Of Exmoor Red Deer and Hunting

I have lived on Exmoor for a long time, nearly forty-five years now, and loved the wild land and spent those years drawing, painting and writing about its landscapes, farming, hunting and wildlife.

Of all the mornings spent on the high moor the most exciting, the most enjoyable, have been those of the hunting-days. First, the brilliant scene of the meet, the red coats vivid in the moorland landscape, the hounds in the heather, the fine horses - where else will you see such splendid horses? - then the thrill of the chase, horsemen galloping on the skyline, and the cry of the hounds and the sound of the horn setting one's blood on fire.

For me, hunting is the spirit of Exmoor, the pageant of the countryside. Two things have made Exmoor what it is today: farming and hunting. Hunting is still half the life of Exmoor, I cannot imagine Exmoor without hunting. (Consider the very words Exmoor Forest: it means royal hunting-ground).

On quieter days I see the wild red deer in the combes. They are our inheritance from the dawn of time, when all things were wild and man a hunter for his meat. I look up to the hills where the barrows crest the skylines. Our ancestors, whose ashes have lain there for more than a thousand years, would have hunted the deer.

A short while ago I saw a magnificent herd of red deer, over a hundred of them, on Molland Moor, coming up out of Redford Bottom. A week-or-so later I saw what I presumed to be the same herd on the north flank of Anstey Common. I can only describe what I saw as primeval, such as prehistoric man would have looked upon, and a sight to be seen no where else in England today.

On both occasions the exclamations of the friends I was with were, "Are we in Kruger National Park?" and, "Is this the Serengette?". (I've never been to Africa, but I have seen pictures, and this indeed is what it looks like).

But such a herd exists only because of hunting. Deer in any numbers, especially large numbers, do very great damage to farmland and crops. Thus the deer depend for their well-being on the goodwill of the farmers and landowners.

Because hunting is the sport of this country, and especially of the farmers, the farmers the farmers tolerate the damage. But, if hunting was to cease they would not. Landowners and irate farmers would start to shoot the deer, then, without the vigilance and protection of the hunt and its supporters, the commercial poachers would move in. In a short time the big herds would be shot out.

As to other questions-and-answers. "Speak as you find". I have followed hounds as often as I could, over many years, and have seen every phase of the chase, including being "In at the kill" numerous times, and I have not witnessed such extreme suffering as a recent report suggests.

On the other hand, I have seen wretched hens who have come out of batteries, sold off when their egg-laying is no longer profitable, hardly any feathers, their legs and wings so atrophied that they can only grovel on the road. A few may gradually recover, but most are only pathetic 'chicken dinners'. Also there comes from time to time hints of the wretchedness and misery of poultry raised for the Christmas market - why doesn't someone do a study of "How your Christmas dinner gets on the table?". Perhaps if poultrymen wore red coats they would!

Miss Hope Bourne, writer, artist who has lived on the moor for 45 years, living close to nature in a way very few people have before and as such, is an ardent conservationist