THE COLD WATER CURE. 41 



fication. Smut had been a great favourite with my 

 stablemen, I believe because she always went out to 

 exercise with the stud, and often picked them up a 

 rabbit. The morning of her death I found the 

 helpers with faces a yard long, and the poor fellows 

 ready to cry. The little black tanned terrier Yenus, 

 who lived in the stal>le, was sitting on the bin with a 

 huge piece of crape round her neck, so dressed by 

 the helpers by way of sorrow for her friend. 



There is a clever picture in my possession, by 

 Cooper, of the fight of the stag with Smoker, 

 Lion, and Smut, myself, and a favourite horse, who 

 used to carry Mrs. Berkeley, called "Cranford;" 

 but, with a sort of poetical licence. Cooper has de- 

 picted me throwing a lasso at the head of the deer, 

 instead of stooping to catch him by one of his hind 

 legs. 



In the commencement of my stag-hunting career, 

 when a deer was taken by the royal hounds, or by 

 those kept by Lord Derby, I observed that, if much 

 distressed, they often bled the stag by cutting his 

 ear. A more intimate knowledge, as well as ob- 

 servation of the animal, made me adopt a totally 

 different plan. If an animal is bled thus in an ex- 

 hausted state, before reaction comes on, he is killed ; 

 the best remedy for a deer in that state is to deluge 

 him with cold water. 



The deer that die from their distress before hounds, 

 are those that are run into on dry land. If the deer 

 is taken in water, or when he takes soil, as we call it, 

 however much distressed, if not drowned by the 

 hounds, he is invariably safe. For this reason, on run- 

 ning into a deer on dry land, when the animal lay on 

 the ground motionless, and panting from exhaustion, 



