THE DEER KIND. 



261 



summer; and in winter, the hind, and all the 

 mnls uudi-r a year old, keep together, and 

 assemble in herds, which are more numerous 

 in proportion as the season is more severe. 

 In the spring they separate; the hinds to 

 bring forth, while none but the year olds re- 

 main together ; these animals are, however, 

 in general, fond of herding and grazing in 

 company ; it is danger or necessity alone that 

 separates them. 



The dangers they have to fear from other 

 animals, are nothing when compared to those 

 from man. The men of every age and nation 

 have made the chase of the stag one of their 

 most favourite pursuits; and those who first 

 hunted from necessity, have continued it for 

 amusement. In our own country, in particu- 

 lar, hunting was ever esteemed as one of the 

 principal diversions of the great." At first, 

 indeed, the beasts of chase had the whole 

 island for their range, and knew no other 

 limits than those of the ocean. 



The Roman jurisprudence, which Avas form- 

 .ed on the manners of the first ages. est.Uished 

 it as a law, that, as the natural right of things 

 which have no master, belongs to the first 

 possessor, wild beasts, birds, and fishes, are 

 the property of whosoever could first take 

 them. But the northern barbarians, who 

 overran the Roman empire, bringing with 

 them the strongest relish for this amusement, 

 and, being now possessed of more easy means 

 of subsistence from the lands they had con- 

 quered, their chiefs and leaders began to ap- 

 propriate the right of hunting, and, instead of 

 a natural right, to make it a royal one. When 

 the Saxon kings, therefore, had established 

 themselves in a heptarchy, the chases were 

 reserved by each sovereign for his own par- 

 ticular amusement. Hunting and war, in 

 those uncivilized ages, were the only employ- 

 ment of the great. Their active, but uncul- 

 tivated minds, were susceptible of no plea- 

 sures but those of a violent kind, such as 

 gave exercise to their bodies, and prevented 

 the uneasiness of thinking. But as the Saxon 

 kings only appropriated those lands to the 

 business of the chase which were unoccupied 

 before, so no individuals received any injury. 

 But it was otherwise when the Norman kings 



a British Zoology. 



were settled upon the throne. The passion 

 for hunting was then carried to an excess, 

 and every civil right was involved in general 

 ruin. This ardour for hunting was stronger 

 than the consideration of religion even in a 

 superstitious age. The village communities, 

 nay, even the most sacred edifices, were 

 thrown down, and all turned into one vast 

 waste, to make room for animals, the objects 

 of a lawless tyrant's pleasure. Sanguinary 

 laws were enacted to preserve the game ; 

 and, in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry 

 I. it was less criminal to destroy one of the 

 human species than a beast of chase. Thus 

 it continued while the Norman line filled the 

 throne ; but when the Saxon line was restor- 

 ed, under Henry II. the rigour of the forest- 

 laws were softened. The barons also for a 

 long time imitated the encroachments, as well 

 as the amusements, of the monarchs ; but 

 when property became more equally divided, 

 by the introduction of arts and industry, these 

 extensive hunting grounds became more li- 

 mited; and as tillage and husbandry increased, 

 the beasts of chase were obliged to give way 

 to others more useful to the community. 

 Those vast tracts of land, before dedicated 

 to hunting, were then contracted ; and, in 

 proportion as the useful arts gained ground, 

 they protected and encouraged the labours 

 of the industrious, and repressed the licen- 

 tiousness of the sportsman. It is^ therefore, 

 among the subjects of despotic government 

 only, that these laws remain in full force; where 

 large wastes lie uncultivated for the purpose 

 of hunting; where the husbandman can find 

 no protection from the invasions of his lord, or 

 the continual depredations of those animals 

 which he makes the objects of his pleasure. 

 In the present cultivated state of this coun- 

 try, therefore, the stag is unknown in its wild 

 natural state ; and such of them as remain 

 among us are kept, under the name of red deer, 

 in parks among the fallow-deer. But they 

 are become less common than formerly ; its 

 excessive viciousness, during the rutting sea- 

 son,and the badness of its flesh, inducing most 

 people to part with the species. The few 

 that still remain wild, are to be found on the 

 moors that border on Cornwall and Devon- 

 shire ; and in Ireland, on most of the large 

 mountains of that country. 

 2U 



