CHAPTER XVI 



" I sat me down on the centre hill, 



Where the four rides make a star ; 

 A buck brows'd there I wish'd to kill 



Ere the season wan'd too far. 

 Frisk'd forth the rabbit to the sward ; 



But he stamp'd at a fox in cover ; 

 The fox stole out, and star'd me hard 



Ere he sprung on the drain bank-over ; 

 Through the thick thorns he took his way, 

 Mark'd for a space by the screaming jay, 



Her top-knot rais'd at the prowling ghost, 



As she view'd him from her fir-tree roost." 



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



TURNING from sadder things, the reader shall now have some 

 account of my sport in the forest. My first act after receiving 

 the forest licence to shoot, was to ask the several rangers 

 Mr. Sturges Bourne and the Duke of Cambridge if I might 

 hunt the otter and course hares in the forest. Having received 

 permission from each in succession, I resolved to have a touch 

 at the otters, and I wrote to my old servant, George Carter, 

 then with the Duke of Grafton, for any old worn-out and steady 

 hounds. He sent me some, and wrote to say that my old 

 favourite foxhound Harrogate, if I liked it, should accompany 

 them, as he had no longer any use to put him to. Harrogate 

 and I had not met for years, but the meeting at Beacon was 

 just as joyful as if we had been severed but for a day. His 

 joy affected the other hounds who came with him, who, seeing 

 him so delighted, at once fawned upon me, and came bounding 



