CANINE INSTINCT 227 



miles from the town. The deer took a line across 

 the country towards Winslow and Buckingham, 

 and on to Bletchley, where he was captured after a 

 very severe run of two hours. The horse I was riding 

 that day, was a well known old hunter, who tired 

 near to Winslow, and I was obliged to give it up. On 

 my return through the village of Hogston, I observed 

 in a field a stray hound wandering about, which I tried 

 to persuade into following me, but did not succeed. 

 That evening, when talking with Mr. Davis, the 

 celebrated Royal huntsman, his first whip, Harry 

 Freeman, came to him and said that one of the 

 hounds was missing. On my asking him if it was a 

 light coloured hound I was answered ' Yes, it was 

 Dairymaid.' I then informed him of what I had 

 seen at Hogston, and Freeman was directed to look 

 out for her. The next day Mr. Davis received 

 a letter from his wife, stating that they were 

 awakened that morning, about five o'clock, by the 

 crying of a hound, and one of the men discovered 

 Dairymaid at the door of the kennels. Here 

 was a marvellous proof of a ' homing instinct ' 

 which was most surprising. The dog had been 

 brought in a covered van for forty miles, along a 

 turnpike road ; taken for eight miles in an oppo- 

 site direction to the meet, then, crossing a wild 

 country, to Whaddon Chase ; and from two 

 o'clock in the afternoon, when I saw her, she must 

 have travelled at least fifty miles over a perfectly 

 strange country, and by three o'clock the next 

 morning, in a dark November night, she arrived 



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