OF TUFTING. 69 



Whether any special deer was intended to be roused 

 is not recorded, but before hounds had been in 

 covert two minutes the whole lot, or nearly so, were 

 on foot. If we had been using two, or even two or 

 three couple of such tufters as Captain West was 

 using in 1848, we should probably have been hours 

 getting a deer away, and then not till we had worked 

 the whole Barle Valley from end to end. As it was, 

 a couple and a half dashed after one stag, and never 

 let him get away from them. After a few minutes 

 he crossed the Danesbrook and the lower end of 

 Hawkridge, where he was viewed — a well-grown 

 four-year old. The tufters still drove him on with- 

 out giving him a minute's peace, till he showed on 

 the open by Three Waters, where they were stopped. 

 So began the best run for many years, as shall be 

 told hereafter. 



But the driving process does not always succeed : 

 it depends on there being a scent, and sometimes 

 there is little or none ; then the patience and the 

 woodcraft of the huntsman and his assistants comes 

 into play. 



If the stag is roused before any other deer are on 

 foot the tufters will all settle on his line, and make 

 the woods ring again. But the stag is not easily 

 beaten. He has the keenest scent, and working 

 through the covert, is sure before long to put up 

 another deer, when he will, if possible, lie down in 

 the bed from which he has ejected him. Remaining 

 quite still he will frequently let hounds run close 



