DRUID, THE BLOODHOUND 203 



anecdotes of field and forest ; and yesterday, the 22nd of August, 

 1853, my bloodhound, Druid, distinguished himself. He had 

 crossed the line of a wary deer, a buck I was sure, by the slot, 

 who, waiting not to be found, was off when he heard my voice 

 in the distance. We followed this deer for some miles, but he 

 had been gone so long, and the scent was so bad rain in the 

 air approaching that Druid and myself alike gave him up, 

 and drew for another. We then came on the fresh slot of a doe 

 in Holmesley enclosure, and in a few moments more I heard an 

 angry yell from Druid, such as he gives when in thick furze he 

 comes on a deer in the lair, and then the roar of his tongue 

 told me that the deer was on foot. I found this doe at two 

 o'clock, run her for some time in and around Holmesley enclosure, 

 and then away back to Wotton enclosure, where we had come 

 on the line of the first deer. For the last two miles, or upwards, 

 Druid had not been able to speak to the scent more than once 

 or so in every twenty minutes, and he only held the line of the 

 deer by keeping to a foot's pace, and questing every twig and 

 fern-top by which the deer passed. It was impossible to assist 

 him ; and nothing could be more perfect than the way in which 

 he constantly returned to the last point where he had made her 

 out, and then again recovered the line, from which, for a space, 

 he had deviated. Going thus at a foot's pace, and of course in 

 thickets and fern losing sight of the hound, I often found him 

 behind me, returning to make himself sure, and when on the 

 certain spot, he would give one roar, and then denote the line 

 again with nothing more than a flourish and feather of his 

 sweeping stern. In one place in Wotton the scent freshened, 

 where I had no doubt the deer had waited ; but then it died 

 away, and on one of the rides we had a long check. A dozen 

 times or more Druid returned to a spot, but beyond that he 

 could not go on ; I suspected the doe had come into the ride, 

 and kept it some distance, and then that some foil had followed 

 her steps, to the detriment of Druid's nose ; however, he righted 

 himself at last, and took the line decidedly into another quarter 

 of the cover. On seeing him do this, I ran round to the oppo- 



