116 DATS OF DEER-STALKING. 



to interfere with his equanimity, or to disturb the coolness 

 and self-possession which at such moments are more than 

 ever necessary to his operations. 



And that he may preserve in all their due vigour and 

 steadiness these indispensable qualities, he should add to 

 them in his hours of leisure and refreshment the further 

 graces of temperance and moderation. And here condemn 

 me not, ye joyous editors of Maga, if I restrict my stalker 

 to moderate libations after his toil. 



Odogherty, be merciful; Christopher, put down thy 

 bristles ; for lo, I will not limit him as Sir Humphry does his 

 fisherman, to the philosopher's half-pint of claret ; but, if 

 he exceed it, 'tis at his own peril. Wine and poetry go 

 joyously together. Bacchus and Apollo were aye boon com- 

 panions; but I never heard of Diana having attached herself 

 to the jolly god, or of an amour between Hebe and Adonis. 

 Hard work upon wine will parch up the body, and make 

 the hand ricketty you ken that yoursel', Christopher. A 

 keen deer-stalker's walk will keep a horse in a pretty 

 decent trot, and his run changes that trot into a gallop, a 

 sort of eclipse pace. Would you then have him Bacchi 

 plenus ? Yes, I verily believe you would. Well, my good 

 Anacreon, only just try that system yoursel' a wee bit. 

 During the first week, your mouth will be drinking bog- 

 water in every black pool you can find ; in the next, 

 your flesh will vanish from your solitary bones ; and, in the 

 third yes, in the third, at latest you will die by spon- 

 taneous combustion. 



The best part of a bottle of champagne may be allowed 

 at dinner : this is not only venial, but salutary. A few 

 tumblers of brandy and soda-water are greatly to be com- 

 mended, for they are cooling. Whiskey cannot reasonably 

 be objected to, for it is an absolute necessary, and does not 

 come under the name of intemperance, but rather, as Dog- 

 berry says, or ought to say, " it comes by nature." Ginger 

 beer I hold to be a dropsical, insufficient, and unmanly 

 beverage ; I pray you avoid it ; and as for your magnums 

 and pottle-deep potations, why, really at this season of the 

 year, as Captain Bobadil says, " We cannot extend thus 

 far." When the nerves are unsteady, the rifle in the sports- 



