238 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



Though retribution yet shall cross 



His path upon a future day, 



And drag him to the gaol away. 

 And now the sufferer seeks the rill, 

 A liquid instinct moves it still, 



It tastes, but scarcely dares to drink ; 



The cold has made the pulses shrink ; 

 It falls it drowns I hear its cry, 

 And will not leave it thus to die. 



Then let the fat buck bound away ! 



I save a little fawn to-day." 



Small thought had I, when writing the foregoing lines, that 

 a day would come when hundreds of these innocent creatures 

 would be reduced to this state and left to die of starvation 

 through an Act of Parliament; and that, instead of taking 

 seasonable time to exterminate the deer summer and winter, 

 open day and " fence month" would be made alike available for 

 their hasty destruction. However, reader, I have shown you the 

 forest in June in its happier hour : now look at it in the summer 

 of 1853. We will pass the cottage before described. A cross 

 and haggard-looking woman sits at the door amidst a squalid 

 lot of squalling children : there is neither cow nor pig near the 

 house : for, though it is now one of the months when the forest 

 pasturage is open, the recent law would not permit the milch 

 cow to have its run all the year round, so, at a time when it was 

 worth little in the market, the owners were forced to sell it. 

 The cottage fence was broken down, weeds had grown up in the 

 place of vegetables and the few flowers, and even the beehives 

 had perished or fallen into decay. Let us stop, and ask this 

 woman a question. 



" Dame, where is your husband ? " 



" Alas ! sir, he is in prison."" 



"What for?" 



" Why, sir, it's a long tale, and a sad one for me. We have 

 a large family to maintain, and when provisions, at one time, 

 got so cheap, and farm produce and wheat was so low, wages fell 

 likewise ; so that we were not a bit better off than when we had 



