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almost 30 miles, and in about two miles more took him,
though not before he received a mortal wound from his horns:
The deer was then brought to Dalemain, where he died in
about three hours, and, when opened, was found to have
almost all his suet melted.
So hot are their bodies in rutting-time, that they seek for
watery places to cool themselves in, where they will lay
themselves down and tumble a considerable time; and if it is
not a running stream, you may see a quantity of grease on
top of the water afterwards. They never copulate with the
doe, or ever interfere with the buck. In rutting-time
they have a strange croaking voice, to make love with,
(which they never use at any other time) and which will
admit of no description or comparison, but is inexpressibly
disagreeable. They can leap an amazing high wall or hedge,
but do not go to it like other creatures, in a direct line,
but in an oblique manner. Joseph Powley, the deer-keeper,
about nine years ago, observing a stag lying in his corn,
went home, brought a couple of hounds, and opening the gate
into the field, let go his dogs; they soon roused the deer,
who run straight to the gate, which Powley held in his hand
half open, the deer not perceiving him till he was close to
the gate, and not having time to turn, jumped over his head:
he says he was so frightened, that he does not know if he
stooped or not when the deer went over him, and he had not
time to run away: he drove two stakes into the ground,
between the first and last slotts *, which I measured
to a little more than twelve yards; the stakes I suppose are
yet standing: Powley was a man six feet two inches high.
They gain a point to their horn every year, till they are
five years old, when they are called a Stag at all Points,
(see the names;) after seven years old they loose a point
every year to thirteen, when their horns become smooth
without any antlets, yet the horn is long. Now whether after
that age, they are called a High Deer's Grease or
not, they must be better heralds than me that know: I need
not tell the reader, that all manner of deer cast their
horns every year, it is a thing so well known: the hind goes
twenty-seven weeks with young, the doe twenty-one. The
fallow-deer go in herds in the same manner, with only this
difference, that after they have cast their horns, till
rutting-time, the bucks go chiefly together, and the does
and prickets by themselves; these observations cannot be
made where deer are tame in parks, and made familiar. The
fawn when very young, is left by its dam hid in little
shrubs, or rushes, where it squats like a hare so close,
that you may frequently take them up; but when they gather
strength they follow their dams: the bucks fight in like
manner as the stags, and as desperately, and so watchful are
they of each other, that you may frequently get close enough
to them to hit them with your cane or walking stick. The
fallow-deer keeps always near the ground where he is bred,
and does not ramble about for better pasture, unless in
Winter; they, like the red deer have a fine smell, and one
would almost believe that they could smell a turnip field a
mile off. I have seen in a morning in Gowbarrow, when a buck
or two have the night before left the park and found out a
turnip-field, that the other deer, upon their arrival, would
have met them, and smelling their mouths and feet
immediately set off, and hunt their track all the way back
to the field where the others had come from, snuffing the
ground like a hound: when they came there they would not
have stayed, but made great speed back again; but when the
evening came they were sure to be in the turnip
field. I have observed, (and several others likewise)
that the best and fattest deer are seldom to be seen about
the time of killing, viz. July and August; they then harbour
in the day-time upon the tops of the mountains, amongst tall
heath, in the form of a hare, with their horns on each side
their shoulders; or amongst thickets, so close that you may
pass them within a few yards, and if you do not discover
them, will lye quietly: one particular instance I was
present at, when above thirty men together passed a buck
they were seeking within about six or seven yards; two men a
very little behind were leading a hound, which took the wind
of him, gave mouth, and dislodged him immediately, to the
astonishment of those who passed him. I do not think they
know the hunting-season, but believe with the gentleman who
made his observations on the great stag at Killingworth,
"that finding themselves fat and unwieldy, consequently
unfit for flying, keep from the sight of their enemy as
naturally as the hare maketh her doublings when hunted." The
buck is much more lustful than the stag; and if a buck that
is not master of an herd chanceth to get a doe singled out
into a corner, he will keep her there as in prison, till she
submits to his will; if she offers to escape he runs at her
with his head, snorting with his nostrils, and threatening
vengeance. I have relieved several from their
confinement, and soon as the doe by my assistance could get
a little from him, she would have roared hideously as a
signal; he would at the same time pursue her, and sometimes
overtaking her, force her to cease her voice and lye down,
and then he would lye down beside her; after finding the
master deer has heard the signal, he signifieth his approach
to her relief by his croaking voice, and generally makes all
the speed he can: I have known him to seek for them in that
couched situation several minutes before he found them: upon
his coming to the doe she gets up, and trots with him to the
herd; but he seldom offers any insult to the lesser deer,
except a look of contempt; though I have sometimes known a
battle ensue such delivery. I one time, in attempting to
release a doe from such a situation, was assaulted by the
buck, who came furiously towards me: when at a distance of
about ten yards I was forced to discharge my fowling-piece
at him, which I believe took out both his eyes, yet I was
obliged to make the wall, to the foot of which he came by
the help of his nose, for I think he could not see me.
Some of my readers no doubt will say, I have got upon a
hobby-horseical subject: it perhaps may be agreeable to some
of them; for my own part, I am never wearied with researches
into
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