HUNTING THE WILD RED DEER. 217 



been possessing their souls in patience so long. The hounds are 



set free, and the huntsman takes them off by paths he knows well 



to the distant moor. By the time they reach the spot where Jack 



stopped the tufters, twenty minutes, half-an-hour, possibly an hour 



may have passed since the deer went away. But they feather on 



the Hne at once, own to it with a whimper that swells into glorious 



melody as they feel the " titillating joy " of sweet scent that chngs 



to the heather ; and now you may ride, for they will take some 



catching if you are far behind them when they breast the next hill. 



Men who have been long at this game do not try to go straight 



down and up the steeps, where loose " shillets " clatter under hoofs 



at every stride, if they can get round more quickly and easily by 



skirting the Coombe. Following hounds over such a country, 



with its alternations of deep valleys, rugged ravines, and soft, if not 



boggy ridges, is an art that can only be acquired by practice, as 



many a Leicestershire man has found to his cost after riding his 



horse to a standstill in vain endeavour to live with hounds that 



seem to go so slowly. The pack will stick to their hunted deer, 



though he may run through almost interminable woodlands 



haunted by other herds. Though often at fault, these hounds turn 



quickly to every note of their huntsmen's horn, and puzzle out the 



tangled thread of scent again and again with wonderful sagacity, so 



that a stag once found rarely shakes them off. If he do not take 



refuge in the sea they will " set him up " before nightfall in some 



shadowy pool with his back to a rock, where he must fight for his 



life. And he does fight gallantly, with no trace of fear for the foes 



that clamour fiercely round him. When he takes to the sea by 



Bossington or Porlock or beautiful Glenthorn he swims so well that 



no hounds would ever overtake him if boats were not at hand to 



F f 



