CHAP, Xx.] ROE-HUNTING IN THE SANDHILLS, 167 
of him in the thicket behind him; the gentlemen, hearing the 
dogs, ran to their respective posts, and the roe came down the 
brae, passed between them unobserved, and crossed the water 
again; the dogs full cry and all together immediately behind 
them. Hark away! Hark away! was the cry, and away they 
did go, in a straight line towards the sea-shore. The buck 
(whom I constantly saw) appeared quite bewildered and was 
evidently getting distressed ; after a twenty minutes’ burst along 
the shore and the open part of the cover, he turned back and 
passed me within a hundred yards at a slow canter—the hounds 
had got well warmed to their work, and never lost the scent for 
amoment. The buck, after a great many turns and windings, 
was fairly driven to the swamp again, which he crossed this time 
quite slowly, stopping in the water every now and then, as if to 
cool himself; but the dogs did not leave him much time, and 
were soon at the edge of the water. The buck crouched down 
in the middle of a small heath-covered island in the water, which 
was here of a considerable width: the hounds, however, went 
tight across the water, and began trying for the scent along the 
opposite edge. I had seen the roe stop where he was, and ran 
down to call the hounds back, but before I could do so, one of 
the pack, a very excellent young bitch, whom I had got from the 
New Forest in Hampshire, gave a cast and got the wind of the 
roe, giving a quiet cheep, sufficient however to warn the rest of 
the pack, who all joined her; she trotted through the water 
straight up to the island, and very soon the whole of them in 
full cry were at the roe’s heels, and driving him directly in the 
face of one of the guns, who finished the hunt with a cartridge, 
killing him not twenty yards ahead of the dogs. When the roe 
was opened afterwards, the whole cartridge, wire and all, was 
found embedded in his heart, a proof of the great efficacy of this 
kind of charge. and the superiority of its strength over that of 
loose shot. 
After resting the dogs and talking over the chace, I left my 
friends at their passes again, and went back to draw the cover 
for another roe. The dogs were very soon in full cry again, and 
as luck would have it, out of four roe that had started they had 
got on the track of a fine buck ; this roe was run for sume time 
in as good style as the last, and after he had narrowly escaped 
