66 CHARACTER OP DEER HUNTING. 



obtain a second sight of either deer or hounds, in course of the chase. It often 

 happens, in these runs, that out of a body, consisting at first start, of a hundred 

 or two of horsemen, not a score shall be able to hold way, and find themselves 

 within a couple of hundred yards of the hounds, and these, whatever may be 

 their weight, shall be the riders generally of thorough-bred horses. The run in, 

 or concluding- burst of a Stag Hunt, is sometimes exhaustingly and even fatally 

 severe to the horses, the last mile or tw T o being run in view. The Deer is usually 

 taken and preserved, unless when the leading hounds cannot be prevented from 

 closing upon his haunches and tearing him down. 



It will be gathered from what has been already said, that Deer Hunting is by 

 no means the general favourite, being held by our Fox Hunters as an uninteresting, 

 umaried, and monotonous sport. There are other objections : some, on the score of 

 humanity, the deer being a species of domesticated cattle, under the protection of 

 man ; and farther, the unavoidable extraordinary damage to cultivation from 

 following the Deer, is considerable. 



