238 FOREST OF BLAIR. 



to his grace, or the forester, the dog or dogs 

 are laid to the slot, or track ; if the deer has 

 not broke from the herd, the greyhounds 

 will single him out from the others if there 

 be a thousand of them together, and will not 

 look at any other but that deer which is 

 wounded : sometimes he will run a mile or 

 two before the dogs bring him to bay, there 

 they will keep him till the forester comes up 

 and cuts the deer's throat, and the dogs' re- 

 ward is the hot blood, which makes them 

 eager and keen. 



The deer thus killed is paunched and laid 

 across a horse and tied on ; his grace has 

 always two or three of those horses and men 

 following at a distance in order to carry home 

 the slain of the day. Some days he kills 

 from four to six harts, weighing from twenty to 

 twenty-five stone English weight, viz. fourteen 

 pounds to the stone ; and I have seen seve- 

 ral brought home to Blair-castle that cut on 

 the haunches three inches and more of solid 

 fat. 



