brought to bay is killed. Only a comparatively few can have the pleasure of
hunting the wild Deer in their own beautiful home in Devon and Somerset, but
the number of those who follow the carted Deer is considerable. Comparisons in
sport are obviously odious, so it is unnecessary to criticise two forms of the chase
which are entirely different and which give pleasure and excitement to busy men.
Both have their own devotees, who think there is no sport in the world like their
particular amusement. The hard-worked City man who loves a fast straight
gallop of an hour without bothering about external considerations is pretty sure
to get it with the ‘ carted ’ Deer; while the man who loves the ‘ natural history ’ of
hunting— the finding, the moving, the display of local knowledge, the now fast and
now slow chase of a purely wild animal that exercises all the arts and crafts of its
inherent intelligence— can get all that will satisfy him in hunting the feral beast.
The Stag is hunted early in the season, but in the colder months the hinds
are chased. Mr. Clifford Cordley says1 :
‘ Most of the details of hind-hunting are similar to those of Stag-hunting; the
harbouring, the tufting, the laying on, the chase, the soiling, the running up to
and into the quarry. But there are these essential differences: the probable line
of a hind is by no means so readily forecasted as that of the antlered monarch;
she runs farther, faster, and more tortuously— indeed, the huntsman never knows
when she is beaten until she is brought to hand; and the “ baying” is a simple,
swift, and prosaic process : lacking horns and all means alike of offence and defence,
the hind, when caught, is pulled over and killed by the hounds, unassisted, as
readily as is a hare. Indeed, not a little of the huntsman’s promptitude and skill
is requisite to “ save” the Deer— that is, the venison. . . . Stag-hunters regard
an hour’s run over the forest as an ideal performance. But your hind may
ordinarily be trusted to stand from two to five hours before hounds, and to traverse
in the chase anything from twenty to fifty miles. Out of innumerable runs on
record, four representative ones may be selected. In October 1814 a hind ran
from Haddon, near Dulverton, to Chappie Leigh, Lawrence Lydiard, twenty miles
as the crow flies— a chase lasting four hours and ten minutes.
‘ Later a hind, roused on Bratton Down, above Barnstaple, was taken off Ilfracombe
after a five hours’ run. Later still, finding in Span Wood, close to the
source of the River Barle, hounds drove a hind all over Exmoor, and forced her
down to King’s Nympton, where they ran into her, after a run of seven hours
and five minutes. And coming to quite recent times, only a few years ago, the
D aily M ail, May 1906.
Devon and Somerset Staghounds chased a galloping three-year-old hind from the
top of the Quantock Hills to Start Point, over against Burnham, covering a
distance of twenty-one miles in a direct ^ line, and nearly sixty miles as hounds
and horses ran.
There can be no doubt that the chase of the wild Deer is a grand sport, for
we cannot read such works as Collins on the ‘ Chase of the Wild Red Deer,’
and ‘ Records of Stag-hunting on Exmoor ’ by the Hon. John Fortescue, without
feeling some of the enthusiasm of its lovers. Mr. L. Bathurst in h ^ excellent
contribution on Stag-hunting to the ‘ Encyclopaedia of Sport’ gives the number
of packs hunting Deer in England as sixteen. They are as follows: His Majesty's;
Berkhampstead, Devon and Somerset, Enfield Chase, Essex, Hon. R. Gerard,
Mr. Green’s, Mid Kent, New Forest, Oxenholme, Lord Rothschild's, Savernake,
Surrey, West Surrey (Farmers),1 Warnham, 7th Dragoon Guards. To these must
be added two other packs which have recently come into existence, Sir John
Amory’s and that conducted by Mr. Eugene Wells, and for a detailed account
of the sport I must refer my readers to the literature of the subject.2
The sport of Deer-stalking with the rifle has also a voluminous bibliography,8
so that little need be said about it.
Although Red Deer have existed for so long in Scotland, Deer-stalking as it
is understood to-day is a comparatively recent innovation^so recent, indeed, that
the guardian of the grandfather of the present Lord Lovat informed his charge
that he hoped he would not so far derogate from his position as to think of
going into the forest to shoot Deer for himself, as such a practice was neither
dignified nor customary. The practice of killing Deer by driving to concealed
riflemen as described by Pennant prevailed in Scotland until 1745.
The first record of the pursuit of Deer by stalking is when Cluny Macpher-
son, chief of Clanchattan, engaged in Deer-stalking with Mr. Macdonald ofTulloch
in 1745. Again, Lord Onslow remarks that in 1777 one Angus Macdonald ‘ after
stalking for five hours’ 'got within shot.’
1 Both these Surrey packs are now extinct (1906).
2 Besides the works already mentioned, see also Exmoor, or the Footsteps o f St. Hubert in the West by Hubert Byng
Hall, The life o f a Stag by the Hon. John Fortescue, and Red Deer by Richard Jefferies. This last, although beautifully
written, strikes one as being impressions at second hand.
3 The following works deal exhaustively with the subject: Deer-stalking and Other Sport in the Highlands Fifty Years ago,
by W. Scrope, 1865. Handbook o f Deerstalking, by Alex. Macrae, 1880. Days o f Deer-stalking in the Scotch Highlands, by
W. Scrope, 1830. Shooting (‘ Badminton Library ’), contribution by Lord Lovat, 1886. Deer-stalking, by Aug. Grimble, 1886.
Sportsman and N aturalists Tour in Sutherlands hire, by C. W. St. John, 1891. Deer-stalking in the Highlands o f Scotland,
by General H. Crealock, 1892. Deer-stalking, by Cameron of Lochiel (‘ Fur, Feather, and Fin ’ Series), 1896. Highland Sport,
by Aug. Grimble, 1894. B ritish Deer and their Homs, by J. G. Millais, 1897.
VOL. III. S