VARIOUS MODES OF TAKING DEER. 49 



instantly ran off the road ; and it was owing solely to the 

 admirable presence of mind and nerve of the postillion, that 

 the carriage was not precipitated over the neighbouring 

 bank. The horses were not allowed to stop till they reached 

 the gate, although the blood was pouring from the wounded 

 animal in a stream as thick as a man's finger. He was then 

 taken out of the carriage, and only survived two or three 

 hours. The stag was shortly afterwards killed. 



Of the various modes practised for pursuing and killing 

 the deer in different ages and countries, I do not profess to 

 treat. In thinly-peopled districts, like the Wilds of North 

 America, whose inhabitants subsist by the chase, artificial 

 fences, stretching over vast distances, are employed to aid 

 in driving the deer to the spots, where the pit-fall, the net, 

 the spear, arrow, or rifle are employed for their destruction. 



On the Continent, deer-driving on the grandest scale is 

 still occasionally practised, the game of a whole province 

 being surrounded by the marshalled peasantry of a prince 

 or noble, and forced by the gradual narrowing of the circle 

 to some central spot for promiscuous slaughter. Similar 

 princely Battues were formerly common, when the game 

 was more plentiful, and cultivation rarer, both in England 

 and Scotland. As one instance among many of these, which 

 we find recorded in the old chroniclers, and as a proof of the 

 determined resolution of the stag when pushed to extremity, 

 I may -be permitted to quote the following account. 



Spottiswood mentions in his History, "That Queen Mary 

 took the sport of hunting the deer in the forest of Mar and 

 Atholl, in the year 1563," of which Barclay, in his Defence 

 of Monarchial Government, gives the following particulars : 



" The Earl of Atholl prepared for her Majesty's reception 

 by sending out about two thousand Highlanders to gather 

 the deer from Mar, Badenoch, Murray, and Atholl, to the 

 district he had previously appointed. It occupied the 

 Highlanders for several weeks in driving the deer to the 

 amount of two thousand, besides roes, does, and other game. 



" The Queen, with her numerous attendants and a great 

 concourse of the nobility, gentry, and people, were assem- 

 bled at the appointed glen, and the spectacle much delighted 

 her Majesty, particularly as she observed that such a numer- 



