CHAPTER XXXVII 



HUNTING THE CARTED DEER 



The great Mr. Jorrocks expressed his opinion of 

 hunting the carted deer in no measured terms. 

 The worthy M.F.H. had got fairly warmed to his 

 work when he said, " Talk of stag-huntin' ! might 

 as well 'unt a hass ; see a great lollopin' beggar 

 blobbin' about the market gardens near London 

 with a pack o' 'ounds at its 'eels, and call that 

 diwersion." Now, though I am disposed to agree 

 with Mr. Jorrocks on most of his dicta on the sport 

 of kings, and should be the first to hold with him 

 that " there's no sport fit to hold a candle to fox- 

 'untin'," I think he is a little too severe on those 

 forms of sport which he did not enjoy himself. 

 No one will be found to assert that hunting the 

 carted deer takes as high rank in sport as hunting 

 his wild relative on Exmoor or the Ouantocks, or 

 that stag-hunting, even under the best of circum- 

 stances, is equal to forty minutes over grass with 

 a pack of flying foxhound bitches. But it is good 

 fun for all that, and those sportsmen who have a 

 chance of foxhounds at their door every day show 

 little taste in depreciating what, after all, is the only 

 form of hunting available to many men who are as 

 keen in the cause as they are themselves. The busy 

 professional man or merchant can rarely afford the 



