GROUSE SHOOTING. 89 



haunt for grouse, and our dogs were beating it with 

 care. Observing the setter drop, his companions 

 backed and remained steady, when suddenly Hero 

 rose from his couchant attitude, and next moment a 

 wild deer, of enormous size and splendid beauty, crossed 

 before the dog and sprang the birds he had been pointing. 

 The apparition of the animal, so little expected, and so 

 singularly and closely introduced to our view, occasioned 

 a sensation I had never hitherto experienced. I rushed 

 up the bank, while, unembarrassed by our presence, 

 the noble deer swept past us in a light and graceful 

 canter, at the short distance of some seventy or eighty 

 yards. I might have fired at and annoyed him — but 

 on a creature so powerful small shot could have pro- 

 duced little effect, and none but a Cockney, under 

 similar circumstances, would waste a charge ; and to 

 tease, without a chance of bringing down the gallant 

 beast, would have been a species of useless mischief, 

 meriting a full month upon the tread-mill. I gazed 

 after him as he gradually increased his distance ; his 

 antlers were expanded as fully as my arms would extend ; 

 his height was magnificent ; and, compared with fallow- 

 deer, he seemed a giant to a dwarf. The sun beamed 

 upon his deep bay side, as he continued describing 

 a circular course over the flat surface of the moor, till 

 reaching a rocky opening leading to the upper hills, 

 he plunged into the ravine, and we lost sight of him. 



What could have driven the red deer so low upon the 

 heath was marvellous. Excepting when disturbed by 

 a solitary hunter, or a herdsman in pursuit of errant 

 cattle, or driven from the summit of the hills by snow 

 and storm, those deer are rarely seen below the Alpine 

 heights they inhabit. But the leisure pace of the 



