$ CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 



qiioddam ligmmi furcatmn cervos de inorind defunctos 



m foresta Regis de Exmore, ac etiam hospitandi 



pauperes supervenientes de infirmitate debilitates 



sumptibus suis propriis pro animabus antecessorum 



domiiii Edwardi Regis.' * 



The earliest record I have found of the existence 



of a pack of staghounds in this district is in the 



year 1598, when Hugh Pollard, Esquire, ranger 



of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth, 



of glorious memory, bluff Harry's ' man-minded 



offset,' who 



'rose 



To chase the deer at five,' 



kept a pack of stags at Simonsbath. The virgin 

 Queen, as the poet laureate intimates, and as is well 

 known, was no ordinary lover of the chase, and at 

 the age of seventy-four she is mentioned by 

 Rowland White as still enjoying her favourite sport, 

 and as being ' well and most excellently disposed 

 to hunting.' And Her Majesty's taste for hunting 

 continued even long after her power of following 

 the hounds had ceased, for when her infirmities 

 were such that she could no longer mount her horse, 

 she endeavoured to witness from a balcony the 

 pursuit of the deer by others, still taking a lively 



* Blount's Ancient Tenures, 1679, ?• IP- 



