THE COLD WATER CURE 33 



because she always went out to exercise with the stud, and often 

 picked them up a rabbit. The morning of her death I found 

 the helpers with faces a yard long, and the poor fellows ready 

 to cry. The little black tanned terrier Venus, who lived in the 

 stable, was sitting on the bin with a huge piece of crape round 

 her neck, so dressed by the helpers by way of sorrow for her 

 friend. 



There is a clever picture in my possession, by Cooper, of the 

 fight of the stag with Smoker, Lion, and Smut, myself, and a 

 favourite horse, who used to carry Mrs. Berkeley, called Cran- 

 ford ; but, with a sort of poetical licence, Cooper has depicted 

 me throwing a lasso at the head of the deer, instead of stooping 

 to catch him by one of his hind-legs. 



In the commencement of my stag-hunting career, when a 

 deer was taken by the royal hounds, or by those kept by Lord 

 Derby, I observed that, if much distressed, they often bled the 

 stag by cutting his ear. A more intimate knowledge, as well 

 as observation of the animal, made me adopt a totally different 

 plan. If an animal is bled thus in an exhausted state, before 

 reaction comes on, he is killed ; the best remedy for a deer in 

 that state is to deluge him with cold water. 



The deer that die from their distress before hounds, are those 

 that are run into on dry land. If the deer is taken in water, or 

 when he takes soil, as we call it, however much distressed, if not 

 drowned by the hounds, he is invariably safe. For this reason, on 

 running into a deer on dry land, when the animal lay on the 

 ground motionless, and panting from exhaustion, I adopted the 

 plan of sending to the nearest supply for cold water, paying 



men to bring it in their hats when nothing else was at hand, 



to deluge his sides and chest. With plenty of water, the deer 

 was always saved. In a very sharp run over the Harrow Vale, 

 with the deer in view, I saw him jump a fence, and but took my 

 eyes off him for a moment to mind my own horse while he took 

 it also : on looking for him again, though he had a wide field 

 before him, he was nowhere to be seen ; he had dropped down 

 dead, and the leading hounds absolutely stumbled over his body. 



