38 REMmiSCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



when trying for a deer in the forest, running his 

 nose ao;ainst and over the twio:s that miojht have 

 brushed a deer's back. If Blunder found any in- 

 dication of the deer's being above, he would land, 

 and gallop up the side of the river for some distance, 

 and occasionally cross from side to side to assure 

 himself that the deer had not gone away. Nothing 

 could be more perfect than Blunder was in every 

 phase of his duty. His portrait by Cooper was pub- 

 lished at the time in the " New Sporting Magazine." 

 The deer sent from Berkeley Castle were splendid 

 animals for the purpose, and so were those from 

 Hampstead Lodge, given me by the late Lord Craven. 

 Some of Lord Craven's deer got out of the park, and 

 lay in Lord Carnarvon's woods ; and to catch them I 

 borrowed some bloodhounds, or what were called 

 bloodhounds, from the keeper at Lord Aylesbury's, 

 Adams, who had been a servant at Berkeley Castle 

 under my father. I remember drawing with these 

 one day till all were impatient, from the want of a 

 find, when suddenly I heard what was like the rush 

 of a roused stag, and the hounds then in full cry. I 

 knew nothing of my pack, but deeming that it must 

 be right, I cheered them, and, hearing the cry nearing 

 me, I strained my eyes to see what aged deer they 

 were on. Crash, crash went bough after bough, and 

 I said to myself, " a royal hart!" when out it came, 

 a low-bred vulgar-looking half-starved heifer, with 

 her tail on end, and evidently not about to last long. 

 We rode, we cracked our whips, we rated, but all in 

 vain, till the heifer got cast in the bushes and the 

 hounds all hold of her, when, by dint of thrashing 

 and coupling up the hounds, we saved her life. I 

 found the deer with these hounds afterwards, and 



