86 RED DEER. 



confess to having shot a deer. So greatly has 

 popular opinion changed during the last 

 seven-and-twenty years on Exraoor that at 

 the present day Avere a man to shoot a stag 

 he would be utterly sent to Coventry. No 

 one would speak or deal with him or 

 acknowledge his existence. He would be 

 utterly cut off from society of every class, 

 not only the upper but the lower classes 

 being equally imbued with the sporting 

 feeling. 



Nor, indeed, is there any possibility of 

 poaching. A stag is a large animal which 

 cannot be put in a pocket like a hare, nor 

 cooked and eaten at once. The skin and 

 antlers, slot and head, are not to be easily 

 destroyed. No one would buy a stolen deer, 

 knowing the inevitable consequences ; and as 

 there are no receivers — as there are of 

 poached pheasants — there are no thieves. 

 Even the labouring classes have not the least 

 desire to destroy them ; on the contrary, they 

 know full well that the stag-hunting is profit- 



