THE HUNTED STAG. 145 



enlargement of the antlers year by year. 

 The divergence is probably due to the 

 peculiar nature of the country where the red 

 deer are now alone found wild in England, 

 and which, as already explained, is singularly 

 exposed and cold in winter. Even there a 

 difference is observed between the horns of 

 the stags feeding; in enclosed ground and 

 those that lie in the North Forest ; that is? 

 on the highest moors. The ancient writers, 

 recording the experience of their own times, 

 when there were wild deer in every part, 

 referred to the growth of antlers in England 

 at large, and not in one district only. Some 

 of these books, too, seem to contain evidence 

 that the contents were partially transcribed 

 from a work originally written in Norman- 

 French, and probably in France, where deer 

 may develope their horns in a slightly 

 different sequence. Norman - French may 

 still be continually traced in hunting terms ; 

 the word ' soil,' for instance, which is said of 

 a stag bathing, was anciently written soule. 



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