DEER-STALKING AND COURSING 



hold on the same waye and never turneth and wrencheth as a 

 Hare will do. . . .' 



The ' sidelayes ' took up the chase midway — it would make 

 considerable demand on the knowledge of deer and their 

 habits possessed by the man in charge to choose his station 

 — and the ' receytes or backsets ' came into action ' towards 

 the latter end of ye course.' These last were ' commonly let 

 slip full in the face of the Deare, to the end they may the more 

 amaze him : and so they with the help of the other teasers and 

 sidelayes may the better take hold on him all at once and pull 

 him doune.' 



The same sport was pursued under artificial conditions in 

 parks, hounds being slipped at deer in racecourse-like en- 

 closures constructed for the purpose : in this ' sidelayes and 

 backsets ' of hounds were not used. 



Deer-coursing was considered the noblest of all the High- 

 land sports, and had long been a favourite in the north and 

 west of Scotland ; but when Scrope wrote his famous Art of 

 Deer-Stalking in 1838 it had fallen into disuse, though pursued 

 in some parts of the country. This is the account of the 

 manner in which the sport was conducted as given to Scrope 

 by one of the few sportsmen who had had the good fortune to 

 enjoy it. The course described took place on the Isle of Jura 

 in August .^1835. Buskar, it may be mentioned, stood 28 

 inches at the shoulder, girthed 32 inches, and weighed, in 

 running condition, 85 lbs. : — 



' The direction in which we should proceed being agreed 

 upon, Finlay (than whom a better deer-stalker never trod the 

 heath) set out about fifty yards in advance, provided with a 

 telescope ; while the rest of the party followed slowly and 

 silently with the dogs in slips. We had thus proceeded up a 

 rocky glen for some miles, gradually ascending from the sea, 

 when the stalker descried (without the aid of his glass) a stag 

 about a mile off. He immediately prostrated himself on the 

 ground, and in a second the whole party laj^ flat on the heath ; 

 for even at that great distance we might have been discovered 



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