KEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 71 



The butler introduced me to the drawing-room, but 

 neither master nor stag were in it, when at that mo- 

 ment a door at the other end opened, and the owner 

 of the house came in, under visible though suppressed 

 excitement. I began all sorts of apologies, as usual, 

 and for a moment the gentleman was civil enough ; 

 but on my asking ivhere the stag was, all restraint 

 gave way, and in a fury he replied, " Your stag, Sir, 

 not content with walking through every office, has 

 been here. Sir, here in my drawing-room, Sir, whence 

 he proceeded up-stairs to the nursery, and damn me, 



Sir, he's now in Mrs. 's boudoir." All I could 



say was, that I was very sorry ; and I asked what I 

 was to do. He left me in the drawing-room for a few 

 minutes, and then called me to follow him, and the 

 stag was in a passage at the top of a back stairs. The 

 deer got down again into the offices, where he was 

 safely secured. 



Several gallant friends of mine got into occasional 

 rows ; and in one instance, where blows passed be- 

 tween one of them and a person who used to hunt 

 with my hounds, and who, it Avas said, kept " a hell" 

 in " Seven Dials," and who was deficient in teeth, I 

 remember Sir George Womb well's saying, " JMy good 

 fellow, you should not have touched that man ; why 

 he had but one tooth, and looked as if he thirsted for 

 blood." Still, in the midst of it all, for twelve years 

 our sport continued, and a vast deal of fun we had. 

 Enclosure after enclosure went on, heath and common 

 vanished, villas sprung up where gravel-pits, fish, and 

 snipes used to be, and, instead of the decrease of man, 

 and the place becoming so that, " on the hospitable 

 hearth, the hare should leave her young," things were 

 reversed : roses grew where the bulrush and reed 



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