no STAG -HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



Bartlett was master deer during my time, having bested a 

 deer called Blackback. Attached as we all were to Guy 

 Fawkes, who had quite as much guile as his namesake and 

 more personality about him than the others, I think Bartlett 

 was the best and the most reliable deer during my IMastership. 

 The other crack deer in my time were Lord Clanwilliam, 

 Blackback, and Kunaway. The latter got his name from 

 a remarkable exploit. Half an hour after his first arrival at 

 Swinley he was startled by the crack of a whip, and jumped 

 out over eight feet of oaken paling. He was out for some 

 weeks before he was taken after a capital run. I remember 

 seeing Guy Fawkes jump a frowning, tarred, Masterman 

 Ready-ish palisade within which the proprietor of the villa so 

 often sees fit to entrench himself, which must have been over 

 seven feet high. I also saw a deer jump a solid brick wall 

 out of the high road near Chalfont St. Giles, off the foot- 

 path. It was a continuous brick wall, coped at the top, and 

 looked quite unjumpable. 



The beasts which roam over the plain 

 My form with indifference see ; 

 They are so unacquainted with men 

 Their tameness is shocking to me. 



But the tameness and indifference which often shock the 

 stag-hunter can hardly be accounted for by Alexander 

 Selkirk's theory. The Windsor deer are as accustomed to 

 civilisation, the Queen's lieges, and the latest fashions, as the 

 sheep in Hyde Park. It is just the same when they get to 

 Swinley ; there is lots going on past the paddocks. Ascot 

 week is quite a gala, and the deer pay an inquisitive and 

 pleased attention to the smart ladies and gentlemen and car- 

 riages driving past their pleasant precincts on their way to the 

 races. I mentioned elsewhere the ' exhibitions of uncommon 

 strength ' of an unnamed Georgian deer in and out of the 

 back-gardens and drying-grounds of Staines. Perhaps this 



