432 . HUNTING. 



belly, permit the hounds to pass by him without 

 offering to stir. But the beauty of form and ele- 

 gance of motion of the " favourite roe," which 

 Solomon has made an emblem of connubial attach- 

 ment, ought to protect it from the chase, although 

 they do not appear to have done so in the country 

 in which Solomon wrote, as he recommends to the 

 man who has engaged to be surety for his neigh- 

 bour, to deliver himself " as a roe from the hand of 

 the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the 

 fowler."*"* There has been only one pack of roe-buck 

 hounds kept in Great Britain, and that was by a 

 gentleman of the name of Pleydell, of Whatcombe 

 House, near Blandford, Dorsetshire, lately decea- 

 sed, in whose covers these animals abounded, as 

 they also do in various parts of Scotland. 



Otter Hunting. — Hunting the otter was a sport 

 much thought of in England, and is of very early 

 date, chiefly perhaps for the great value formerly 

 set on fresh-water fish, previously to that of the sea 

 being so generally available throughout the country 

 as it has been within the last hundred years, and 

 continues to be still more so. The system of hunt- 

 ing the otter is this : The sportsmen go on each 

 side of the river, beating the banks and sedges with 

 the hounds. If there be an otter near, his " seal" 

 (foot) is soon traced on the shore; and, when found, 

 he is attacked by the sportsmen with spears, when 

 he "vents,"*"* that is, comes to the surface of the 

 water to breathe. If he be not soon found by the 

 river side, it is conjectured he is gone to " couch"*"* 



