HUNTING THE CARTED DEER 217 



exercise gallop. For the stag does not struggle on 

 when he is beaten, as does the fox. Even in his 

 wild state he will soil, or run to herd in covert long 

 before he is anything like beaten, and when finally 

 set up at bay he has a lot of fight in him, unless 

 very fat and heavy. So when the stag has had 

 just as much galloping as he cares for he takes soil 

 in some pond, or quietly trots into some farm- 

 steading, where he will wait munching hay till the 

 deer cart comes for him. That he is not at all dis- 

 mayed by what lies before him is evident by the 

 coolness with which he looks round him the moment 

 he is enlarged, and the leisurely fashion in which 

 he moves off, whilst if any of those gentlemen who 

 theorise so learnedly about his " feelings" at the end 

 of a run were to try to take him they would tell 

 a different tale. There is, moreover, one well- 

 authenticated case which proves that there is no 

 cruelty in stag-hunting. A well-known Master of 

 staghounds was wont to take the deer he was about 

 to hunt to the meet with the hounds. A flick of 

 his whip would start her, and when, after giving 

 them a gallop, she was taken, deer and hounds 

 went home on the road amicably. I question 

 whether this could be done with a stag, as they are 

 occasionally very savage, but it was certainly done 

 with hinds. Of course, it could only be done in a 

 thinly populated district. 



My object in drawing attention to stag-hunting 

 has been to save the sport from the effects of un- 

 warranted attacks, and to point out to hunting 

 men that if hunting the carted deer goes, other and 

 wilder sport will be in danger. 



