50 DEER AND DEER PARKS. Ch. II. 



ment. When the huntsmen had stretched out the nets, after the German 

 manner, inclosing with" them a considerable space of land, they let the dogs 

 loose upon four deer, which were confined there, who as soon as they saw 

 them, took to flight ; but as they had not the power of going which way 

 they pleased, they ran round the nets, endeavouring by various cunning 

 •leaps to save themselves from being stopped by the dogs, and continued 

 to run in this manner for some time to the great diversion of the spectators, 

 till at last the huntsmen, that they might not harass the animals superflu- 

 ously, drawing a certain cord, opened the nets in one part, which was 

 prepared for that purpose, and left the deer at liberty to escape.' 



In Chafins' Anecdotes of Cranbourn Chase, I find frequent notices of 

 buck-hunting in the early part of the eighteenth century. It appears that 

 in those days even the judges on their circuits engaged in this fashionable 

 sport, which was generally carried on in the summer evenings after an early 

 dinner at two o'clock, ' the deer at that time being more easily found and 

 more able to run and shew sport, and as the evening advanced, and the 

 dew fell, the scent gradually improved, and the cool air enabled the horses 

 and the hounds to recover their wind, and go through their work without 

 injury.'' 



About the beginning of the eighteenth century a fashion was introduced 

 of making small paddocks or parks for deer, generally near the house, 

 where the land was mostly rich and good, (whereas in former times the 

 parks were almost always at a distance from the residence of the proprie- 

 tors, and often of great extent, occupying the worst and wildest lands of 

 the manor;) of this new fashion, which was very prevalent till the 

 latter part of the last century, the prints in ' Noveau Theatre de la grande 

 Britagne' afford many examples. One which has existed to the present day 

 is well known, adjoining the College of S. Mary Magdalen at Oxford. 

 However from the period of the Restoration parks decreased not only in 



' Chafins' Cranbourn Chase, p. 29. 



