OF HUNTING A STAG. 87 



running twenty minutes or more ever, unless hounds 

 are actually close on him, crosses a watercourse 

 without availing himself of it in some way either to 

 refresh himself or to embarrass the pursuers. A roll 

 in a clear stream seems to put new life into him 

 '' when heated in the chase." 



By the way, this hymn, " As pants the hart for 

 cooling streams," which used to be regularly sung in 

 every church in the district on the first Sunday in 

 the staghunting season, is a curious instance of the 

 way in which hunting allusions and expressions crept 

 into our best literature from the time of Chaucer 

 downwards. David knew nothing about the hart 

 being heated in the chase. He wrote, " Like as the 

 hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul." 

 In a hot, arid country this would be " understanded 

 of the people," but hardly in England, so the words 

 "when heated in the chase " were inserted by Tate 

 and Brady in their version, published somewhere 

 about 1700. Staghunting was common in many 

 parts of England then, and the reverend poets lived 

 at Richmond, where at that time the Royal Buck- 

 hounds hunted regularly, and where they must often 

 have seen deer soil in the Thames and the Penn 

 Ponds. 



That no watercourse is too small for a deer to use 

 was shown in the big run from the Punchbowl last 

 year, when the stag on Molland Common, coming at 

 right angles to the little water carrier, not more than 

 a foot wide and only an inch or two deep, which 



