262 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



ahead of the hound, as I could hear by his tongue, very much 

 beaten, and stopping frequently to listen. She entered one of 

 the streams, and walked for a hundred yards down the middle 

 of it, got on the bank, and listened again, alas ! to the never- 

 failing tongue. On she came, at a trot, to the second stream, 

 and did the same thing, walking down it till she was within 

 twenty-five yards of me. I could not see her, by reason of the 

 high banks, but I could hear her in the shallow water. She 

 paused for some little time, and then jumped on the bank to 

 listen, when the rifle laid her dead. 



Twice this extraordinary hound hunted a doe and a pricket 

 out of the forest into the manors, killing one of them near 

 Ringwood, and the other in the same direction. In one of 

 these instances, by sinking the wind, he ran us clean out of all 

 knowledge of him, and he dined on the venison ; in the other, 

 my two men, with the gazehound Baron, contrived to be in at 

 the death. When aware of the vicinity of a deer, it is beautiful 

 to watch the curious way Druid will run his nose along every 

 twig or spray of fern that might have been touched by the deer 

 on his passage ; and I have frequently been brought up to the 

 lair of a deer five hours after she had passed, without Druid's 

 flinging his tongue. On one occasion the deer had been seen at 

 a certain time by a furze-cutter, who gave me the information 

 on which I laid on the hound. It is this beautifully silent 

 method of drawing up to a deer, that has afforded me such 

 signal success. During one of my " draws " for a deer, my men 

 were with the hound, and I was posted under some hollies, 

 their orders being to draw up to me. From out of Holmesley 

 enclosure, or rather wishing to come out of it, there approached 

 a man, a little child, and a small donkey with a cart containing 

 a considerable load of wood. The rain and thoroughfare for 

 faggots had rendered the ride a deep bog, and just before the 

 trio reached the gateway the cart and the donkey stuck fast. 

 Many struggles took place to effect progress, with intervals 

 between to permit the little donkey to catch her wind, but all 

 in vain. Prayers and exhortations, and the most endearing 



