GEORGIAN STAG-HUNTING 45 



conducted to the first farmhouse or receptacle of safety, 

 from whence he is removed on the following day to the 

 paddocks at Swinley Lodge, before described. The time 

 and place of meeting for a future day being adjusted before 

 the departure of his Majesty with his attendants, he gene- 

 rally proceeds to the nearest town where a post conveyance 

 can be procured, and returns instantly to Windsor ; and 

 most frequently without taking the least refreshment, what- 

 ever may be the distance or the length of the chase. 

 Instances have occurred when his Majesty had not reached 

 the castle till eight or nine in the evening, at the dreariest 

 season.' 



George III. rode to a pilot. On one occasion they came 

 to a place which the king did not quite fancy. He hung a 

 little. ' John has gone over, your Majesty,' said one of the 

 equerries, hoping no doubt that a hole might be made for 

 him. ' Then you may go after him,' said the king, and 

 jogged off to find a nicer place. But the king's personal 

 attendants do not appear to have been great thrusters. 

 Very possibly they were indifi'erently mounted ; but Colonel 

 Gwyn, one of the equerries, who married Goldsmith's and 

 Hoppner's Jessamy Bride, was a brilliant exception, and we 

 hear of his going so well in a good run (October 24, 1797), 

 that he is complimented upon displaying when out hunting 

 ' more of the genuine unadulterated sportsman than the 

 effeminate courtier.' Moonshine, Starlight, Compton, and 

 Highflyer were great Georgian stags. The two former earned 

 their names from so often running them out of daylight. 

 Moonshine ran for seven — some say for nine seasons. The 

 deer were established in the same five paddocks at Swinley 

 as the deer of to-day, their housekeeping being conducted 

 ' in a style of invigorating luxuriance.' George III. acquired 

 the freehold of the present paddocks of Swinley in 1782. 



