d:2G KEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



bidden to do so. He therefore only accompanies me 

 in wild "round, where his running in cannot do much 

 harm ; and in wild ground among furze, to hunt, find, 

 and then retrieve, lie is perfection. 



In the winter of 1 852 I was out on Holmesley walk 

 with a warrant for a doe, and killed her on the edge of 

 a bog in a valley running down to the railway, in sight, 

 though a distant one, of three plate-layers, or navvies 

 as they are vulgarly called, who were at work on the 

 line. In company with me, only in couples, when I 

 killed her, were my terriers and Tramp, as, after killing 

 the doe, I intended to beat for woodcocks and rabbits. 

 A Highland deer greyhound, and a very good one, the 

 property of Sir Percy Shelley, was with me when the 

 deer was killed, who was afterwards to be coupled up 

 Avhen the terriers were called for. It is a habit 

 among the keepers in this forest to let a deer lie 

 without anybody with it while they go for a con- 

 veyance to take it to the nearest lodge, and I have 

 often asked them if they never had one stolen. 

 They replied in the negative ; but the circumstance 

 I am narrating inclines me to think that deer have 

 been stolen in this particular manner, although the 

 theft has not been acknowledged. I did not like to 

 leave the vicinity of the venison, so, while the wood- 

 man was gone for his cart, I continued on the adjacent 

 hills, beating for woodcocks and rabbits. After being 

 out of sight of the deer for some time, perhaps three 

 quarters of an hour, I reached a spot where I ought 

 to have obtained a view of her, but could not make 

 her out. The cart had not arrived to fetch her, of 

 tliat I was sure ; so, thinking perhaps that the heather 

 hid her from my sight, I despatched my man to the 

 spot, and bade him, if the deer was gone, to hold 



