212 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



down a stag in half an hour, and with the great white hounds 

 three or four were often killed in succession. Thus, on 3rd of 

 November, 1864, ' Monseigneur ' went forth with 'Madame* 

 from Fontainebleau, at eight in the morning, and ran down two 

 stags before noon : from there they went at three hours' distance 

 to join the king, who witnessed from his carriage the taking of 

 a third stag, after which Monseigneur cast for a fourth animal, 

 which he took, and was back at the castle by four o'clock. I 

 do not believe," says Dangeau, in relating this exploit, "that it 

 ever happened that four stags could be run down one after an- 

 other on the same day in so short a space of time. The 

 following year, on St. Hubert's Day, Monseigneur took two 

 stags between seven in the morning and mid-day, and the king 

 saw two more taken in the afternoon by the same hounds. To 

 take a stag in an hour, or two stags one after another, seemed at 

 the time quite as natural as to single out and run down a parti- 

 cular one in a forest numbering two hundred heads of warrantable 

 stags all on foot at the same moment." We may feel inclined to 

 exclaim with Lord William Lennox, " Here's sport indeed ! " but 

 when we look at the date, the 3rd of November, we should in 

 England, at least, discount the performance very considerably, 

 for, by that time, the best deer would have become weak and 

 worn out by the rut, and quite unable to stand before such 

 hounds as these appear to have been, while if they were not ex- 

 hausted, they would be quite as ready to turn and show fight as 

 run. 



I have no wish to disparage the performance of the hounds, 

 but my experience of hunting wild deer tells me that, unless 

 they were very heavy deer or out of season, no hounds ever yet 

 bred would kill four in a day on Exmoor and its surrounding 

 heaths. No doubt many will ask (supposing my siu-mise to be 

 right) how these hounds, so much esteemed in the royal kennels 

 of France, could have become common in England. There is 

 no authority for saying that they were common, but when we 

 remember the intense love of the Stuarts for the chase, and the 



