CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER i8i 



the shingle, strlkinor out the water in laro-e orlistenino- 

 sheets ; and how they, too, swept after them down 

 the flat valley, rounding crag and headland, which 

 opened one after another in interminable vista, 

 along the narrow strip of sand and rushes, speckled 

 with stunted, moss-bearded, heather-bedded haw- 

 thorns, between the great, grim, lifeless mountain 

 walls. Did he feel no pleasant creeping of the flesh 

 that day at the sound of his own horse's hoofs, as 

 they swept through the long turf with a sound as 

 soft as the brushing of women's tresses, and then 

 ring down on the spongy black reverberating soil, 

 chipping the honey-laden fragrant heather blossoms, 

 and tossing them out in a rosy shower ? Or, if that 

 were too slight a thing for the observation of a 

 sportsman, surely he must recollect the dying away 

 of the hounds' voices as the woodland passes 

 engulphed them, whether it were Brendon or 

 Badgeworthy, or any other place ; how they brushed 

 through the narrow forest paths, where the ashes 

 were already golden, and the oaks still kept their 

 sombre green, and the red leaves and berries of the 

 mountain ash showed bright beneath the dark forest 

 isles ; and how all of a sudden the wild outcry be- 

 fore them seemed to stop and concentrate, thrown 

 back, louder and louder as they rode, off the same 



