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CHAPTER XXL 



" Come then, fair doe ! hence home we'll traverse free : 



Upon my lawn no huntsman seeks thy life : 

 This forest land, from farthest south to sea, 



To all thy kind with more than danger's rife. 

 Away then, home, sweet creature, come with me ! 



Thy gentlest, best protector I will be. 

 She shook her head, and timidly referred 



To things that scared her ; falsehoods, full of guile. 

 The most unfounded stories she had heard ; 



Yet closer came she, with a trustful smile." 



The Last of the New Forest Deer.— G. F. B. 



In winding up these Reminiscences, and in speaking 

 of my sporting inclinations yet existing, supposing 

 that I had a domain of my own, I think that at my 

 present time of life, I should feel as much or more 

 pleasure in rearing, taming, and taking care of birds 

 and animals, and of affording them rest and enjoy- 

 ment around me, than I should have in the active 

 pursuit of their lives. Landseer's beautiful picture 

 of "The Forester's Family," should have a living 

 illustration at my door ; where, though I might still 

 kill the fat stag or buck at the right season, as well 

 as the " yeld hind," or " dry doe," and the " aver," or 

 " hevier," as it is vulgarly called, between the seasons 

 of the male and female deer, still my chief amusement 

 and pursuit would be in nursing and rearing Heaven's 

 creatures, rather than in their chase and destruction ; 

 and when age had come upon me, if given the blessing 

 of a gradual descent into the grave, I would be found 

 in my white hairs and faded limbs still poring over 

 the beautiful mysteries of animal life, the economy of 



