WILD STAG-HUNTING. 187 



Hampshire, and Exmoor in Somersetsliire, they were nowhere 

 to be found in a wild state in England. 



I can remember when Davis brought down the Queen's stag- 

 hounds to hunt the red deer in the New Forest during the April 

 month, though I was not old enough to go out with them. After 

 this was given up, my uncle, the late Mr, Thomas Nevill, of Chil- 

 land, lent his pack of bloodhounds to Capt. Williams and Capt. 

 j\Iartin Powell, who also got together the blood-hounds still in 

 the hands of the keepers, and with these hunted the deer in April, 

 1851, when I have seen some very good runs indeed ; but, if my 

 memory serves me correctly, they Avere not allowed to kill them. 

 Then came the order for the deer to be removed from the New 

 Forest, as they had from Woolmer, though it certainly w^as not 

 done in such grand style. Some were caught and taken to 

 Windsor, some killed, and their fallow bretliren -were entirely 

 done away with. Thus a sport, which had existed from the time 

 of the Ancient Britons, was extinguished at one fell blow, and 

 Exmoor became the only place where stag-hunting could be 

 seen in its natural state. 



Even then, about this period, it sunk very low, and had not 

 such an energetic man as Mr. Eenwick Eisset taken the helm, 

 the chances are that the poacher would have done his work, 

 and the sport have been for ever lost to us. Having now given a 

 slight sketch of the history of stag-hunting up to the present 

 time, I must proceed to notice those particulars wherein it differs 

 from other kinds of chase, and in no one thing is this more 

 marked than in the time of year at which it is followed, and the 

 fact that the male and female are not indiscriminately pursued at 

 the same period. The custom with the Devon and Somerset now 

 is to commence stag-hunting about the 12th of August, when 

 the stags are in the best condition, and have for the most part 

 lost the velvet from their horns, and the sport is continued until 

 near about the 10th of October, when their necks begin to swell, 

 their flesh becomes strong and offensive, and they seek the 

 hinds. When the deer were not so numerous as at present, 



