34 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



In taking deer for hunting in a park, the safest plan is to have 

 a couple of men on horses, and two or three on foot, each to keep 

 a portion of the park to himself, and, without riding or running 

 fast after the deer, to keep them always in slow motion. Deer 

 are what we call over-topped, and, when kept long at a slow 

 pace, become leg-weary. Following this plan at Hampstead 

 Park, I have had deer lie down and let me secure them without 

 a struggle, rather than rise again. If, by galloping after them 

 and much noise, you set them running, they will often be seized 

 with a panic, and, whether pursued or not, run themselves to 

 death. Speaking of deer-catching in Hampstead Park, I saw a 

 very funny thing happen funny, as no mischief was done to 

 the gentleman at that time Mayor of Newbury. We were trying 

 to single a stag from the herd ; the Mayor, full-blown, on horse- 

 back, and in everything but his robes, kindly assisted, though 

 totally ignorant of the nature of the animals he was riding after. 

 When a herd of red deer charge, no meeting them will turn them 

 another way ; the thing to do is to ride the same way they are 

 going, and then, when they see a man retreating but still ahead 

 of them, they will swerve to avoid his society. The deer charged, 

 with several old stags at their head, and the dauntless mayor 

 rode right across them on the side of a hill down which the herd 

 were coming at a thundering pace I take it, presuming on the 

 authority of chief magistrate. Two or three deer jumped either 

 behind or before his horse ; one old stag came right at him ; but, 

 as it seemed to me, dreading the shock of the horse, though 

 lowering his horns for mischief, he attempted to leap over him, 

 and his antlers passing between the waistcoat of the mayor and 

 the horse's mane, he caught the dignitary in the side with his 

 knees, and pitched him off his horse, so to speak, almost into the 

 middle of next week. The mayor went like a cricket-ball down 

 the hill, but rose unharmed and in perfect good humour, refraining 

 for the rest of the day to tilt with the foe. 



And here, while treating of the red deer, it will not be out 

 of place to allude to the match I undertook against fallow bucks 

 in Charborough Park. The stag and the buck are a different 



