70 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



The reply to my apologies and to tliis report, was the 

 best-natured and kind that could be. She said " she 

 did not in the least care for the accident, that I could 

 not help it, and, if necessary, I was to enlarge the 

 fracture in the window as much as I pleased," the 

 only stipulation being that, " when the stag regained 

 his liberty, the hounds Avere to be laid on on the 

 lawn, that she might see them running." Having 

 returned to the scene of action and disengaged my 

 sporting friend from the ancestral picture, and placed 

 it in safety, we knocked away the stanchions of the 

 window sufficiently to let the deer through, and 

 having boiTowed a door from the offices by way of 

 more fitting shield, I got the stag out, and laid the 

 hounds on at the window. 



The chase, particularly when a deer, by being 

 housed, had learned there was safety in it, frequently 

 ended in mansions, cottages, or barns, and I cannot 

 help saying that in almost every instance I met with 

 the greatest good nature. On one of these occasions, 

 we ran up to the entrance of a gentleman's kitchen, 

 in the rear of his premises, and the hounds bayed at 

 the closed door. Heads of domestics through the 

 pantry window informed me that the stag was in the 

 house, and that they would admit me, " if I would 

 keep the dogs out, as the children were afraid of them." 

 The door being opened and closed carefully behind 

 me, I went in, usiiered by a butler, and peeped at by 

 many maids; and, on asking Avhere the stag was, the 

 butler replied that he had been in all the lower offices, 

 and when he last saw him he was going up the 

 drawing-room stairs. On asking for the master and 

 mistress, the man replied, " his master had gone up 

 after the stag, and that his mistress was but poorly." 



