THE CHASE OF THE CxVRTED DEER. 257 



say of it when the scene is laid in an out-house cr barn, or 

 perhaps a dirty, muddy horse-pond, from which — the noble 

 quarry being hauled by ropes — you see him pushed along by the 

 united strength of a dozen or more people, until safely housed 

 in a cow-byre, to be taken home, and again turned out for a 

 similar exhibition at some future date ? 



What a glorious finale to a brilliant spin across country is 

 such a scene ! I have heard much made of the efforts of those 

 out to save the deer by people who take a humanitarian view of 

 the subject, but must ask leave to doubt whether they are not 

 rather misplaced than otherwise ; for be it known that deer, 

 taken quite unhurt, have ere now died of fright alone, and an 

 ex-master of stag-hounds once told me that he kept his deer in 

 large paddocks, and let the terriers chase and bay them occa- 

 sionally, as he found he lost fewer deer through fright on their 

 lirst being turned out when thus treated. I have said nothing 

 of the various accidents which happen to them at such times, but 

 which surely ought to count for something in the eyes of those 

 who follow the sport — such, for instance, as broken legs and backs, 

 impaling themselves on spiked iron fencing, as I have known 

 happen, getting entangled and almost cut to pieces in wire, and 

 various other misfortunes which beset the deer turned out to 

 be hunted, but which every one is so anxious to save. Could all 

 stag-hunters arrive at the same mastery over animals acquired by 

 the late Mr. Thomas Xevill, of Chilland, near Winchester, little 

 exception could be taken to the sport on this score, for he has 

 had deer which appeared to enter into the fun of the affair as 

 keenly as he or his hounds. If memory serves me rightly, he 

 commenced with a fallow doe, bred up quite tame from a fawn ; 

 she was so fearless that I have seen her enter the kennel with 

 him, and eat from the trough where his bloodhounds were to 

 be fed, with all of them looking on. When he wanted a 

 gallop, she trotted loose in the midst of the pack, by the side of 

 his horse, to any distance he liked. Then the hounds, being 

 taken out of view, a slight touch of a whip was enough to 



