26 THE DAILY LIFE OF OFR FARM. 



he could to get her into his yard, but she was too 

 wary; and when he fetched his poaching piece, she 

 went off too, quite \sdde awake, with that chamois-like, 

 jumping step that you may see the Welsh mountain- 

 sheep do when suddenly alarmed. Dear, elegant thing ! 

 it was not all fun when you sprang so lightly over the 

 park-fence. Your life in the woods hath been a short 

 one, and, I doubt not, scarcely a merry one. By the 

 way, this reminds me that I saw, the other day, an 

 equal amount of contempt shown by a deer for the 

 wire-fencing to which our huntsmen object, but of a 

 different sort to what the porker showed. I- was can- 

 tering to see a friend on business. The road across 

 the park was bordered on both sides by a wire-fence. 

 The mansion stands 



"Upon a hill, a gentle hill 

 Green, and of mild declivity, the last, 

 As 'twere the cape of a long ridge of such," 



and which is washed on three sides by the winding 

 Wye. Under the wide-spreading branches of an aged 

 oak, amidst a thin bed of withered fern, lay an antlered 

 herd, with that restless movement of ear, and horn, and 

 tail, that characterises their repose. But just as I 

 approached, one sprang up, and making right up-hill 

 for the wire fence, which was higher than any gate, to 

 the horror of the hack I bestrode, came calmly flop 

 down upon the carriage drive before him. The poor 

 horse knew not quite what to do. He would fain have 

 swei'ved round had I allowed him ; and when, con- 

 strained by bit and heel, he came back to the fore, 

 he was trembling all over ; and why was it ? He had 

 earned laurels in an Irish steeplechase ; but he clearly 

 did not like this apparition in his path. Possibly he 



