430 



IirXTIXG. 



brace of deer, about eight or ten brace of which 

 are annually killed in chase. The present average 

 time of their running before hounds is one hour 

 and a quarter, whilst that under the old system 

 was two hours, the difference being attributable to 

 the present style of hound, which is the highly 

 bred fox-hound, in the first instance ; and in the 

 next, to the act of formerly stopping the pack for 

 the king to get up to them, as well as to the 

 wretched condition they were generally in, com- 

 pared wdth that of the present pack ; in great mea- 

 sure, the result of an unhealthy kennel." 



'' The old style of stag-hound — in the time of 

 George the Third — was exactly that of the North 

 Devon stag-hound, their colour being chiefly yel- 

 low and white combined."' 



Since Greorge the Third, we have seen no sove- 

 reign in the habit of attending the royal buck- 

 hounds in the field. His Majesty w^as an ardent 

 lover of the sport, and only discontinued it in 1806, 

 when the infirmities of age pressed upon him. The 

 writer of these pages was three times in the field 

 with him ; and on one occasion, witnessed an ex- 

 traordinary run, the deer being uncarted at Stoke 

 Park, near Slough, and taken in Cashiobury Park, 

 near Watford, Herts. His Royal Highness the 

 Duke of Cambridge rode the whole of the run with 

 the hounds ; and the good old king came up, about 

 an hour after the deer had taken soil, the pace 

 having been too quick for him, as the hounds were 

 only once stopped. Having refreshed themselves 

 at the hall, his Majesty and the Duke, in one hack- 



