240 COVERT-STDE SKETCHES. 



although parties were made to shoot them, it was very seldom 

 that anytliing more than a fawn or two could be brought to 

 bag. I fancy, however, that for those who like " woodland 

 hunting," — and there are many who do — some very good sport 

 might have been had by running them down with suitable 

 hounds, by which I mean hounds that would stick to the line 

 in thick covert without much assistance, and throw their 

 tongues very freely to let you know what they were doing. 

 Slow work, no doubt, to those who hunt only to ride, but 

 certainly not slower than cub-hunting ; and, moreover, it could be 

 indulged when prudence, as well as common humanity, says 

 that foxes must not be interfered with. ''Damage to farmers' 

 crops," I hear some one say. My answer is that, when in the 

 open, though the deer and hounds may go a little into standing 

 corn, there would be no occasion for the horsemen to do so, and 

 a haunch of prime fat venison in good season Avould heal any 

 sore that was occasioned in that way. Certainly Lincolnshire is 

 not the country one would select for this kind of sport, but there 

 are, or were, the deer, wild and ready to hand, setting the 

 gunners at defiance. In a part of Yorkshire, hunted, I believe, 

 by Lord Middleton, which is very wild, hilly, and covered with 

 moorland, I have also been told that there are enough deer to 

 interfere with fox-hounds, and this would be a still more favour- 

 able place for hunting them. The hound I should select for the 

 sport is a cross of the large, blue-mottled, slow harrier, such as 

 is found in the north-west counties, and the fox-hound — a 

 hound I have seen hunt with dash enough for this kind of 

 work, where he could not be over-ridden, and yet have 

 plenty of music. I have in my mind's eye now the way in 

 which one so bred, and hunted with a pack of nearly pure 

 Southern hounds, for whom, of course, he was too fast, flung 

 forward on the scent, and took the gates in his stride. What 

 sort of sport a good fallow buck would be likely to show will 

 be found further on, when I come to describe the fallow deer as 

 now hunted. I may say at once that I have noticed several 



