whose feeding is so copious and wide as that of the red deer, and who moreover are not under the protection of those special laws granted to less noble objects. A few days in each year, as in the New Forest, might be had with little trouble; but to hunt two or three times a week during August, September, and October, and one other month in the year, requires a considerable head of game; and, as deer are but slow propagators of their species, and do not reach maturity under (at the lowest computation) four years, the stock which to a stranger may seem superfluous, in reality may be insufficient for the need of future seasons: thus, in drawing a cover, half-a-dozen deer may be on foot, not one of which should be hunted. Some may be hinds with calves, others young deer of both sorts incapable of standing any time before hounds, or requisite for breeding. At times, a hind should be respected with the indulgence shewn to hen pheasants in a thinly-stocked preserve (and even more, for a pheasant brings up many from her nest in the year, the hind but one young one), whilst old hinds and stags should be persecuted with the zeal with which a sportsman would attack an old cock or his dark coloured consort and this selection of the game for the day's sport it is that makes stag hunting so different a woodland craft from the pursuit of other animals of chase, and gives it certainly its most unpleasing characteristic; but the more strictly it is carried out, the fewer deer are necessary in the country to supply the hounds with game.

The only way to carry out this plan of selection obviously is to draw the covers with steady hounds, few in number, and peculiarly under command, to be at the meet at a reasonably early hour, and to leave the breakfast table with a plentiful supply of patience: the perseverance in an opposite course must tend to an opposite result, and drawing with the pack, that pack unusually large, going away with the very first deer or the very first herd, as it may happen, must end in scattering deer and hounds over the country, and in wholesale destruction of such deer as should be left alone for two or three years to come: those who shoot both barrels at the whole covey, or point their rifles on the northern forests to the herd, instead of the leader of it, may hug themselves at finding that there are those who pursue a similar principle in the hunting field; but there are many and a great majority, I trust, who equally abhor the one as the other.

It is impossible to alter the nature of a sport, unless the nature of the animal pursued can also be changed. Salmon cannot be killed with the ease or carelessness which suffices for a moderate basket of trout; neither can a day's deer hunting be brought to a satisfactory and sportsmanlike termination with the same facility as can a day in a grass country and small coverts with a pack of fox-hounds: the go away is one of the most beautiful peculiarities of the latter, but it does not belong to legitimate stag hunting-"ne sutor ultra crepidam;" and to obtain the chance of it (for at the best it is but a chance, and a poor one, too, with animals so gregarious as deer) another chance must also be risked, that is, getting away with a stag or young male deer in the hind hunting season, or with a hind (perhaps suckling her calf) in the autumn; which is not very unlike killing partridges in August, or grouse in January.

I submit these remarks with all deference to the master of the North Devon and Somerset pack, and those of its supporters who advocate the plan of drawing with thirty couple of hounds. But I would ask this question: Am I not right when I say that four stags is about an average which the covers close round Dulverton can afford in one autumn season? and if so, where are these to come from in 1848, since I believe three young male deer have been killed in that neighbourhood during this past hind-hunting season? I understand that both Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Knight, of Exmoor, were anxious to thin their stock for the sake of their tenants; but if this could not be done sufficiently by hunting in the usual and proper way (as with such hounds as constitute the pack at present I am sure it could), the rifle might have made a more discriminating selection of victims, and one less injurious to the prospects of future sport.

One who regards this sport with a fond attachment for its venerable antiquity, who clings to it as a last relic of the sport of our nobles in days of yore, and who in these times, when all field sports are struggling against their threatening extinction, looks with pride upon it as an unique characteristic of his native neighbourhood, must feel with regret any symptoms of its decay, and cannot help deprecating that course which in his opinion hastens its end. But yet all is not black; there is at present an open opportunity for keeping this hunt in prosperity some new friends have been found to give protection to the deer where for a long time they have been in danger. Much is to be hoped from the countenance of Sir Peregrine Acland; and it has been hinted that a noble family, a former head of which was master of the stag-hounds, will again look with favour on the preservation of these by far the noblest animals in Britain. Again, the state of affairs certainly has been in a worse position; so circumstances may again befriend us, and stag-hunting in the West may rise from this revolution with a strength adequate for many years' endurance.

It will be seen that fine runs have been had during the season just passed, when this plan of drawing with the pack was followed; but I maintain that as good runs would have been produced, and more proper deer killed, had the old mode of harbouring and tufting been adhered to perhaps the number of tufters might be increased to five or six couple, but I cannot advocate a further infringement on the old rules in this respect.

The first part of the season was in the Dulverton country: the hounds meeting each day in the town. On THURSDAY, April 10, a goodly muster of sportsmen from all parts of the west attended the opening of the campaign. The pack was taken to Harford, and then were flung into the large Haddon covers: in a very few minutes several deer were up, and the hounds dividing ran in all directions through these extensive woods, over Haddon Hill, Deer Park, and Upton Woods, and round and round about during the day, without getting off a two-year-old male deer was secured close to Harford, and an old hind between Berry Village and Exebridge, both of which animals were saved: the scent indifferent, a cold east wind, and showers of rain and sleet.

MONDAY, 14th.-Again, an adjournment from the meet to Harford.

A deer soon broke from Haddon, with about half the pack at her heels, and crossed over Haddon Hill for Deer Park; here she joined a small herd of six, and they all broke the upper fence of the cover as if intending to fly the country; but having reached the Skilgate enclosures, they separated, the pack returning in full view to the Upton woods. After an hour's cover beating, a deer with part of the pack was seen to cross for Beechcombe, and the few that got away with this lot had a tolerable gallop; but the pace was indifferent, from the north-east wind, and the frequent storms of hail and rain. After running their bind into the parish of Bampton, these hounds brought her back to Skilgate Wood, and down the valley to Morebath; by Picksey Copse, through Berry Wood, to Haddon: here they joined the rest of the pack, which had killed one hind, and run up another. FRIDAY, 18th.-A large field: Haddon drawn as before a deer left the covers almost immediately, directly over Haddon Hill, and skirting the Upton Woods, took its line over the enclosures for Lowtrow Cross: turning to the left for Brendon Hill, he crossed it as if pointing for the distant Quantocks, whose outline appeared some dozen or fourteen miles before the chase; but after passing Combe Sydenham, the pace was such that the deer could not make head against it, and retreated to the covers and water there; a long check took place, which sent most of the men up home, after a most beautiful gallop. More than an hour having elapsed, the deer was fresh found, and ran into above the seat of Mr. Notley; it turned out to be a young male deer, and, unfortunately, it could not be saved. From the rouse to the check the time was under an hour, the distance a full twelve miles.

WEDNESDAY, 23rd.-A very full field, with three carriages full of ladies. Drew Picksey Copse blank; but better fortune attended the hounds in Birchwood, which was drawn in fine style, a hind rising before the pack in the most beautiful way possible; she pointed for Haddon Pillars, but turned back very suddenly, flinging out, by this lady-like indecision of purpose, the majority of the field. She took the river Exe under Berry, over Burston and Wilson's farms in Morebath parish, and soiled again below Exebridge, crossed the Tiverton road, and in a roundabout way got to the Stuckeridge covers and Stoodley; here she ran the woods in a zigzag direction for a long time, and tiresome it was for both horses and hounds: when she did break she went by Washfield and Loxbear, and eventually was ran into in the parish of Rackenford. Had it not been for the tedious beating of the steep woods, the last part would have afforded a fine run to those out; but a very few saw it, the patience of the men and the powers of their steeds being worn out before the deer thought proper to put her speed against that of the hounds. Five hours and a-half did it take to catch this old lady, who was in fine condition for running, owing to short commons during the winter.

SATURDAY, 26th.-The pack ordered for Stockholm wood; but on their way, some gentleman, who came up after having lost his way in a wood, gave information of having seen two deer cross a river close to him, a stag and hind. This proved to be close to the ruins of Barlynch Abbey, and, on nearing the spot, the hounds dashed over

the stream, and soon made the whole valley echo with their tongues. The deer were seen to break over Heathridge Common for Court Down; by Ballneck, through Marsh and Draydon Woods, they reached Mounsey Castle, and came to water under Brewer's Castle. The body of hounds broke from the river Barle into North Hawkridge; afterwards by Ashway Ham for South Barton Wood: the very best pace over Hawkridge Common for Lyshall, and the beautiful galloping ground of Molland Common; having crossed which, and not anxious for the West Molland covers, the deer turned to the right with his face for the forest of Exmoor, over the open to Deerlick corner, and down the bottom to Longwood. From this he once more flew to the open moors, and, passing through North Radworthy, reached Yard down, and broke the forest wall, taking the south side of it, and came to water just below Cow Castle; here the first and only check took place, and a cast was made down the water to Sherdon Hutch, but fruitlessly; then up the stream to near Simon's Bath, the seat of the owner of Exmoor; the scent was again taken up, and shortly a fine three-year-old male deer was seen labouring in view of the pack. But this sight was not for every body; with difficulty was it gained by nine men, who had left their fellow sportsmen most ungallantly in the lurch: the distance must be over thirty miles, and the time was three hours and a-half; the country as good as the deer could pick out, pretty flat, and no bogs, at least comparatively. I should say the annals of stag-hunting afford few finer instances of a run, or more characteristic of the sport. The only fault to be found with it was, that it ended in the death of a three-year-old deer.

TUESDAY, 29th.-Again a numerous conclave of sportsmen; a hind soon roused near Harford, which, after running cover for halfan-hour, broke over into Swinecleeve, and then over Berry Hill for the Exe, and, going up the water for a considerable distance, turned into Stockholm Wood, over Court Down to Mounsey Castle, and up the valley towards Tar Steps, into the Barton woods to Hinds Pool, over Hawkridge Common for Willingford Water, and up the stream as if for North Molton covers; but the pace was so excessive throughout that her strength failed, and she was pulled down in the open by the hounds before the field could reach them. This was quite a burst for the whole distance.

FRIDAY, May 2nd.-Harford once more. No deer would go away until near four; plenty of sport for the ladies and the holiday making people, but not for such as like crossing a country. A hind was ran into and killed under Keenswood, and at that moment a part of the pack was seen with a deer in view on Haddon. Mr. Luxton collecting what hounds he could, and followed by a dozen or so of men, joined this chase, and the deer left the covers for the Brendon Hills, which he crossed to Leigh Cliffs, and, after a run of an hour and-a-half, was ran into at Roadwater. This added another to the list of young deer killed: it was a two year old male.

This finished the sport at Dulverton. In the Brendon country during their stay (something above a fortnight, I believe), the pack accounted for seventeen deer: how many more may have been run up without any men with the hounds may be uncertain. On the