HUNTING A BUCK. 337 



hini if i^ossible to Lis lair, previously stopping and 

 taking up the hound. Luckily for us, Druid checked 

 by the side of the railway, and enabled us to come 

 up with him, and, getting on before, to catch him 

 as he crossed the bridge. This became the more 

 necessary, as their slots showed us that three lesser 

 deer had passed the bridge the same morning. We 

 took up the track of the buck, and carried it some 

 distance along the paths in the heather, Mr. Boultbee 

 aiding in tracing it, till we came decidedly to where 

 he had struck off from the beaten path into the heath 

 and fern. We then drew up in line, a man between 

 the two guns, to beat for him, when James Bromfield 

 exclaimed to Mr. Boultbee, on coming to some old 

 hollow furze, "Look out. Sir, it's likely;" and the 

 words were hardly uttered, when up sprang the 

 buck, and bounded away directly to Mr. Boultbee's 

 ri<Tlit, offering: no clean shot, save at the back of his 

 head ; we both fired, and though at a long distance 

 the buck fell, but rose again, and made for Wilverley 

 enclosure. I snatched my single rifle from my man's 

 hand, and shot at him as he ran, and missed him, 

 when he again stood still ; but as Druid was by this 

 time roaring on his traces, the running again com- 

 menced. Having gained the wood, he gave us plenty 

 to do, for the wounds which knocked him down had 

 only stunned him for a time; however, after a ran- 

 dom shot or two, which again struck him, and one 

 Avhich missed him, Mr. Boultbee got a good chance, 

 and finished the matter. He was a nice deer, con- 

 sidering the way in which the forest had been con- 

 tinuously disturbed, and, according to the rates fixed 

 by the Crown at which the venison was to be sold, 

 I valued him at sixpence a pound. He would have 



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