GERMANY 151 



A stranger would probably not succeed in getting one, even if he 

 devoted years to it. 



The first place among- game is from time immemorial held by 

 the red deer. His agility and strength, his beauty of form, his 

 powers of sight, scent, and hearing, stamp him as the noblest game. 



Royalty, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 



1 11- . . , , , Red Deer. 



nearly succeeded m acquirmg the sole right of chase 



■ of the deer. This was contrary to the old customs and laws, which 

 gave every free man the right to the chase on his own property ; 

 but the crown officials and lawyers invented a subdivision for the 

 purpose, viz., the "high and the low" chase. The latter was the 

 right of the nobleman and landowner, the former the prerogative 

 of the crown. This restriction lasted until the French Revolution. 

 Enormous bags were consequently made by princes : thus John 

 George II. of Saxony (1656- 1680), for instance, shot 43,649 head 

 of red deer in twenty-four years; his father 35,421, among the 

 number a stag of 61 st. 11 lbs. 



Stag hunting and shooting was made a noble art by these royal 

 sportsmen ; and the minutest details were attended to with a punc- 

 tiliousness quite incomprehensible to our modern notions. Of the 

 voluminous literature on venery, by far the largest portion 

 relates to red deer. In those times, killinor a stao- was a oreater 

 offence than killing a man. The deer found shelter in undulating- 

 lowland forests, and fed on the crops with impunity, until their 

 increasing size and weight surpassed the best Hungarian stags 

 and even the largest wapiti of to-day. The 24 -pointer in 

 Moritzburg Castle, near Dresden, spans 6 ft. 3I in., and weighs 



