STAGHOUNDS 



It would hardly be using the language of 

 exaggeration to say that for one man who 

 has crossed Exmoor in pursuit of the wild 

 red deer, at least a thousand are familiar with 

 the chase of the animal who is driven up to 

 the meet, and when the fun is over returns 

 to his home in his own carriage " like a 

 gentleman," as a well-known sporting writer 

 once put it. But if we wish for the poetry 

 of the chase, if we would conjure up visions 

 of Dian fair, of Hippolyta in Midsummer 

 Night's Dream when speaking of the "hounds 

 of Sparta," these words : 



"I^^Tever did I hear 

 Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 

 The skies, the fountains, every region near 

 Seem'd all one mutual cry : I never heard 

 So musical a discord, such sweet thunder " — 



then we must hie us to the West — substituting, 



