JOSEPH HALL, DEER-STALKER 257 



fern falling across the barrel, I had next to whisper, " The fern 

 is in the way." He comprehended at once which piece of fern 

 it was, and quietly reached his hand beneath, and pulled it from 

 the root. The deer then sprang up and fell dead with the 

 bullet through the spine of the neck. There is no better deer- 

 stalker than Joseph Hall, and no man who knows a deer better. 

 Of all the forest-keepers he certainly was the best I ever met, 

 and never in any one particle did I find the information he gave 

 me incorrect. Whatever he said as to the condition or age of a 

 deer was always right, and he was ever most anxious that I 

 should not be disappointed in my warrant. Although I can 

 stalk a deer, and though I know the best buck when I get up to 

 him, and am well acquainted with every beautiful proficiency in 

 woodcraft, to have such a man as this in a wide wild forest, who 

 has known each deer since they fell at fawning time, saved a 

 vast deal of trouble ; and, moreover, from his previous knowledge 

 of the deer, he could tell me by a glance only at their head which 

 was the best buck. He is in the prime of life, a first-rate stalker, 

 and possessed of indomitable resolution, as the combat with a 

 deer-stealer twice his size, as before narrated, proves ; and if in 

 these melancholy changes and destruction of the royal forests he 

 should not be employed by the Crown, I could strongly recom- 

 mend him to take charge of any private forest or park of deer. 

 Holloway, who was keeper over Burley Walk, was an exceedingly 

 good and superior man, and nothing pleased me more than his 

 promotion to his present position; for, while overlooking the 

 woodmen, etc., and passing their accounts, I think him so 

 thoroughly capable, as to be fit for even further promotion. In 

 these days of change, now that he is no longer a keeper, I know 

 not what to call him. I only know that he is certainly not 

 Bow Bearer, whatever his other duties may be. He was with 

 me one afternoon when I went for a buck on Burley Lawn. On 

 approaching some thorns we could see three pretty good deer 

 at feed, and, crawling cautiously forward, we gained a clump of 

 thorns by the side of the little stream, whence we could have a 

 good view of them at about a hundred yards' distance. There 



