CHAPTER XII. 



s 



THE CHASE OF THE WILD DEER IN ENGLAND. 



THE original stock of wild deer in England, which 

 is only represented in most districts by the contents 

 of some gentlemen's private parks, as is that of the 

 wild cattle at Chillingham and elsewhere, exists in its 

 pristine state in two places only. On the hills of 

 Exmoor and the Quantocks, and in the surrounding 

 country, the red deer abound. In the New Forest 

 there is a great head of fallow-deer, and also a few 

 red deer, which last are, however, of modern origin. 



Although there are a dozen packs of staghounds 

 whose meets are advertised each week in the papers, 

 only two of these concern themselves with the wild 

 deer. These are the Devon and Somerset Stag- 

 hounds, which hunt the red deer, and the New 

 Forest Deerhounds, whose principal quarry is the 

 fallow-deer, though they kill one or two red deer 

 every year. The remaining packs hunt a stag or hind, 

 which is turned out for the purpose, and which 

 generally returns home in its cart before night. 

 Amongst these are the Royal Buckhounds, so called, 

 I presume, because they never by any chance hunt 

 a buck. Need I explain that the male, female, and 



