DEER 93 



keeper at Swinley described Sepoy to the ' Druid,' will have 

 you out of the bad country in a twinkling. Upon the other 

 hand, I must admit that the condition and temperament 

 of the Swinley deer — certainly their condition — sometimes 

 prevented us taking them. ' Where did you take him ? ' in 

 a stag-hunting district is the equivalent of the ' Killed the 

 fox, sir ? ' or the juvenile ' How many have you cotched ? ' 

 which is put to the fox-hunter so often, so good-naturedly 

 and so unselfishly, on his way home from hunting. 

 Taking the deer is, of course, the proper conclusion of a 

 day's stag-hunting. I admit that there is a certain flatness in 

 having to tell these kindly and interested questioners that you 

 have left the deer out. It sounds and is rather ineffectual. 



Whatever may be said against the long pilgrimage-like 

 dragging runs to which the athletic Swinley deer often treat 

 their followers, there is a certain satisfaction in bringing 

 such runs to their legitimate ending by taking the deer, and 

 a corresponding dissatisfaction about having to give him up. 

 It is nice, too, after a run like Bartlett treated us to on 

 January 27, 1892, from Hawthorn Hill to Stanford Dingley, 

 ten miles beyond Beading, to be able to bid good-night to 

 your good deer comfortably housed in the best loose box 

 about the place, up to his knees in long wheat straw. 

 There you know he will stay, the honoured guest of pleased 

 and sedulous hosts, until his carriage is announced some 

 time next day.' 



How well I can see and recall it all ! ' Ex uno disce 

 omnes.' As I run a rather unpractised eye for the third 

 time over the pack I come to the startling conclusion — 

 which however I keep to myself — that we have got a 



' Bartlett did not get back to Swinley until past four o'clock on the Saturday, 

 but he was not in the least stiff, and at once went in at his carrots, old beans, 

 and clover-hay in famous fashion. This deer was named after a family which 

 for a century had been associated with the Koyal pack. 



