188 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



they generally waited ten days or a fortniglit before commencing 

 hind-hunting, but of late years the herds have become so large 

 that J\lr. Fenwick Bisset loses no time in thinning them, and 

 the hind-hunting commences as soon as stag-hunting ceases. 

 This generally lasts to the end of December or the beginning 

 of January, from whence they are left in peace until August 

 once more comes round, though formerly it was the custom to 

 liunt barren hinds in April and May — a plan in every way to 

 be reprobated, as, notwithstanding the most careful tufting, the 

 breeding mothers must have been disturbed at a period when it 

 was most essential that they should remain quiet, and the stags 

 having lost their horns were occasionally killed by mistake. 

 Mr. Bisset deserves all honour for having suppressed this custom. 



According to Manwood's "Forest Laws," the chase of the stag 

 or hart commenced at Midsummer Day, and ended on Holyrood 

 Day, and the hind was hunted from that time until Candlemas 

 Day. Thus we see that the old rule is still carried out with the 

 Devon and Somerset pretty much in its integrity. Turning to 

 George the Third's pack, I believe that they commenced always 

 on Holyrood Day, even when hunting the wild deer, and kept 

 on until Easter Monday, so that, if stags were hunted, they must 

 most assuredly have been weak and out of season. In Epping 

 Forest they began in September, never used tufters, and ran 

 stags and hinds indiscriminately until April or May, though 

 their custom was to stop the hounds from a young deer if the 

 keepers knew of a good one in the neighbourhood. Why, in 

 later days, the Queen's hounds should have hunted red stags in 

 April, I could never understand, as, although they may by that 

 time have, in a measure, recovered their strength from the rut- 

 ting season, they must be very far indeed from having attained 

 the condition in which they would be found four months later. 

 At no time were the deer in the New Forest so good and strong as 

 those on Exmoor, which is probably to be accounted for by the 

 fact that the forest was so much overstocked with fallow deer. 



In spite of forest laws, our ancestors seem to have chased the 



