STAG-HUNTING 



of the deer. The victim is dragged in triumph to the beach, 

 the knife is at his throat, and amid the baying of the pack, 

 and the loud whoo' whoops of the crowd, the noble and gallant 

 animal yields up his life.' 



The generally accepted idea that carted-deer hunting is 

 an invention of degenerate modernity is mistaken. The Royal 

 Buckhounds enlarged deer from a cart at the beginning of 

 George ii.'s reign. There are references in the Accounts of 

 the Great Wardrobe to the ' deer van ' or ' deer waggon ' as 

 far back as 1630, but there is nothing to show that this vehicle 

 was used for conveying the deer to the meet. It may have 

 been so used : but its main purpose was to convey deer which 

 had been caught in other royal forests to the park at Windsor. 

 The earliest mention of carted deer refers to Saturday, 14th 

 September 1728, when ' an elk ' (presumably a wapiti) was 

 uncarted at Windsor and gave a brilliant run : ' and from this 

 time forward carted deer were frequently used by the royal 

 pack. Hounslow Heath, Sunbury and Richmond were often 

 the scenes of meets to hunt a carted deer during the years 

 ensuing, and there is at least one mention of the deer being 

 enlarged at Epsom. In those days the deer cart, or ' waggon ' 

 as it was then called, was only brought into use when occasion 

 required. Until the end of the eighteenth century the system 

 varied : a deer was either cut out from a herd in the Park, was 

 turned out from Swinley paddocks and hunted therefrom, or 

 it was carted at Swinley and conveyed ' to such place and at 

 such time as may have been previously appointed.' 



Some very long runs have been given by deer. On 26th 

 January 1899, the Ripley and Knaphill got on the line of an 

 outlying hind near Lord Pirbright's house and ran her for 

 5 hours 40 minutes till whipped off at dark near Woking : 

 a thirty-miles point, and much more as hounds ran. During 

 February of the present year the Mid Kent took an outlier 

 after a thirty-mile run, and the Essex a few days later enlarged 

 a deer which gave a run of the same length. On 20th September 



' History of the Royal Buckhounds, by J. P. Hore. 



39 



