440 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



and brightened by the cleansing showers. Quite a large field — 

 for the New Forest, wherein, I am told, a dozen is a more usual 

 winter number. And they were moving off along the heath ered 

 ridge as I reached the trysting point. Several carriages were 

 following the cavalcade, with many a parasol to proclaim the 

 spring, as denoted, too, by the cool straw-hat of more than one 

 equestrian. The heath fairly splashed with recent rain ; and 

 the gay gorse-bushes sparkled and dripped. Under the light 

 grey clouds your eye could roam for miles over the clear, 

 sunlit landscape. It was a perfect day for a view, a good clay 

 for hearing, a goodly day to live, and in no way a bad day for 

 hunting. The drawback to May, as instanced on the previous 

 Thursday, lies in the fact that the buck are then shedding their 

 horns ; and it is thus most difficult for the huntsman to keep to 

 his proper quarry. 



The earlier stage of hunting the fallow buck, viz., rousing 

 and separating him, is by no means the least fascinating. The 

 first rush of the antlered beauties, the scurry with the tufters, 

 the headlong dive through wood and covert in their wake, and 

 the practised skill of Master and huntsman that enables them 

 to keep touch of the tufters and to distinguish between the 

 several deer afoot — all this is matter of interest and excitement. 

 Though the tufting is here not enacted on such rugged ground 

 as with the red deer on Exmoor, one ought to have two horses 

 out, to compass the double work with tolerable ease. Thus 

 many people remain with the pack ; but — speaking as one new 

 to the game, yet appreciative of all I saw — it seemed to me 

 that the preliminary gallop with those three or four old hounds 

 is as jolly as any part of the chase. 



Thus tufting itself is by no means without its charm ; though 

 it has the disadvantage of putting extra strain on the stable 

 resources of all who would take any part in it. For instance, 

 you can hardly gallop about for an hour or two with the tufters, 

 and then expect the same horse to be at his best and freshest 

 when the pack are laid on. Indeed, as a young gentleman 

 explained it to me in his own vernacular, " If you want to play 



