DEER 1 1 3 



not be as rare a faculty as, say, water divining-, but a iiiaii 

 who really understands deer under the artificial and high- 

 feeding conditions of deer kept for hunting in jjuddocks is a 

 very valuable factor in a stag-hunting establishment. Nor 

 is it altogether a question of care and regular diet and ways. 

 There must be the sympathy of secret understanding between 

 the care-taker and the cared-for. The deer-keeper must be, 

 as it were, their familiar. I remember its being said of the 

 head-stableman in a livery yard, who seemed able to make 

 a bad doer thrive and to alter an ill-tempered horse's nature 

 from the moment he had anything to do with them, that he 

 told the horses little stories. A good deer-keeper must have 

 something of this about him, and at Swinley we are for- 

 tunate. 



I will conclude with a word as to exercising. The few 

 times a deer is hunted in a season will not keep him in 

 sufficiently good wind for the deep country he is expected to 

 show sport over. To my mind, deer should be exercised in 

 the paddock. During my time we had a bob-tailed lurcher 

 called Charlie. I think he was half greyhound, half collie. 

 Harvey bought him for a sovereign of a travelling tinker. 

 This was a wonderful dog to exercise deer, and such a 

 mover ! The deer and he were famous playfellows, and I 

 do not think you could have got him to touch one. Poor 

 Charlie, I heard the other day, had to be shot, being sus- 

 pected of dumb madness. I was very sorry, and I shall 

 always remember the good-humour of his innocent pursuit. 



