FERNY COMBES. 
19 
Brendon is a favourite meet for the North Devon 
stag-hounds, and in some years Lynton is a great 
gathering-place for redcoats. 
On one occasion when we were staying at Lyn- 
mouth, a deer, roused somewhere on the moor, took 
the Lynton road. We had just succeeded in gain- 
ing the top of that noble cliff on which the sum- 
mer-house stands, when we heard the cry of the 
hoimds, and soon espied the well-known array of 
huntsmen glancing between the trees. 
The gallant stag, pursued by hounds and hunters, 
rushed along the road : just at the steepest part 
some carts and horses stopped the way : on the 
left was an upright rock : behind, the hounds ; the 
stag bounded over the wall to the right, but found 
no footing. It is a sheer precipice to the stream ; 
over and over he rolled till he reached the bed of 
the river ; then the chase was over, for the noble 
beast was dead. 
Another story is told of a stag hard pressed, who 
took to the sea and swam some distance out ; he 
was pursued by a boat and brought back again, a 
rope fastened round his antlers. On reaching shore 
(how the weary captive must have rejoiced !) he was 
dismissed free to his native wilds. 
