90 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



they belonged, or what they did, and where they 

 hunted, seemed to be circumstances so buried in 

 obHvion that your Commissioner was fain to 

 give up his inquiries on that subject in despair 

 — despair mitigated by the reflection that his 

 present mission was to describe the pursuit of 

 another animal than Lepus timidus — an animal 

 with which " timidus " has nothing in common, 

 saving a posthumous connection with the 

 currant jelly pot — and so to business. 



Whose fertile brain first suggested a stag 

 hunt in the Melton country this deponent sayeth 

 not, for the very best of good reasons. How- 

 ever, a stag hunt is now a fait accompli, and 

 with it we have to deal for the edification of 

 future generations. How the idea originated 

 remains at present a mystery. Still a notion 

 was widely disseminated that a chasse au cerf 

 would be a desirable finish to an unusually 

 severe season. At first (as I am informed) 

 there was a notion that Lord Wolverton would 

 import his blood hounds, and so give the gilded 

 youths of Melton one more chance of breaking 

 those necks by which they appear to set so little 

 store. But that idea fell through, not unreason- 

 ably, as the blood hounds had been enjoying a 

 long holiday, their master having spent most of 

 the season at Melton, and any collision between 

 them and the " customers " was considered un- 

 desirable. Then came, so I am told, a sugges- 

 tion in which the pack of harriers and a deer 

 figured harriers to be imported from a neigh- 

 bouring country. This notion also fell 

 through ; and if the Master of the said harriers 



