232 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



celebrated one, named Hawser, and, although the fallow deer 

 in the forest at that time were counted by thousands, he had 

 known him put on the slot of a slightly wounded buck, and he 

 would stick to him over a large portion of it, alone, hunting 

 tlirough all the different herds, and never changing until he 

 brought him to bay. They have lost him, and then late at 

 night heard his voice when he had brought the buck back and 

 *' set him up," and gone out and shot him. Mr. Nevill has tred 

 at times as many as eight and ten couple, and about the year 1850, 

 when the royal buck-hounds ceased to go into the New Forest, 

 Capt. Powell (since dead), Capt. Williams, and other gentlemen 

 living there, got permission to hunt the red deer, assem- 

 bled all the hounds left at the keepers' lodges, and formed them 

 into a pack, when Mr. Nevill sent his down to join them. I 

 remember hunting with them, and very good sport we had, but 

 I was too young then to take much notice of their style and 

 manner of hunting. Mr. JS^evill constantly turned out deer 

 before his, besides hunting hares with them, and in the summer 

 even rats in the hedges. I was a great deal with them, both at 

 that time and since, and the impression left on my mind was that 

 they were very shy of strangers, very independent in their 

 notions of hunting — that is, more inclined to take their own 

 line, and make a separate cast for themselves, than be guided 

 either by what the huntsman or their companions were doing — 

 and that there was none of that dash and drive in them which is 

 such a characteristic of the fox-hound. Moreover, they were 

 inclined to be soft and give up, which no doubt was the result 

 of many generations of breeding in and in. Some of them were 

 intelligent, and very fine-tempered, and one I remember Mr. 

 Nevill had confidence enough in to put on the line of a man 

 who had stolen some turkeys one night, on which he opened 

 and ran freely ; but after a short pursuit, finding the thief had 

 dropped his prize, no doubt from fright, the hound was stopped. 

 They would run a drag very well, but the man or boy was always 

 allowed time to get to a safe refuge in a tree before they could 



