DEER KIND. 315 



ened. The barons also for a long time imitated 

 the encroachments, as well as the amusements of 

 the monarch; but when property became more 

 equally divided, by the introduction of arts and 

 industry, these extensive hunting grounds be- 

 came more limited ; and as tillage and husbandry 

 increased, the beasts of chase were obliged to 

 give way to others more useful to the commu- 

 nity. Those vast tracts of land, before dedicated 

 to hunting, were then contracted ; and, in pro- 

 portion as the useful arts gained ground, they 

 protected and encouraged the labours of the in- 

 dustrious, and repressed the licentiousness of the 

 sportsman. It is, therefore, among the subjects 

 of a despotic government only that these laws re- 

 main in full force, where large wastes lie uncul- 

 tivated for the purpose of hunting, where the 

 husbandman can find no protection from the in- 

 vasions 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 country, 

 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 com- 

 mon than formerly; its excessive viciousness 

 during the rutting season, and the badness of its 

 flesh, inducing most people to part with the spe- 

 cies. The few that still remain wild are to be 

 found on the moors that border on Cornwall and 

 Devonshire ; and in Ireland, on most of the large 

 mountains of that country. 



