306 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



than that caused by the fall of his rider on his neck, and 

 before he reached the ground, life, from all accounts, became 

 extinct. 



A stray shot from my gun while I was at Harrold struck a 

 girl slightly in the face, who was gleaning in another field ; and 

 I once lodged some shot in the hand and dress of a maid-servant 

 at Cranford, who came in at a gate in the court-yard at the 

 moment I shot a strange dog said to be mad, and the stones of 

 the court-yard raising the shot, a portion of the charge struck 

 her. The only serious accident I was near effecting was at Dall, 

 in the Highlands of Scotland, while on a visit to Lord Grantley. 

 We had been out black-game shooting, and our return home lay 

 through the Black Wood, in which were many roe-deer. We 

 had our rifles with us, and agreed to look for deer on separate 

 lines on our way home. Lord Grantley was to take the shots 

 to his right, and I was to do the same by those on the left, so 

 as to avoid the risk of shooting each other. On coming near 

 home I saw a roebuck feeding to my left in a little open glade, 

 towards which I crept, but when within a long shot of him 

 something scared the buck and he trotted off. It being the last 

 chance of the day, I discharged my rifle at him ; my horror may 

 be more easily^ imagined than described, when up in the direct 

 line of my ball sprang Lord Grantley, calling out loudly, and 

 by his side were flourished two legs only, among the heather and 

 fern. My bullet had hit the very stone behind which Lord 

 Grantley had screened himself from the observation of the deer, 

 on the face of which it flattened and split with such a whiz, as 

 induced old MacGregor to aid his chance of safety by rolling 

 over, and hence the startling appearance of the flourished legs ! 

 It was no fault of mine ; the fact was Lord Grantley had re- 

 versed his position, having as he thought counted the discharge 

 by the keepers of our guns at Dall, and enumerated among them 

 the report of my rifle, and by that he arrived at the conclusion 

 that I had gone home. No one the worse for it, we had a good 

 laugh at MacGregor's roll, but it served as a caution for the 

 future. I have been struck twice only by shot, once in the knee 



