202 THE NEW FOREST 



case I wasted less time, and laid on the pack 

 after an hour's tufting on to the two stags 

 rather a risk, but it came off. They ran together 

 right across the Forest to Roe Wood, about eight 

 miles away, and then divided. I watched them 

 separate. We had several checks, chiefly owing 

 to the way the field persistently galloped after 

 the deer and over the hounds, but, in spite of 

 these unnecessary difficulties, we brought our 

 stag right back across the Forest, and killed 

 him at Canterton. It was a three hours' hunt 

 not very slow, but frequently interrupted, and I 

 made it about seventeen miles on the map. 



We killed eight deer this spring also, but I 

 think Will Perkins had rather better sport than 

 I had, taking the two spring seasons through. 

 After this season, Mr Lovell realised that the 

 strain of the long days of deer-hunting was 

 rather more than a man of his years could 

 comfortably sustain, and he thought it best to 

 engage a professional huntsman. Just at that 

 juncture, my old friend, Sir George Brooke, had 

 decided to reduce his pack of harriers in Co. 

 Dublin, and wrote to me to recommend his 

 huntsman, whom he described to me as being 

 " always keen, never cold, never hot, never tired, 

 never hungry, and never thirsty " ! 



This was a good recommendation from an 



