140 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



extend to prevent him from hunting a wild animal 

 differing entirely from the ordinary riot to be found 

 in the ordinary hunting country ? A wolf for 

 instance ? You would be as likely to find a wolf as 

 a wild red deer in almost any hunting country in 

 England. Yet I seem to have read of a pack of fox- 

 hounds drawing, without protest, for a wolf escaped 

 from a menagerie. Be that as it may, it is a fact that 

 in 1863 the late Duke of Beaufort took five and 

 twenty couple of his magnificent pack to France, to 

 Poitou, to hunt the wolves there. Will anyone say he 

 committed a breach of any hunting ordinance in so 

 doing ? The difference between his case and that of 

 Mr. Studd is that in the former the master sought out 

 the wild animal, and in the latter the wild animal 

 sought out the master. The answer to those who 

 would argue that the red deer is akin to the fallow 

 deer, is that the two are very dissimilar in scent and 

 hunting attributes. The one is wild and very rare ; 

 the other, mostly, tame and common. Another 

 distinction, though it has lost its significance nowa- 

 days, is that, ever since the days of Canutus the Dane, 

 hart (which is expressly stated to include stag and 

 " all other red deer of anther ") and hind have been 

 beasts of venery, or beasts of the forest ; buck and 

 doe, beasts of chase merely.^ I yield to none in 

 orthodoxy, whether in religion or sport ; yet orthodoxy 

 must not be confounded with bigotry. Without 

 / expressing any opinion as to whether Mr. Studd's 



/ action was justified or not, I hope I have said enough 



to shew that there are grounds for doubting whether 

 he really was guilty of a breach of any rule of the 

 sport. 



Mr. Studd was very successful in his first season, 



^ Manwood'a Forest Laws. 



