250 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



keeper, James Dewy, did on that day, in tearing up holts, at 

 times up to the waist in water, and then having to go in our 

 wet things a distance of six miles at dark with tired hounds, 

 was severer than I should like to undergo now, though there 

 is no saying what the view of an otter will j^roduce if I find 

 another. 



The buck - stalking in the New Forest was very perfect. 

 Nothing could be wilder than the ground, or latterly than the 

 deer, and I was obliged to adopt every kind of ruse to get a 

 shot, particularly when the keepers and their assistants were 

 killing every buck they could. At times I used to ride carelessly 

 towai'ds the deer and openly, caring nothing for the wind, 

 whistling and singing, like foi'est " marksmen " after ponies and 

 cattle ; and now and then the deer would be deceived by it, and 

 let me come within rifle distance, when I would watch my 

 opportunity when they nodded at a fly, or fed, and drop from 

 my horse into the heather. They would keep looking at the 

 horse, and a few minutes would elapse before the thought sti-uck 

 them that the rider was no longer in sight ; and, while they 

 were making up their minds on the state of affairs, the bullet 

 reached them. I saw one of these scenes very well told in the 

 Glozicester Chronkk, by an eye-witness. The dress of a woman 

 would at other times deceive them, and stalking with a horse 

 would often succeed, and I have killed many a buck from a 

 keepei-'s cart, the deer taking us for common wayfarers. In 

 approaching deer, if they mistake you for a mere passer-by, the 

 wind does not matter ; they see you are a man, and they expect 

 to scent you : but, in creeping to them unseen, the lightest air 

 must be cared for, for if they wind a man and do not see him 

 they are ever apprehensive that he has a design upon them. 

 Many a deer have I made sure of, when he was about to gallop 

 or trot by me, by a low short whistle. Not knowing there was 

 a man near him, and hearing a noise, so shortly given that its 

 whereabouts could not be at the instant defined, the deer was 

 sui-e to stop, to ascertain, by listening for the sound again, that 

 he was not running into danger, and then was the time for the 



