250 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



keeper, James Dewy, did on that day, in tearing up holts, at 

 times up to the waist in water, and then having to go in our 

 wet things a distance of six miles at dark with tired hounds, 

 was severer than I should like to undergo now, though there 

 is no saying what the view of an otter will produce if I find 

 another. 



The buck - stalking in the New Forest was very perfect. 

 Nothing could be wilder than the ground, or latterly than the 

 deer, and I was obliged to adopt every kind of ruse to get a 

 shot, particularly when the keepers and their assistants were 

 killing every buck they could. At times I used to ride carelessly 

 towards the deer and openly, caring nothing for the wind, 

 whistling and singing, like forest " marksmen " after ponies and 

 cattle ; and now and then the deer would be deceived by it, and 

 let me come within rifle distance, when I would watch my 

 opportunity when they nodded at a fly, or fed, and drop from 

 my horse into the heather. They would keep looking at the 

 horse, and a few minutes would elapse before the thought struck 

 them that the rider was no longer in sight; and, while they 

 were making up their minds on the state of affairs, the bullet 

 reached them. I saw one of these scenes very well told in the 

 Gloucester Chronicle, by an eye-witness. The dress of a woman 

 would at other times deceive them, and stalking with a horse 

 would often succeed, and I have killed many a buck from a 

 keeper's cart, the deer taking us for common wayfarers. In 

 approaching deer, if they mistake you for a mere passer-by, the 

 wind does not matter ; they see you are a man, and they expect 

 to scent you : but, in creeping to them unseen, the lightest air 

 must be cared for, for if they wind a man and do not see him 

 they are ever apprehensive that he has a design upon them. 

 Many a deer have I made sure of, when he was about to gallop 

 or trot by me, by a low short whistle. Not knowing there was 

 a man near him, and hearing a noise, so shortly given that its 

 whereabouts could not be at the instant defined, the deer was 

 sure to stop, to ascertain, by listening for the sound again, that 

 he was not running into danger, and then was the time for the 



