
Crass I. De Ei Fe: Re 
feffed about that time of thirteen parks*. They 
feem to have forgot good king Edgar’s advice, Do- 
cemus etiam ut facerdos non fit venator neque acci- 
pitrarius neque potator, fed incumbat fuis libris ficut 
ordinem ipfius decet +. 
It was cuftomary to falt the venifon for preferva- 
tion, like other meat. Rymer preferves a warrant 
of Edward III. ordering fixty deer to be killed 
for that purpofe. 
The ftag and buck agree in their nature; only 
the latter being more tender is eafier tamed, and 
made familiar. The firft is become lefs common 
than it was formerly; its exceffive vitioufnefs du- 
ring the rutting feafon, and the badnefs of its flefh, 
induce moft people to part with the {pecies. Stags 
are ftill found wild in the highlands of Scotland, in 
herds of four or five hundred together, ranging at 
full liberty over the vaft hills of the north. Some 
srow to a great fize: when I was at Invercauld 
Mr. Farqubarfon affured me that he knew an in- 
ftance of one that weighed eighteen ftone Scots, 
or three hundred and fourteen pounds, exclufive of 
the entrails, head and fkin. Formerly the great 
highland chieftains ufed to hunt with the magni- 
ficence of an eaftern monarch ; affembling four or 
five thoufand of their clan, who drove the deer in- 
to the toils, or to the ftation their lairds had pla- 
* Pracham’s Compleat Gentleman, 261. + Leges Saxon. 37- 
ced. 
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