10 



inclination, to keep and study the red deer, respecting 

 which there yet remains a great deal to be learnt. 

 There certainly is not a more noble creature existing 

 than a seven or eight year old stag (with all his rights — 

 which, by the bye, is not now to be seen,) especially 

 on his first being roused and breaking covert, just 

 after he has lost his velvet, which takes place early in 

 September. Indeed it is a sis^ht which must be 

 witnessed to be described ; and the pursuit of such an 

 animal is well worthy of Royalty, as it was wont to be 

 in ancient times. 



I last season witnessed a most splendid chase of 

 several hours, after which the stag w^as taken in a 

 bedroom at Minehead, and I was somewhat surprised 

 on viewing his head — having a brow and bay, no tray, 

 with three points on top of one horn, and two on the 

 other — to find his beam small, and antlers short, while 

 the horn was of a dark colour. Now, how can this 

 be accounted for ? I believe from the following : a 

 few years since I was informed that a number of red 

 deer (which I then understood were foreign, but have 

 since learnt were from Cheshire) were procured and 

 set free among the different herds of wild deer in 

 Devon and Somerset. These stags (for I beHeve they 

 were mostly, if not all, male deer,) had shorter horns with 

 generally only a brow and bay, and of a dark colour. 

 I once saw a pair of their horns, but they bore no 

 comparison to those I had hitherto had under my 

 inspection. Why, or for what reason the animals 



