320 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



SO few, that to look for one in winter in the woods 

 and over the wide extent of rough ground, was like 

 lookin"" for a needle in a bottle of hay. I had re- 

 course then to Druid, and the perfection of that 

 single hound in drawing for and finding a deer in 

 covers of from four to six hundred acres was the 

 most remarkable I ever saw. I used to give him the 

 wind of the likeliest quarters, and commence in the 

 ride that best suited it : and I have seen him wind 

 deer in their lairs at more than a hundred yards oif, 

 standing on his hinder legs to catch the wind better, 

 looking back with a smiling face at me, and then 

 drawing right up to them, without speaking, till he 

 had roused them ; then, and not till then, would 

 boom upon the breeze the deep notes of his faultless 

 and unerring; tono;ue. Thus chase after chase com- 

 menced : I had no pony at that time available, — 

 my forester being about to have a foal ; so I ran to 

 meet the coming tongue at points, and obtained a 

 shot when I could. When a man reaches my time of 

 life, his paces and his strength begin to be not so fast 

 or powerful as at an earlier date ; and yet, in these 

 chases over heavy ground and through thickets, with 

 two guns sometimes on my shoulder, the eleven- 

 gauoje double-shot ofun charo;ed with a " double B." 

 cartridge, and my single rifle, for at first I roused 

 the does in threes and fours, and have more than 

 once, in running shots, killed three with the three 

 barrels ; loaded thus, I have laughed to see my men 

 divesting themselves of their jackets, as if they were 

 going hay-making in summer, and even then not see- 

 ing so much of the run as I did. 



There are two little streams, that run from the bogs 

 and enter Homesley Enclosure, wide apart, at different 



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