22 ERCHLESS AND FARLEY, 1916 



morning. He said " Yes," and I suggested his 

 taking one of us if there was time. " If we start 

 at once," he replied; so I let the other two toss for 

 it, and Herbert won, and off he went with Matheson 

 and Sandy Forbes and the pony for one of the 

 most remarkable afternoons in the annals of 

 stalking of which more anon. Farley Wood 

 was not driven in vain, for at the second drive 

 (the east beat) Susan and I were in the ambush 

 under the larch when a very fine switch came 

 trotting out about 100 yards to my left, and as 

 he would not stand, I fired just before he was 

 going to disappear behind a ridge, and to my 

 indescribable delight rolled him over with a bullet 

 behind the shoulder, and he was dead when we 

 got up to him. Never shall I forget the delirium 

 of rolling him over ! After long agony a kill at 

 last, and the spell of ill-luck and bad shooting 

 was over. Curious it was my first day with Davie 

 this season he had charge of the drives and we 

 were always lucky together. Poor old Merton 

 did not get a shot we saw no other beasts except 

 hinds but needless to say he was delighted that 

 the run of bad luck was broken. Our stag weighed 

 15 stone 10 pounds, and his head is in my hall 

 vis-d-vis to the big 9-pointer killed in the same 

 drive last year. 



And now for Herbert and Matheson. They had 

 found a good 10-pointer on the south side of the 

 West Hill rather near the Erchless March, and 



