THE STAG. 467 



stalking, which is the mode of sport adopted in the Highlands, 

 is more tedious and dangerous than the common mode of 

 hunting a stag let loose from a game-cart in some smooth 

 park ; and hence it requires considerable perseverance, labour, 

 and courage. When the stag is wounded, large hounds, between 

 the greyhound and the blood-hound, are let loose upon the 

 track of his blood, and they never stop till they have brought 

 the animal to bay, generally in some stream, where they keep 

 him till the stalker comes up to shoot him through the head. 

 In approaching the stag when at bay, it is necessary for the 

 sportsman to use the utmost caution, and to keep him down 

 the stream from where he stands ; for if he breaks his bay, he 

 is very likely to attack his pursuer, gore him with his horns, 

 or trample him to death with his feet. 



" If we be English deer, be them in blood : 

 Not rascal-like to fall down with a pinch ; 

 But rather moody mad, and desperate stags, 

 Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel, 

 And make the cowards stand aloof at bay." 



(Henry VI. Part 7, Act IV. Scene 2.) 



When the poor thing is expiring from the wounds it has 

 received, " the big round tears" run down its face, and it 

 " groans in anguish." Shakespeare's tender and picturesque 

 description of the hunted stag, which called forth the pity of 

 the contemplative Jaques, is full of truth and beauty : 



" As he lay along 



Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 

 Upon the brook that brawls along this wood . 

 To the which place a poor sequester'd stag, 

 That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, 

 Did come to languish ; and indeed, my lord, 

 The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans, 

 That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat 

 Almost to bursting ; and the big round tears 

 Cours'd one another down his innocent nose 

 In piteous chase ; and thus the hairy fool, 

 Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, 

 Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook, 

 Augmenting it with tears." 



2 H 2 



