154 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



opinion is that sport in the New Forest might be 

 greatly improved by reducing the head of deer. This 

 would at all events lessen the chances of changing, 

 which so frequently spoils a run there. The hounds 

 seem to give no particular preference to the scent 

 of the hunted deer, which the Devon and Somerset 

 pack certainly do. So do the French packs which 

 hunt the roe. The master of a Brittany pack told 

 me this was effected by never checking the young 

 hounds when they change on to a fresh deer. Ex- 

 perience soon teaches them that that way they catch 

 nothing, and they thus learn to stick to the hunted 

 deer. 



Nor should the thinning of the deer be carried 

 out by stalking or any quiet method. It should be 

 pursued with a pack of noisy little hounds, bassets 

 for choice, and only carried out in the big woodlands 

 where these gregarious animals congregate. Not only 

 would the deer diminish in numbers, but the fawns, 

 which would pass the guns uninjured, would learn 

 to seek safety from hounds by leaving the woodlands. 

 In other words, they would learn the lesson foxes 

 are taught in the cub hunting season. Also the deer, 

 who are now mostly collected within a small radius, 

 would take to more outlying parts of the Forest to 

 obtain the peace which would be denied them in 

 their present quarters, and would thence give long 

 and fine runs. 



From the riding point of view, the New Forest 

 sport is as far inferior to the moorland runs of the 

 Exmoor pack, as it is superior to those they often 



