276 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



balls, but because I have missed four good bucks from those 

 walks that, in obedience to orders, I had spared a dozen times 

 over, and should have been glad to have bought in season at a 

 shilling a pound. This is too bad, and only goes to prove how 

 much a head keeper or ranger over all has been and is needed. 

 I had no idea till August 1853 that the fawns of does killed in 

 July would live without the mother ; but I have found two 

 solitary but very strong male fawns, in the best possible con- 

 dition, and their stomachs filled with green food, without a 

 vestige of milk, like old deer, in the strongest health and vigour. 

 I killed the doe belonging to one of these fawns in Wotton 

 enclosure, and then my bloodhound ran the fawn in cover for 

 an hour and a half, and lost him at dark. Ten days after I 

 found this fawn in his original lair, and ran him an hour before 

 I could get a shot at him, and when killed he was in beautiful 

 condition. On another occasion, I found a fawn in Holmesley 

 enclosure, who, after a turn or two in cover, went away and 

 crossed the railway between Wotton and Wilverley, and then 

 ran the round of Wilverley enclosure, and the heaths adjoining, 

 for two hours and ten minutes, when I got a shot at and slightly 

 wounded him; Druid then ran into him on the open heath 

 between Wilverley and Burley. This fawn had no sign of milk 

 for food, while, at the same time, the kidneys were almost 

 covered with fat. 



