128 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



if he is still living, he has probably seen a 

 good many jackasses with hurdles on their heads 

 since. 



Unfortunately, the country to which the deer are 

 spreading does not lend itself to enjoyable hunting. 

 To begin with, it is cultivated, and therefore closed 

 to horsemen in the stag -hunting season, as the 

 crops are not yet harvested. Even in winter it is 

 unrideable. This is not because the fences are high 

 banks, for such are habitually negotiated in Wales, 

 Cornwall, and parts of Ireland. Here, unfortunately, 

 the banks are crowned with high stiff beech hedges 

 through which no horse can get. The deer and 

 hounds easily surmount these. No one who is not 

 familiar with the "deer racks" of Devon would 

 believe through what a small space a royal stag 

 will slip. Meanwhile the field are reduced to hope- 

 less macadamising, and pounding along roads which 

 generally follow the bottoms of deep valleys is a 

 very different matter to a gallop over the breezy 

 moor. 



This being, then, the habitat of the deer, let us 

 turn to the means by which they are brought to 

 bay, and firstly to the hounds. These are thorough- 

 bred fox-hounds, drafted from all the packs in Eng- 

 land.^ The only reason for which they have been 

 drafted is that they are too large for any English 

 pack of fox -hounds. They are, in fact, the giants 

 of the fox-hound world. In addition to their great 

 size, they possess the peculiarity of not having 

 their ears rounded or cut short, according to the 

 usual fashion. This gives the head a nobler appear- 

 ance. As is well known, all hounds take readily to 

 1 Of late years some have been bred at Exford. 



