed 105 Ibs. ; Aug. 26, 1814, 'a large 

 stag,' the haunches weighed 38 Ibs. (each) ; Aug. 25, 



