HARBOURING AND TUFTING. 139 



** old Blackmore at last condescends to help us in our 

 forlorn hope. A small three-cornered piece of gorse 

 lies close below the drive by Deer Park (a part of the 

 cover so named). We have been shouting and cheer- 

 ing the hounds, laughing and talking for the last half 

 hour round this spot, and when Jim says that the deer 

 very often lie here, and that we had better try it, we 

 are all inclined to smile. Had it been any other than 

 he who proposed such a thing we should have laughed 

 in his face. But Jim seems to be infallible, he winds 

 them there ; beyond all doubt he knows they are there; 

 and to make matters more ridiculous, the tufters being 

 tired and shirking the furse, in goes old Jim himself, 

 and before he has gone five yards up jump two lash- 

 ing hinds from under his feet.'* On another occasion 

 it is recorded that " that wonderful old hound Black- 

 more " found a stag alone, without a hound to help 

 him. No deer had been harboured, and the hounds 

 had already drawn a cover apparently blank, when 

 Jim hit the slot of a stag and hunted him straight 

 into his bed. Both these occurrences took place early 

 in Mr. Bisset's time ; but either might happen again 

 so far as the deer are concerned, for no one who has 

 not experience has any idea how close a deer will lie to 

 avoid hounds. . 



