OF SfilBOUNE. 23 



LETTER VII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



HOUGH large herds of deer do much harm 

 to the neighbourhood, yet the injury to the 

 morals of the people is of more moment 

 than the loss of their crops. The temptation 

 is irresistible; for most men are sportsmen 

 by constitution, and there is such an inherent spirit for 

 hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can 

 restrain. Hence, towards the beginning of this century, 

 all this country was wild about deer-stealing. Unless he 

 was a hunter, as they affected to call themselves, no young 

 person was allowed to be possessed of manhood or gallantry. 

 The Waltham blacks at length committed such enormities, 

 that government was forced to interfere with that severe 

 and sanguinary act called the black act, 1 which now com- 

 prehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed 

 before. And, therefore, a late Bishop of Winchester, when 

 urged to restock Walthain-chase/ refused, from a motive 

 worthy of a prelate, replying that ' ' It had done mischief 

 enough already/' 



Our old race of deer-stealers are hardly extinct yet : it 

 was but a little while ago that, over their ale, they used to 

 recount the exploits of their youth ; such as watching the 

 pregnant hind to her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, 

 paring its feet with a penknife to the quick to prevent its 

 escape, till it was large and fat enough to be killed; the 

 shooting at one of their neighbours with a bullet in a turnip- 

 field by moonshine, mistaking him for a deer; and the losing 

 a dog in the following extraordinary manner : Some fellows 



1 Statute 9 Geo. I. c- 22. 



2 This chase remains unstocked to this day: the Bishop was Dr. 

 Hoadiey. G. W 



