66 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



the carted deer, lacks the inevitableness we prize in wilder 

 sports of the field. All concerned know only too well, not 

 perhaps quite what will happen, but what is meant to hap- 

 pen. Upon the other hand, the master and hunt-servants of 

 a stag-hunting establishment — I speak from some experience 

 — are always on the edge of novel and often ridiculous 

 incidents. 



Some people, however, seem able to invest the most 

 untoward circumstances with their personal prestige. A few 

 of this sort should be kept for stag-hunting. Charles Davis 

 appears to have been one of these gifted personages. It is 

 true that he hunted a very much better country, and that in 

 other ways (which I shall refer to presently) he enjoyed sub- 

 stantial advantages which no Queen's Huntsman since his 

 retirement has enjoyed or can hope to enjoy. Yet it cannot 

 be supposed for a moment that he can have hunted the 

 Buckhounds for the forty odd years he carried the horn 

 without having to put up with his share of the tiresome 

 things which attend upon stag-hunting. Some of these 

 are difficult to suffer gladly ; ' and if record speaks true, 

 we must remember that Davis had to satisfy a critical 

 and superfinely mounted field who came out to ride, and to 

 ride against each other. He must have been familiar, as we 



' The following entries are, alas ! familiar to most stag-hunters : 



' February 5, 1824. — Paid two men 5s. 6fZ. for getting into the water at 

 Uxbridge by Lord Maryborough's order. 



' January 28, 1824. — Paid 2s. GeZ. for a window broken by a stag. 



' December 11, 1837 Met at Salt Hill ; took in the Playing Fields, Eton. 



' December 29, 1837. — " Seymour " destroyed himself in a conservatory at 

 Taplow.' 



This diary and a horse-book of Charles Davis were kindly lent me by Mrs. 

 James King, widow of Mr. James King, a brother of Harry King's, who succeeded 

 Charles Davis as her Majesty's Huntsman in 186G. Whether the amount 

 of the fee or the 'getting into the water' was Lord Maryborough's ' order,' 

 the amount is not excessive. I know the water at Uxbridge well. It used 

 to affect me very much in the same way as the waters of Babylon did the Jews 

 of the Captivity. About the worst place I know, to take a deer comfortably. 



