Product Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1900. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V WESTWARD HO! There lies your way, due west. Then, Westward Ho !--Twelfth Night. Thanks to our increased facilities for travel, the hunting man, even if his leisure be of the shortest, can begin his season sooner by three months than he was wont to do in the good old days when George the Third was king. And lest there should be any misunderstanding, I will here explain that by the hunting man I do not mean a gentleman whose lines are cast in such pleasant places that he can live amongst country pursuits all his life. For that man there is a constant round of happy employment, all leading up to his favourite sport, if he be a hunting man. The individual I have more particularly in my mind is the busy professional man or merchant, a man with little leisure but great love for sport, and who takes his two days a week or three days a fortnight, from November to March, stealing another day whenever he has the chance. For him there is no cub-hunting; the very fact that his residence is many miles from the scene of action prevents him taking part in that most enjoyable sport. And indeed were he, so to speak, on the spot, the nature of his avocations would prevent him from taking part in a sport which frequently, in its earlier days at any rate, involves the necessity of rising about 2 A.m. But in these days of easy and rapid travelling almost any man may manage, with a little contriving, to get a fortnight's holiday in August or September, and where can he take it so well as in the bonnie West Country, where the mighty coombes look like stationary waves, and the heights of Exmoor-- home of the handsomest ponies in the world; home of the blackcock, with his defiant crow; and, best of all, home of the wild red deer--overlook the tossing waves of the Bristol Chann...