239 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 



BUCK-HUNTING. 



Alate we ran the deer, and through the lawnds, 

 Stripp'd with our nags the lofty frohc bucks 

 Tliat scudded fore the teasers Hke the wind ; 

 Ne'er was the deer of Merry Fressingfield 

 So lustily pull'd down by jolly mates, 

 Kor shared the farmers such fat venison. 

 So frankly dealt this hundred years before. 



Popular as was the chase of the " dun deer " — which I take to 

 mean the fallow buck or doe, in contradiction to " Great 

 Harte," or red deer in ancient times — no doubt many of my 

 readers will be astonished to find a chapter devoted to it in the 

 year of grace 1878. And I am sorry to say it is an almost 

 obsolete sport ; yet, as it is stiU to be seen by those who take the 

 trouble to search for it, I could not well leave it out of such a 

 work as the present ; neither, for that matter, am I inclined to 

 do so, as in its season I consider it truly enjoyable. Moreover, it 

 forms a nice change for those who have no yachting or fishing to 

 attract them when fox-hunting is over. In fact, I have often 

 wondered that more attention has not been paid to the fallow 

 deer as a beast of chase in the present day, as he may be 

 kept in a wild state where the red deer could not. I know 

 that a few years ago, in the Witham Woods, in the Lincolnshire 

 portion of the Cottesmore country, there were so many running 

 wild, which had escaped from parks and bred, as to be a serious 

 nuisance to fox-hounds when hunting in that part of the 

 country ; and such good care did they take of themselves that, 



