STAG-HUNTING NEAR PARIS. 107 



integrity of purpose, and firm and courageous resolve, than M. 

 le Compte de Girardin. It was under his direction that Les 

 chasses royales de la France became not only the most superb 

 establishment of the kind in the world, but a most important 

 item in the public administration ; in fact, an exclusive 

 ministry of itself, which, by the order that reigned in all its 

 divisions, and the economy that presided over all its expenses, 

 formed a social institution, where numerous heads of families 

 obtained honourable employment, where national industry 

 sought and obtained encouragement, and where the rearing 

 and protection of the chevaline races, so necessary to the 

 prosperous development of a country, derived a powerful 

 source of amelioration and progress. 



It is true that hunting the boar or stag under a burning 

 July sun, and up and down the sides of a forest for most 

 part of the time, hearing far more of the chase than the eye 

 was enabled to distinguish as the greater portion of the run 

 always took place under cover of the woods was not exactly 

 the kind of sport suited to an Indian hog, or an English 

 fox-hunter ; but " when at Rome," &c. ; and it must have 

 been indeed a mind void of all romance or imagination 

 that could not find some pleasure and excitement in wit- 

 nessing the ancient science of " venerie" carried on with all 

 that regal pomp and magnificence which, at this period, 

 characterised the royal hunting parties in the magnificent 

 forests in the neighbourhood of Paris. 



I well remember my first expedition to witness one of 

 these scenes was in company with that best of good fellows 

 (now no more), George Templar, of Devonshire celebrity, and 

 Colonel (now Sir Maxwell) Wallace. Our destination was 

 Armanvilliers, several leagues from Paris, a favourite meet 

 with Monseigneur le Due de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, who 

 kept a splendid hunting establishment at Chantilly. It was 

 during the mouth of July a Paris July ! and very much 



