By ihe Rev. Canon J. K Jackson, F.S.A. 171 



I conceived would have checked his flight for a bit, but as he came 

 to each hurdle he went over it like a buck. I thought I knew him 

 then. He was a noted deer killer, and had been pursued by as 

 many as seventeen of my Lord Shaftesbury's keepers, but had eluded 

 them all. His name was Thomas Amy, and such was his swiftness 

 of foot that he boasted he could out-run anybody's keepers. 



" When I saw it was he I almost gave it up as a bad job, more 

 particularly as he was so far in advance of me, and with the sheep 

 hurdles between us. Now and then he looked round in a mocking 

 kind of manner, as much as to say, ' You are a stout man if you 

 think to take me,' and he seemed so ' lissom ' like, and so active, 

 that I verily thought I should have to put the chase off for that 

 day at least. But somehow I felt that I would not allow him to 

 beat me ; and I was a youngish man then, and not easily daunted 

 by anything, so I took a resolution to follow him, come what would. 

 Throwing off my smock frock and pitching away the trimming 

 hook, I bundled through the hurdles, scrambled through an adjoining 

 hedge, and beheld my man some distance away, making his best 

 pace, thinking to out-run me at once, and so get clear off. I fol- 

 lowed him smartly, but it was trying work racing over the heavy 

 land. I thought at one time that I should never lessen the distance 

 between us, but by degrees I got nearer and nearer, till I could hear 

 his laboured breathing and puffing. This gave me some encourage- 

 ment. I continued to follow, though at several yards behind, hoping 

 to get at him by and by. 



" You may fancy. Sir, that at this time I was not altogether in a 

 condition to keep up the chase, and if it had not been for a feeling 

 within me that I would take him if possible, I could not have con- 

 tinued to follow him for many minutes longer. A short time 

 brought us both to the Blandford Road, having run four miles. 



" I was still jogging on and thinking how I should get up to him 

 when all of a sudden he stopped short, and turning round at the 

 same time presented his gun, on full cock, at my body. He swore 

 as he did so that if I came nearer he would fire into me. 



(The gun, as afterwards proved, was loaded with twelve slugs, or 

 small bullets.) 



