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CHAPTER VI. 



A DOUBLE EVENT MY FIRST STAG AND A MEMOIR 

 OF LEGER DAY, 1875. 



As a book on stalking might be considered incom- 

 plete without some description of various days on the 

 hill, I have selected, as representative ones, four days 

 from my game book which seemed to me extra exciting 

 and varied. I do this with great diffidence, for I know 

 there are so many who could do it better : and before 

 further proceeding, I must ask the reader generously to 

 bear in mind that this is a first attempt, and that my 

 fingers are more accustomed to rifle, gun, and rod than 

 to the pen. 



I will start with the stalk that made the greatest 

 impression on me, as it has ever done on others, and 

 will ever do on many more, viz., my first stag. Nerv- 

 ously I hear the old hand exclaim, " Well ! that is 

 an ancient story ; and what can be said about it that 

 has not been said before ? " Veteran, let me attempt to 

 stir your pulses with the thoughts of days, for you, alas ! 

 gone by. Youthful novice, you will want no spur to 

 incite you onwards to that red-letter day in your sport 

 life, so let me try and tell how in one day I slew my 

 first stag, and won a thousand pounds, thus bringing 



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