DEER- STALKING. 17 



much thereof as shall reach up to our ancles, pricking 

 the upper part thereof with holes, that the water may 

 repass where it enters, and stretching it up with a 

 strong thong of the same above our ancles. So, and 

 please your Grace, we make our shoes. Therefore 

 we using such manner of shoes, the rough haiiy side 

 outwards, in your Grace's dominions of England we 

 be called ' Rough-footed Scots.'" 



In Ireland there is still a solitaiy remnant of 

 wild stag hunting, followed much after the fashion of 

 the early days of the sport. This is pursued on the 

 banks of the lake of Killarney with much zest. It is 

 said that the French invasion (in 1708) of that comitry, 

 placed so many arms in the hands of the western pea- 

 santry, as to occasion the extermination of the red 

 deer of this locality. For, still keeping their weapons 

 of offence after the danger was over, they turned them 

 upon these noble animals. An anecdote is related of 

 the immense power of the wild stag. The Emperor 

 Basilius was attacked by a red deer of great size, 

 which lifted him from his horse by merely entangling 

 one of his horns in the sovereign's belt : although the 

 Emperor was quicldy released from his enemy by the 

 assistance of his equerry, the bruises received in 

 the attack proved incurable. The Normans hunted 

 the wild stag on horseback at a time they had 

 not universally retreated to such mountain-holds 

 as Klibreck, Ben- Avon, Ben-Nevis, and the wild and 

 almost inaccessible reaches of Applecross and Gair- 

 loch. Such haunts would affright the boldest rider, 



