CHAPTER III. 



STAG-HUNTING. 



The inliabitants of Devon and Somerset will, doubtless, 

 blame us for having given the priority to fox-hunting 

 over stag-hunting, and will tell us with truth that the 

 deer was a fashionable and favourite beast of venery 

 long before fox-hunting was dreamt of. On the other 

 hand, the men who follow hounds in the fashionable 

 shires are sometimes apt to sneer at stag-hunting, 

 forgetting that hunting the wild red deer on Exmoor 

 and the Quantocks is very different to galloping after 

 the carted deer in the neighbourhood of Ascot. But 

 we will not compare the quality of the two sports. 

 Our order of treatment was based on quantity, and as 

 there is much in common between fox-huntinoj, stasj- 

 hunting, and hare-hunting, we shall confine ourselves, 

 while describinn^ the two latter branches of huntincf' 

 to pointing out how they differ from fox-hunting. First 

 of all, we v/ill describe stag-hunting proper, i.e. the 

 pursuit of the wild red deer, and afterwards, hunting 

 the carted deer ; though we state at once that we shall 

 not take any part in the controversy anent the Eoyal 

 Buckhounds. The controversy is brought annually 

 before our notice, like Christmas bills and Christmas 

 boxes, which we either delegate to the waste-paper 

 basket or grumble about. Whether hunting the carted 



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