CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 195 



further. ' Let those who doubt the powers of 

 endurance of the deer in the wild state pay our 

 country a visit, and judge for themselves. They 

 shall find hearty welcome and good fellowship, and 

 I trust will not find reason to proclaim me an en- 

 thusiast in the views which I have expressed upon 

 this head. 



As regards the great distance which a deer will 

 travel during a night from his feeding ground to his 

 ' lair ' or harbour, I could give many instances. 

 One, however, will suffice, and my readers will thank 

 me for relating a well authenticated anecdote, in the 

 language of that good sportsman, accurate observer, 

 and elegant writer, ' Nimrod,' rather than my own. 

 He mentions, in an article in the Sporting Maga- 

 zine in 1824, to which I have already referred, the 

 following circumstance : — ' When Sir Thomas 

 Acland kept the hounds, a farmer in the neighbour- 

 hood of Holnicote House saw a stag one evening in 

 his fields with a particular and remarkable spot on his 

 side. The next morning he met the same stag 

 running in great distress with the hounds close at 

 his haunches, and he soon afterwards sank before 

 them. On his asking Sir Thomas where he had 

 found him, he learnt that it was twenty-five miles as 

 the crow flies from the place where he was killed. 



