THE RED DEEFS LIFE 29 



grass and strong wiry bents, besides heather where 

 they can get it. When Martindale was cropped with 

 extensive fields of oats, the deer used to break bounds, 

 and often inflicted considerable injury on the ripening 

 grain before it was carried. At the present time the 

 stags roam in winter in search of fields of turnips, 

 repeating their incursions night after night, in spite 

 of careful watching. Jackson tells me that in winter 

 he often spends several successive nights in herding 

 truant stags and driving them back to the hill. He 

 knows the likeliest directions in which to search with 

 success for the wandering animals ; but it would more 

 than tax his ability to keep the creatures within bounds 

 were it not that his labours are admirably seconded 

 by a trained sheep dog. This animal was broken to 

 deer when only eight months old, and has proved as 

 staunch as any mortal man could desire. Indeed, he 

 has been known to pick up a stag in the neighbour- 

 hood of Shap Fell, and to drive it back to Howtown, 

 keeping it at bay until the keeper had followed the 

 course on foot. Jackson himself is wise in deer-craft, 

 all of a local kind, it is true, but none the less service- 

 able. He is the third of his strain in the service of 

 the Hasell family; both his father (who died at a 

 great age) and his grand-uncle having adopted the 

 same vocation in life. He began to assist his father 



