36 DEEli-IIUNTING 



neighbouring bank. The horses were not allowed to stop 

 till they reached the gate, although the blood was pouring 

 from the wounded animal in a stream as thick as a man's 

 finger. He was then taken out of the carriage, and only 

 survived two or three hours. The stag was shortly 

 afterwards killed. 



Of the various modes practised for pursuing and killing 

 the deer in different ages and countries, I do not profess 

 to treat. In thinly-peopled districts, like the wilds of 

 North America, whose inhabitants subsist by the chase, 

 artificial fences, stretching over vast distances, are employ- 

 ed to aid in driving the deer to the spots, where the pit- 

 fall, the net, the spear, arrow, or rifle, are employed for 

 their destruction. 



On the Continent, deer-driving on the grandest scale is 

 still occasionally practised, the game of a whole province 

 being surrounded by the marshalled peasantry of a prince 

 or noble, and forced by the gradual narrowing of the circle 

 to some central spot for promiscuous slaughter. Similar 

 princely battues were formerly common, when the game 

 was more plentiful, and cultivation rarer, both in England 

 and Scotland. As one instance, among many of these, 

 which we find recorded in the old chroniclers, and as a 

 proof of the determined resolution of the stag when pushed 

 to extremity, I may be permitted to quote the following 

 account. 



Spottiswood mentions, in his History, " That Queen 

 Mary took the sport of hunting the deer in the forest of 

 Mar and Atholl, in the year 1563," of which Barclay, in 

 his Defence of Monarchical Government, gives the follow- 

 ing particulars : 



