260 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



giving him a push out of the way with the truncheon, ready in 

 case of the worst, I marched off with the trough, and returned 

 and caressed him. The only time we came to blows was in my 

 little four-wheel shooting-carriage, where he was coupled to the 

 seat, by me. He would struggle to get free and make a noise : 

 and when I gave him a slight tap, he returned it by flying at 

 me ; but I met him with a hard blow from the fist, which for 

 ever after settled the dispute as to head man. I can do any- 

 thing with him now ; his temper is beautiful, and as playful as 

 a kitten's, and, though untractable to strangers, with me he is 

 docility itself. Druid is of the largest size, and as stout to work, 

 literally, as the day is long. I will give the reader an account of 

 what I have seen him do. During the summer, when he first came 

 to me, I was lucky enough to kill for the most part or miss 

 all the bucks so clean, that a bloodhound was not needed ; but 

 when the doe slaughter commenced, then Druid's services came 

 in vogue. The does, prickets, sorels, and sors, all of which were 

 condemned, at last became so wary and so few, that to look for 

 one in winter in the woods and over the wide extent of rough 

 ground, was like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay. I had 

 recourse then to Druid, and the perfection of that single hound 

 in drawing for and finding a deer in covers of from four to six 

 hundred acres, was the most remarkable I ever saw. I used to 

 give him the wind of the likeliest quarters, and commence in the 

 ride that best suited it : and I have seen him wind deer in their 

 lairs at more than a hundred yards off, standing on his hinder- 

 legs to catch the wind better, looking back with a smiling face 

 at me, and then drawing right up to them, without speaking, 

 till he had roused them ; then, and not till then, would boom 

 upon the breeze the deep notes of his faultless and unerring 

 tongue. Thus chase after chase commenced ; I had no pony at 

 that time available my forester being about to have a foal so 

 I ran to meet the coming tongue at points, and obtained a shot 

 when I could. When a man reaches my time of life, his paces 

 and his strength begin to be not so fast or powerful as at an 

 earlier date ; and yet, in these chases over heavy ground and 



