78 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



The vicinity of Eton was also the scene of an active 

 " shindy." The stag crossed the Thames somewhere 

 near the cavalry barracks ; and the instant he left the 

 river between Eton and Surley Hall, he was set on, 

 ere he was well landed, by a whole host of bargemen 

 and Eton louts, accompanied by several dogs. One 

 dog, as he came out of the water, caught him by the 

 nose, and on my arriving at the opposite bank of the 

 river, whence I watched the whole proceeding, barge- 

 men, bull-dogs, and at last the hounds were worrying 

 the deer. There was therefore no more running, and, 

 quitting my horse, a boat being at the bank, I jumped 

 into it and pulled across. The first thing the as- 

 sembly found was the " tawny coat " among them 

 very soon attached to the hinder-leg of the bull-dog 

 who had the deer by the head, on whose back the 

 iron hammer of the whip soon made a persuasive 

 impression. Ere more than the second blow had 

 fallen a sort of sledge-hammer seemed to smite me in 

 the back, giving me a delirious impression of what 

 some nurses do when a child falls down, and lies with 

 nothing turned up but a silent and purple face set 

 for tears: — they pick a child up as if the arm was 

 a handle to the body, and then, to bring out the 

 voice, punch it from behind. My assailant, however, 

 on the present occasion hit every thing out of me 

 except the voice, so rising up from, among the fighting 

 dogs and stag, on whom the bargeman's blow had 

 sent me, I turned, and knocked down a man whom I 

 found immediately in my rear. For an instant then 

 there was a wild scuflie, in which all the bargemen 

 seemed to hug me as well as each other, and all I 

 could do was to " fib " at various ribs. We were too 

 close for the moment to hurt each other much, but it 



