CHAPTER XXII 



" Come then, fair doe ! hence home we'll traverse free : 



Upon my lawn no huntsman seeks thy life : 

 This forest land, from farthest south to sea, 



To all thy kind with more than danger's rife. 

 Away, then, home, sweet creature, come with me ! 



Thy gentlest, best protector I will be. 

 She shook her head, and timidly referred 



To things that scared her ; falsehoods, full of guile, 

 The most unfounded stories she had heard ; 



Yet closer came she, with a trustful smile." 



The Last of the New Forest Deer.G. F. B. 



IN winding up these Reminiscences, and in speaking of my 

 sporting inclinations yet existing, supposing that I had a domain 

 of my own, I think that at my present time of life I should feel 

 as much or more pleasure in rearing, taming, and taking care of 

 birds and animals, and of affording them rest and enjoyment 

 around me, than I should have in the active pursuit of their 

 lives. Landseer's beautiful picture of " The Foresters Family " 

 should have a living illustration at my door ; where, though I 

 might still kill the fat stag or buck at the right season, as well 

 as the " yeld hind," or " dry doe," and the " aver," or " hevier," 

 as it is vulgarly called, between the seasons of the male and 

 female deer, still my chief amusement and pursuit would be in 

 nursing and rearing heaven's creatures, rather than in their 

 chase and destruction ; and when age had come upon me, if 

 given the blessing of a gradual descent into the grave, I would 

 be found in my white hairs and faded limbs still poring over the 

 beautiful mysteries of animal life, the economy of flowers, and 



