CHAP, xx.] ROE-HUNTING IN THE SANDHILLS. \W 



of him in the thicket behind him ; the gentlemen, hearing the 

 dogs, ran to their respective posts, and the roe came down the 

 brae, passed between them unobserved, and crossed the water 

 again ; the dogs full cry and all together immediately behind 

 them. Hark away ! Hark away ! was the cry, and away they 

 did go, in a straight line towards the sea-shore. The buck 

 (whom I constantly saw) appeared quite bewildered and was 

 evidently getting distressed ; after a twenty minutes' burst along 

 the shore arid the open part of the cover, he turned back and 

 passed me within a hundred yards at a slow canter the hounds 

 had got well warmed to their work, and never lost the scent for 

 a moment. The buck, after a great many turns and windings, 

 was fairly driven to the swamp again, which he crossed this time 

 quite slowly, stopping in the water every now and then, as if to 

 cool himself; but the dogs did not leave him much time, and 

 were soon at the edge of the water. The buck crouched down 

 in the middle of a small heath-covered island in the water, which 

 was here of a considerable width : the hounds, however, went 

 right across the water, and began trying for the scent along the 

 opposite edge. I had seen the roe stop where he was, and ran 

 down to call the hounds back, but before I could do so, one of 

 the pack, a very excellent young bitch, whom I had got from the 

 New Forest in Hampshire, gave a cast and got the wind of the 

 roe, giving a quiet cheep, sufficient however to warn the rest of 

 the pack, who all joined her ; she trotted through the water 

 straight up to the island, and very soon the whole of them in 

 full cry were at the roe's heels, and driving him directly in the 

 face of one of the guns, who finished the hunt with a cartridge, 

 killing him not twenty yards ahead of the dogs. When the roe 

 was opened afterwards, the whole cartridge, wire and all, was 

 found embedded in his heart, a proof of the great efficacy of tin's 

 kind of charge, and the superiority of its strength over that of 

 loose shot. 



After resting the dogs and talking over the chace, I left my 

 friends at their passes again, and went back to draw the cover 

 for another roe. The dogs were very soon in full cry again, and 

 as luck would have it, out of four roe that had started they had 

 got on the track of a fine buck ; this roe was run for some time 

 in as good style as the last, and after he had narrowly escaped 



