THE CHASE OF THE CAr.TED DEER. 267 



I have had a flirmyard gate slammed in my face, and a 

 man standing with a pitchfork on the other side of it, 

 ready to dispute my passage, not many seasons since — 

 the proprietor of the pitchfork, and probably the gate also, 

 lamenting audibly, and in choice language, that he had 

 not been quick enough to arrest some half-dozen who were 

 before me. 



I have not been able to discover at what time the custom of 

 turning out deer to hunt became prevalent —most probably 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century, when many commons 

 and forest lands began to be enclosed, and, in consequence, wild 

 deer became scarce ; while hunting merely within the bounds 

 of their parks, after having pursued it in the open, did not suit 

 our ancestors' notions of sport. Hence I expect a deer was caught 

 from there and turned out, and thus the deer-cart came into 

 fashion. Had Dean Swift been a sportsman, he would probably 

 have thrown some light on the subject, as when he was staying 

 at Windsor, in 1711, we find recorded, in his letters to Stella, 

 that Queen Anne drove in a one-horse chaise forty-five miles, in 

 the chase of a stag, but whether it was turned out or found wild 

 in the forest he does not say, though we find that her Majesty 

 was used to drive herself. The good dean appears to me more 

 concerned about the sport interfering with his dinner than 

 anxious to record the manner in which it was carried out. 

 Probably the Queen hunted wild deer, as Pope in his " Wind- 

 sor Forest/' a couple of years later, speaks of stag-hunting 



exposed to in respect of these packs, because they found that the masters 

 were disposed to meet them in a liberal and gentlemanly manner. But he 

 thought they all agreed that the present amount of hunting was quite as 

 much as they were inclined to submit to. He believed that considerable 

 damage had been already done by the Colleen Dale hounds. He added 

 that a similar meeting had been held at Barnet. The meeting was unani- 

 mous in opposition to the pack, and a guarantee fund, headed by the 

 chairman with a subscription of 201., was formed. A committee was 

 formed, and invested with power to represent the subscribers in any pro- 

 ceedings that may be taken against the pack." 



