CIIARBOROUGIl VENISON. 345 



red and fallow deer, that, apart from the figure of 

 the animal, would puzzle any man. The does at 

 Charborough for venison, as well as the bucks, are 

 beautiful, and a more lovely park was never attached 

 to a mansion. I have also killed as fine " avers" there 

 as any alderman would wish to sit down to, and have 

 had reason to be well pleased with the kind and 

 liberal way in which Mr. Drax gave me the amuse- 

 ment. A well managed park ought to supply the 

 table of its owner all the year round with fat venison. 

 Commencing in July, the bucks are good till October. 

 The "avers" then come in till the does are ready, say 

 till about the end of November. The does will last 

 till January, and then the "avers" come in again till 

 the end of April, when bucks, stall fed, are fat ; and 

 then stall-fed deer will last till the grass bucks are 

 again in condition. I call the man good in the grace- 

 ful art of woodcraft, who can tell in a herd of fifty 

 the best dry doe with or without the aid of a glass. 



From the 17th of December to the 30th of August, 

 1853, with my bloodhound Druid, I have found forty- 

 eight deer in the Nevv' Forest, attending the hound on 

 foot, sometimes commencing at ten in the morning, 

 and not concluding till four, or six, or seven in the 

 afternoon. One of these chases lasted seven hours, 

 many of them two, three, four, and five hours ; and 

 out of these forty-eight deer so hunted, I have been 

 up at the end to shoot the deer in forty-two instances. 

 In two otlier instances the hound drove the deer 

 from the forest, and killed one of them, in the manors 

 by himself. — I lost his tongue owing to the wind; 

 the other he hunted into the manor near Ringwood, 

 and was followed by two of my men, who having 

 Baron the gazehound in a leash, slipped him at 



