30 NATURAL HISTORY 



when urged to restock Waltham-chase *, refused, from 

 a motive worthy of a prelate, replying that " It had 

 done mischief enough already." 



Our old race of deer stealers are hardly extinct yet : 

 it was but a little while ago that, over their ale, they 

 used to recount the exploits of their youth ; such as 

 watching the pregnant hind to her lair, and, when the 

 calf was dropped, paring its feet with a penknife to the 

 quick to prevent its escape, till it was large and fat 

 enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neigh- 

 bours with a bullet in a turnip-field by moonshine, 

 mistaking him for a deer ; and the losing a dog in the 

 following extraordinary manner: Some fellows sus- 

 pecting that a calf new-fallen was deposited in a 

 certain spot of thick fern, went, with a lurcher, to 

 surprise it ; when the parent-hind rushed out of the 

 brake, and, taking a vast spring with all her feet close 

 together, pitched upon the neck of the dog, and broke 

 it short in two. 



Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a 

 number of rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and 



3 This chase remains unstocked to this day : the Bishop was Dr. 

 Hoadley. 



