548 MODERN FARRIER. 



Stag-hunting. 



Stag-hunting was for many ages deemed a royal 

 sport. Even his late majesty, king George the 

 Third, was fond of this amusement. Amongst the 

 turbulent noblemen in England and Scotland, the 

 hunting of the stag used often to be a pretext for 

 assembling to devise some grand political scheme. 



The greatest inducement to stag-hunting, in pre- 

 ference to any other, is the invariable certainty of a 

 good run ; but though a royal sport, it is deemed 

 by many too severe and arduous ; it is exceedingly 

 laborious to the horse, and, in a variety of cases, 

 equally so to the rider : difficulties frequently occur 

 which require great exertions in one, and no small 

 share of fortitude in the other. 



Himting, though originally a natural right, be- 

 came in after ages a privilege claimed by the great, 

 and guarded by the most cruel and arbitrary laws. 

 In the days of Canute, the hunting or coursing a 

 royal stag by a freem.an, v/as punished with the loss 

 of liberty for a year ; and if by a bondman, he was 

 outlawed. So severe were the forest-laws intro- 

 duced by William the Conqueror, that the death of 

 a beast of chase was deemed equally criminal with 

 the murder of a man ; and among other punish- 

 ments for offences against these laws (which were 

 afterwards repealed by Richard 1.) were castration, 

 loss of eyes, and cutting off both hands and feet. 

 Queen Elizabeth was rapturously fond of the chase, 

 and frequently followed the hounds, as remarked in 

 Mr. Eoland White's letter to Sir Robert Sidney, 

 wherein he observed that, ' her majesty is well and 

 excellently disposed to hunting, for every second 

 day she is on horseback, and enjoys tlie sport long.' 



