260 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



to each other than may be ag-reeable; but it rode sound and well, and 

 with horses used to the fences, a man may follow hounds pretty straight 

 in it — that is to say, if he can ride, but it wont do for the '* tailors." 

 There may be bogs in it, and no doubt there are; but I saw none, and 

 it is the only country in Scotland in which I did not get floored in one. 

 It is the only country also in Scotland, or indeed elsewhere, in which I 

 saw the roe-buck in his wild state; and I was anxious to see an animal 

 of such poetical association — one who, like the stag, may be said to em- 

 bellish the forest, and animate the solitude of his native wilds. Neither 

 did he disappoint me ; for, from the graceful freedom of his step, and the 

 rapidity of his action — although not perhaps to be put in comparison 

 with the ** antlered monarch of the forest," when he first darts before 

 the opening pack, — he realized the flattering allusions to his form and 

 qualities by the various writers, both sacred and profane. One Ashael, 

 for example, one of the three sons of Zeruiah — an active chap, no 

 doubt — is said to be " as hght of foot as a wild roe," in the description 

 given us of a mortal skirmish, in the second book of Samuel ; and even 

 female grace and beauty in the human race have found similitude with 

 the roe. 



But these highly picturesque and poetical animals are very devils in the 

 sight of huntsmen and their masters ; for they not only leave a ravishing- 

 scent behind them, but they have the provoking propensity of describing 

 a circle in their flight, so as often actually to overtake hounds that have 

 been induced to follow them, and thus to make it more dithcult to get 

 them stopped. For this reason, they have been so seldom thought 

 worthy of being considered beasts of chase ; and, with one exception*, 



* The late Mr. Pleydell, of Whatcombe -house, Dorsetshire, kept a pack until his 

 decease, which took phice a few years back. Xenophon mentions chasing the roe, 

 by horsemen — on thorough-bred horses no duubt ! See Percy's Rel. Anc. Eng. 

 Poetrv. 



