THE RED DEER, 
101 
The hunting of the stag was anciently a 
^Port reserved for royalty. During the reigns 
^^our first Norman kings, the passion for the 
**^*6 Was carried to such excess, that large 
di 
^^ts of land were converted into forests for 
^ for which purpose, as our historians re- 
the Conqueror depopulated, in Hamp- 
j. alone, a district fifty miles in circum- 
^Uce, containing several towns, villages, and 
mother churches; at the same time 
l^ws of such severity for the preser- 
Ion of the deer, that it was said of him, “ it 
oetter to be his stag than his subject.” 
, he great huntings of Scotland and of the 
. "^or counties are well known to all the 
J 
'•*sh minstrelsy. The Scot- 
gj kings used to shoot the deer from an 
th ®ont as the packs were driven before 
A chase of this kind had well nigh 
Rented the miseries which afterwards befel 
'unhappy Mary Stuart. The story, told 
