SEPTEMBER. 



HUNTING THE WILD RED DEER. 



By H. H. S. Pearse. 



To understand the fascination that stag-hunting has for all classes 

 in the Devon and Somerset country, and for a vast number of 

 sportsmen from many distant corners of the earth, one must spend 

 more than a few days of a single season on Exmoor. The charms 

 of a sport that is pursued in bright August weather on broad 

 stretches of moorland, eight hundred feet above sea level, or amid 

 the deep shadows of wooded valleys musical with brooks, all lovers 

 of nature may, in a general sense, appreciate. Some fox-hunters, 

 and especially Meltonians, who estimate all sport by one standard, 

 are apt to regard as slow a method of pursuit that lacks the first 

 wild reckless rush in which their ardent spirits revel when a 

 " Gone away ! " is sounded with the Quorn or Pytchley. Those 

 who do not stay in " Red deer land '' long enough to let that 

 impression wear off, will perhaps carry away a belief that Devon 

 and Somerset men in their simplicity are content with very httle. 

 But anyone who has seen a great run over these moors will want to 

 see another, and when he has learned something of the woodcraft 

 which the harbourer and huntsman can teach him, he will be in a 

 fair way to comprehend the enthusiasm of men who declare that 



