222 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



any other sort I ever tried in the whole course of my 

 experience. The hite Lord Ducie never lost an op- 

 portunity of running those hounds down ; but, as I 

 consider his judgment on hunting not to have been 

 anything like the very best, it never made any 

 impression on me. I have ever found the sort com- 

 bine the finest nose with the most complete con- 

 stitution, stoutness, and resolution, at the same 

 time that the temper is tractable and affectionate. 

 From the kennel to the deer-park, there is excellent 

 management; one fault only existing in the deer- 

 park, and that is a fault on the right side, which is, 

 the fact of keeping on too many old bucks, bucks that 

 never would be better, and who, by their number 

 during the rutting season, risk the lives of younger 

 deer, by stabbing them with their horns. I think the 

 deer at Berkeley average about a thousand head, be- 

 sides the herd of red deer, and finer venison it is not 

 possible to taste. The park stands on a hill a mile 

 from the Castle ; but there used to be a sort of home 

 park, in which, in former times, were kept the red 

 deer. It was in that park where Queen Elizabeth, 

 in a fit of anger, destroyed the deer, because the Lord 

 Berkeley, instead of being at his Castle to meet the 

 Queen, who had intimated her intention to pay him a 

 visit, left home rather than receive her. Attached to 

 the domain is a beautiful chase, called St. Michael's 

 or Micklewood Chase ; and as, since the enclosure, the 

 Avhole of it has been ceded to the Castle, were it mine, 

 I would soon throw up a rough forest fence, hke the 

 one of the Brigstock forest in Northamptonshire, and 

 fill it with red, fallow, and roe deer. Micklewood Chase 

 afibrds a good example of what gamekeepers should 

 do, in regard to the care of timber, while protecting 



