322 REMINISCENCES OE A HUNTSMAN. 



for a hundred yards down the middle of it, got on 

 the bank, and listened again, alas ! to the never- 

 failino- tono'ue. On she came, at a trot, to the second 

 stream, and did the same thing ; walking down it 

 till she was within twenty-five yards of me. I could 

 not see her, by reason of the high banks, but I could 

 hear her in the shallow water. She paused for some 

 little time, and then jumped on the bank to listen, 

 when the rifle laid her dead. 



Twice this extraordinary hound hunted a doe and 

 a pricket out of the forest into the manors, killing 

 one of them near Ringwood, and the other in the same 

 direction. In one of these instances, by sinking the 

 wind, he ran us clean out of all knowledge of him, 

 and he dined on the venison ; in the other, ray two 

 men, with the gaze-hound Baron, contrived to be in 

 at the death. When aware of the vicinity of a deer, 

 it is beautiful to watch the curious way Druid will 

 run his nose along every twig or spray of fern that 

 might have been touched by the deer on his passage; 

 and I have frequently been brought up to the lair of 

 a deer five hours after she had passed, without Druid's 

 flinsino; his tono^ue. On one occasion the deer had been 

 seen at a certain time by a furze-cutter, who gave me 

 the information on which I laid on the hound. It is 

 this beautifully silent method of drawing up to a deer, 

 that has afibrded me such signal success. During 

 one of my " draws" for a deer, my men were with the 

 hound; and I was posted under some hollies, their or- 

 ders being to draw up to me. From out of Holmesley 

 Enclosure, or rather wishing to come out of it, there 

 approached a man, a little child, and a small donkey 

 with a cart containing a considerable load of wood. 

 The rain and thoroughfare for faijorots had rendered 



