125 



CHAPTEE XVI. 



THE CHASE OF THE WILD DEER IN ENGLAND. 



The original stock of wild deer in Southern England, 

 which is only represented in most districts by the 

 contents of some gentlemen's private parks, as is 

 that of the wild cattle at Chillingham and else- 

 w^here, exists in its pristine state in two places 

 only. On the hills of Exmoor and the Quantocks, 

 and in the surrounding country, the red-deer abound. 

 In the New Forest there is a great head of fallow- 

 deer, and also a few red- and roe-deer, which last 

 are both of modern origin. 



Although there are some dozen packs of stag- 

 hounds whose meets are advertised each week in 

 the papers, only two of these concern themselves 

 with the wild deer.^ These are the Devon and 

 Somerset Staghounds, which hunt the red-deer, and 

 the New Forest Deerhounds, whose principal quarry 

 is the fallow-deer, though they kill one or two red- 

 deer every year. The remaining packs hunt a stag 

 or hind, which is turned out for the purpose, and 

 which generally returns home in its cart before 



^ Two Lancashire packs hunt " wild deer," but these are in both cases 

 feral. The Devon and Somerset lend some of their country to subsidiary 

 packs nowadays. 



