4:2 EEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



I adopted the plan of sending to the nearest supply 

 for cold water, — paying men to bring it in their hats 

 when nothing else was at hand, — to deluge his sides 

 and chest. With plenty of water, the deer was always 

 saved. In a very sharp run over the Harrow Yale, 

 with the deer in view, I saw him jump a fence, and but 

 took my eyes off him for a moment to mind my own 

 horse while he took it also : on looking for him again, 

 though he had a wide field before him, he was nowhere 

 to be seen ; he had dropped down dead, and the lead- 

 ing hounds absolutely stumbled over his body. In 

 taking deer for hunting in a park, the safest plan is to 

 have a couple of men on horses, and two or three on 

 foot, each to keep a portion of the park to himself, 

 and, without riding or running fast after the deer, to 

 keep them always in slow motion. Deer are what 

 we call over-topped, and, when kept long at a slow 

 pace, become leg-weary. Following this plan at 

 Hampstead Park, I have had deer lie down and let 

 me secure them without a struggle, rather than rise 

 again. If, by galloping after them and much noise, 

 you set them running, they will often be seized with 

 a panic, and, whether pursued or not, run themselves 

 to death. Speaking of deer-catching in Hampstead 

 Park, I saw a very funny thing happen — funny, as 

 no mischief was done — to the gentleman at that time 

 Mayor of Newbury. "We were trying to single a stag 

 from the herd ; the mayor, full-blown, on horseback, 

 and in everything but his robes, kindly assisted, 

 though totally ignorant of the nature of the animals 

 he was riding after. AVhen a herd of red deer charge, 

 no meeting them will turn them another way j the 

 thing to do is to ride the same way they are going, 

 and then, when they see a man retreating but still 



