200 STAG-HUNTING 



then elaborate instructions about harbouring, a chapter 

 being devoted to each of the six signs, experience 

 wherein may assure the harbourer that the stag which 

 he recommends to the master is, indeed, a full-grown 

 and * warrantable ' deer. All that is said on this sub- 

 ject is as true and correct now as it was then. Wood- 

 craft changes as little as the habits of animals ; but 

 the method of hunting them is a different matter, 

 and that has altered not a little. 



Stag-hunting in the middle ages was a stately and 

 solemn affair : ' rude and furious cries,' though per- 

 mitted in boar-hunting, were forbidden as derogatory 

 to that science of venery in which men then took 

 their degrees. Even His Sacred Majesty Louis XV. 

 had to hunt first hares, then roe, and then fallow deer 

 for five years before he was allowed to hunt a stag ; 

 so we find very precise instructions in the old books 

 as to the sounds and holloas appropriate to every 

 incident. Du Fouilloux even gives quaint directions 

 as to the place which is suitable for the meet, and 

 what should there be done. A pretty and well-shaded 

 spot should be selected, near a spring or stream ; 

 thither should the butler bring three good horses (no 

 more and no less) laden with fluids, and the cook 

 should follow him with cold meats to grace the cloth 

 which has been laid on the turf. So shall the king or 



