64 HUNTING BY THE POL.E DEER PACKS. 



for there seems to be a difference in the constitutions of other animals as well as 

 man, gives them patience to proceed with caution and regularity, to make sure of 

 every step as they go, carefully to describe every indenture, to unravel each 

 puzzling trick or figure. This grave sort of dog is however fit for masters of the 

 same temper, as they are able to hunt in cold scent, but they are too apt to make 

 it so, by their want of speed and vigour to push forward, and keep it warm ; their 

 exactness often renders them trifling and tedious. By this means though the hunt 

 be finer, yet the prey, which is by some thought necessary to complete the sport, 

 very often escapes ; the length of the chase takes up the time, and exposes them 

 to numerous hazards of losing. 



The slow and fine-nosed are peculiarly adapted to the training for so/>-hounds, 

 and for Hunting by the Pole, on foot ; an exercise, in which, we apprehend, few 

 of our contemporaries are practically conversant, any more than in very early 

 rising to hunt. The largest, slowest, and stoutest pieces of antiquity in the hound 

 line, depth of tone and close hunting being the grand requisites, were always 

 selected for this grave and pains-taking kind of chase. And these sedate and 

 staunch dogs were trained so highly, and to such a degree of obedience that, even 

 upon the hottest scent and in full cry, the Huntsman had only to cast his magical 

 pole in their sight, on which they would, one and all, make a full stop, and deli- 

 l>erately attending their orders, be harked forward again, at whatever rate the 

 hunt might require. It is not very easy for us modern Nimrods, who are in the 

 habit of making use of six legs in the field, even to conceive hounds slow enough, 

 or two legs fast enough, to pursue successfully such a chase ; and we must leave it 

 in that state of uncertainty, in which are found many other tales of former times. 

 As little can we conceive of the pleasure to be derived from such a laborious and 

 exhausting exertion. Coursing on foot indeed, has lasted somewhat longer, but 

 the practitioners of that sport, are at present, upon a very reduced scale ; and of the 

 two, it is certainly most easy and feasible, to cut and contrive and cross the 

 country, in view of the short course of Greyhounds and a hare, than painfully 

 to trudge over the soil through thick, and thin, after a slow pack and a Deer or 

 Fox. 



The decline of Deer Hunting, which our old Jokers were in the habit of styling 

 Calf -hunting, and the almost general substitution of the Chase of the Fox, in 

 great measure originated in necessity, at least convenience. The necessary 

 increase of cultivation in a rapidly improving country, gradually contracted those 

 open and spacious domains indispensable to the breeding, parking, and hunting 

 the Deer. Thence it is chiefly, that so few Establishments for Deer Hounds at 

 present exist in Britain. In England, the packs are reduced to those of Royalty, 

 of the: Karl of Derby, at his seat near Epsom, Surrey, the OAKS ; the Subscrip- 

 tion Pack near Enfold Chase, if that be still in existence ; and of the Buck 

 Hounds upon the New Forest, Dorset. Yet surely, the Earl of Darlington hunts 



