468 THE STAG. 



The remainder of the poet's description, which tells us that 

 the stag was 



" Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends," 



thus misery doth part 



The flux of company. Anon, a careless herd, 

 Full of the pasture, jumps along by him, 

 And never stays to greet him," 



refers to a curious fact, also noticed by Thompson, who says 

 the hunted stag 



" Oft seeks the herd: the watchful herd alarm'd 

 With selfish care avoid a brother's woe." 



Mr. Jesse who, as surveyor of the royal parks, is familiar 

 with the habits of deer, mentions that " when a hard-pressed 

 deer attempts to rejoin his companions, they fly from him, or 

 try to drive him away with their antlers."* 



Stag-hunting may be attended with a finer display of trappings, 

 grace, and gentility, but after all it is not a bit more defensible 

 than the forbidden bull-baitings and dog-fights of the common 

 people j for the torture of an unoffending creature for amuse- 

 ment is the object in both cases. The pleasure and healthiness 

 of riding and leaping over a beautiful and varied country, offer 

 but a poor and selfish apology for causing torture and anguish 

 to an inferior creature. 



Besides the coarse grasses and lichens which form the ordi- 

 nary pasture of the red deer, they will eat corn, carrots, turnips, 

 potatoes, and the leaves of the ash-tree $ and where large herds 

 are kept they commit much damage to the crops in the neigh- 

 bourhood. During winter, they feed, to some extent, on the 

 bark of trees. 



" Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, 

 The bark of trees thou browsest." 



(Antony and Cteopatra, Act I. Scene 2.) 



The hind goes with young eight months, and produces one 



calf, as it is called, and which is usually menilled (spotted with 



white) on the back and sides. She is an affectionate parent. 



* Gleanings in Natural History, vol. i. p. 187. 



