122 SURREY SCENES 



dition than the hounds, beat them fairly, and the pair 

 returned, panting and crestfallen, to the paddock. 



The remainder of the herd were less bold, and less 

 fortunate ; but the scene was a curious reminiscence of 

 the days when the Stuart kings used to take their 

 diversion by hunting deer in the royal parks, though 

 the result was neither cruel nor unsportsmanlike, but 

 only an exciting and well -managed episode in the 

 management of a " deer ranch." First a charge and 

 chase by the riders, ending in the " cutting out J> of a 

 stag from the herd ; then a splendid course round the 

 ring-fence, the deerhounds stretching belly to ground, 

 and the stag, with antlers lying on his back and muzzle 

 stretched horizontally, flying before them until he 

 came to the opening in the palings. One desperate 

 bound landed him in the web of nets set beyond, and 

 a rush of the keepers soon transferred him, bound and 

 panting, to the deer-cart. The paddock, being quiet 

 and not open to the public, is a favourite lying ground 

 for hares, which kept rising from the forms and making 

 away past the deer and horsemen. On September i, 

 1894, the Duke of Cambridge and three other guns 

 shot sixteen brace of partridges and forty hares on this 

 side of Richmond Park, and on Coombe Farm, most of 

 the hares being got in this enclosure. 



In the beginning of the present year (1895) tne 

 hard frost made it necessary to postpone the catching 

 of the larger stags for transport to Windsor until the 

 end of February. Even then the ground was so 

 saturated with frost that the riders could not gallop 



