A DAY'S ROEBUCK DRIVING 



programme. We are hot and tired, and half an 

 hour's rest in the shade of the big fir trees (to say 

 nothing of the cold chicken and ham and cooling 

 drinks ! ) is very pleasant. 



" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods," says 

 Byron. So there is, and more than that : there is 

 a feeling of rest a sense of the mighty vastness of 

 nature as you lie on the soft bed of fir-needles, 

 and watch the blue smoke from your pipe as it curls 

 upwards and upwards, and gaze through the lace- 

 work of dark green branches overhead into the 

 depths of the blue sky above. 



But the days are growing shorter now, so it is 

 time to go on. We are on a broad green ride, on the 

 right flank of the line of beaters, this time. The 

 cover is a thick, low, fir-plantation, and it is hard 

 work for them to struggle through it, so we move 

 forward very slowly. A doe crosses some way 

 before us, and then a hare darts over, but we were 

 not sufficiently wide-awake, so she escapes without 

 a shot. Another doe follows, and then a young 

 buck offers a tempting shot by standing on the ride 

 and staring at us. His horns are very poor, how- 

 ever, so we resist the temptation, and it flees from 

 us or rather the buck does ! 



But now there is tremendous excitement among 

 the beaters, and the heger who forms the " outside 

 right " of the line bursts out of the cover with a 



79 E 



