OF DEEU-IIUNTING. 41 



stately and magnificent manner, according to recognised 

 principles, which are treated of at length in many works 

 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But this is a 

 field into which I have no intention of entering. 



In this country, I believe, the stag is now hunted in 

 his wild state only in Devonshire, and in the New Forest, 

 and even there the animal is daily becoming scarcer. 

 Stag-hunting was never probably practised in the same 

 way in the Highlands of Scotland, the nature of the 

 country offering great obstacles to this mode of pursuit on 

 horseback. 



It is mentioned in a letter printed by the late Lord 

 Graves, who hunted the wild deer in Devonshire, that 

 these animals, when they find themselves pursued by scent, 

 generally run down wind; and the same thing has been 

 asserted to me by others : this, if true, for I confess I have 

 my doubts, is an extraordinary instance of sagacity, as 

 their natural instinct leads them to the opposite direction, 

 it being a most difficult thing for men alone to drive them 

 down wind. 



In the following pages I confine myself to a description 

 of the mode of killing deer now in use in the Highlands, 

 which may be considered limited to the two methods of 

 driving and stalking : the former of these offers more 

 room for the companionship and friendly rivalry which 

 confers its main zest on sport of every description ; but 

 the latter, if it has the disadvantage of being pursued in a 

 more solitary guise, yet gives so much scope to skill and 

 manoeuvring, and exhibits the motions and the defensive 

 instincts of the stag in such a beautiful manner, tried as 

 he is under every variety of incident, that I have always 



