RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



up wind or down, although when exhausted they 

 turn their heads to the cold air that serves to 

 breathe new life into their nostrils. Perhaps, if 

 anything, they prefer to feel the breeze blowing 

 against their sides, but as to this there is no more 

 certainty than in their choice of ground. Other 

 wild animals go to the hill ; deer will constantly 

 leave it for the vale. I have seen them fly, 

 straight as an arrow, across a strongly enclosed 

 country, and circle like hares on an open down. 

 Sometimes they will not run a yard till the hounds 

 are at their very haunches ; sometimes, when 

 closely pressed, they become stupid with fear, or 

 turn fiercely at bay. " Have we got a good deer 

 to-day.'*" is a question usually answered with the 

 utmost confidence, yet how often the result is 

 disappointment and disgust. Nor is this the case 

 only in that phase of the sport which may be 

 termed artificial. A wild stag proudly carrying 

 his "brow, bay, and tray" over Exmoor seems 

 no less capricious than an astonished hind, en- 

 larged amongst the brickfields of Hounslow, or 

 the rich pastures that lie outstretched below 

 Harrow-on-the-Hill. One creature, familiar with 

 every inch of its native wastes, will often wander 

 aimlessly in a circle before making its point ; the 

 other, not knowing the least where it is bound, 

 will as often run perfectly straight for miles. 

 My own experience of " the calf," as it has been 



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