HUNTING THE STAG 



Hark forward, hark, forward, tantivy ! 

 This day a stag must die. 



Anonymous l%th-Century Song. 



Hunting the Deer in Olden Times <:> 



THEN the chase was followed through glen 

 and glade, dell and dingle, by lonesome 

 windings of the thicket, where, at other times, 

 no sound but the voices of wild beasts and birds 

 was heard, or the roaring of the wind among the 

 trees, or the low murmuring of the forest-brook, 

 as it flowed on through chequered light and shade. 

 For there were spots in these dreaming old woods, 

 where a deep twilight ever reigned — twilight 

 caused by the trees that rose high one above 

 another, branch over-shadowing branch, until all 

 below was dim green darkness, and you could not 

 see what flowers bloomed beneath the buried under- 

 wood. Past these solitudes the hunter rode, and 

 the hounds went baying in pursuit of the panting 

 stag, who sometimes broke his horns through the 

 speed with which he dashed among the overhanging 

 branches. And lovely ladies, who have been dead 

 and buried long centuries ago, quitted their strong 

 castles and old feudal halls, and galloped with the 

 cavalcade through the green forest-paths in pursuit 

 of the deer. 



Thomas Miller, 

 ii6 



