208 
STAG. 
pack quickly coming' up, he is soon surrounded 
and brought down, and the huntsman winds a 
treble mort, as it is called, with his horn. 
This species were once numerous through Bri- 
tain, The Saxon monarchs of England formed 
some uncultivated tracts into forests for deer. 
The princes of the Norman line, animated with 
the most extravagant passion for the chace, and 
careless of the welfare of their subjects, depopu- 
lated their kingdom, razing villages, and levelling 
churches and other religious houses, to form 
forests for the maintenance of these and other wild 
beasts. But in the progress of liberty and civili- 
zation, the number and extent of those forests 
were greatly reduced. Our monarchs learned to 
consult the happiness of their subjects, and the 
population of their dominions, in preference to 
their own diversions. And though there are still 
several royal forests in England, these are not 
many, nor are they guarded by the same san- 
guinary laws as formerly. 
Besides being a tyrannical encroachment on the 
liberties of the subject, and a savage depopulation 
of the kingdom, the existence of so many forests, and 
the forest-laws, were calculated to produce the most 
unfavourable effects on the morals of the lower 
classes of the people. Deer stealing was a crime 
of which, when they could escape detection, the 
youth made very light. But the parties who en- 
gaged in such an enterprise were generally lost to 
sobriety and industry, and had their morals com- 
pletely corrupted. We iudeed owe the dramatic 
productions of our admired Shakespeare to the 
prosecution for deer stealing, which drove him 
from his original occupation. But the same cir- 
cumstances which excited a Shakespeare to the 
exertion of powers of genius, that might other** 
