44 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



be SO far gone in the rut that no man, whether 

 priest or layman, would have relished a slice of 

 him; and his fat would have vanished too, — the 

 hinds would have had it. With us in the south a 

 stag is not over good after September, though it 

 depends much on the weather. But to return to the 

 affair in Charborough Park, in which it fell to my lot 

 to be defeated. The match was this. 



I was to catch safely, alive and well, five full-headed 

 bucks, not under six years old. In doing this, or in 

 chasing for the capture, I was to use but one dog and 

 one horse, and if either deer, horse, or dog was dis- 

 abled, I lost the match. The horse also on which I 

 rode was to lie down while I secured the deer, but 

 never to be out of hand. In singling out the deer 

 another horse was permitted me. Beicon and Brock 

 were the horses, — the latter was the one on whom I 

 was to take the deer, — and Odin was the dog. 



An immense number of people assembled on conve- 

 nient hills to see the match, the park being opened 

 to the public on that occasion, very good-naturedly, 

 by Mr. Drax. In canvassing the thing and in betting, 

 the difficulty among strangers was laid on the fact of 

 inducing a horse, excited by the chase and in a sweat, 

 to lie down ; but I told all my friends that, so far as 

 the horse went, the match was safe: one of the two 

 things to defeat me would be, either the dog disabling 

 or killing the deer, or being disabled or killed himself. 

 Two facts also militated against me which at first I did 

 not count on, and though aware of them at last, could 

 not very well prevent ; and these two facts, coupled 

 with a remarkably favourable time for the condition of 

 the deer, were indirectly the cause of my defeat. I had 

 resolved on tiring the whole herd of deer by constant 



