III
the credit of being the first Plantagenet New Forest.
Pantycendy.
Parkin's, Miss.
Pen-y-Ghent.
Price's, Mr.
Royal Agricul. Col.
Royal Rock.
St. Bees.
Spring Hill.
Sproughton.
Stockton (Foot).
Stoke Place.
Surrey, West.
Thorpe Satchville.
Trinity (Cambs.).
Trowbridge.
Warwick.
Witherdon.
Wooddale.
Woodland.
Wood's, Mr. F.
Worcester Park.
L. C. R. CAMERON.
SCOTLAND.
Ayrshire.
East Lothian.
Edinburgh.
Eskdale.
IRELAND.
Bellmount.
Duleek.
Moorhall.
Moynalty.
Newbridge.
Scarteen.
BASSET-HOUNDS.
Fairforth.
Greywell Hill.
North's, Lord.
Olive's, Captain.
Riversfield Basset.
Stainrigg Basset.
Walhampton. who rode to his hounds and thus hunted at force.
As the history of the royal hounds is to some extent the history of staghunting in this country, Mr. Burrows' interesting introduction to my own book may here be cited. From this we learn that the earliest record of a regular establishment of the buckhounds is the grant to Hamon le Venour in 1216 of certain lands in Rockingham Forest known under the Edwards as "Hunters' Manor," to which for many centuries the hereditary mastership of the royal buckhounds was attached. The traces of this establishment, broken up on the permanent establishment of the Court at Windsor, are to be found in local names and ruins still existing in the woodland Pytchley country. These lands were held by the Lovels and De Borhuntes in consideration of their office, by the conditions of which they were bound to keep up a certain number (varying from fifteen to twenty-four) of "canes currentes" (buckhounds), two "berners" (keepers), a "veutrer" or a or huntsman, and whippers-in, partly at their own and partly at the royal expense. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, by the marriage of Sir Bernard Brocas with Mary De Borhunte, the hereditary mastership came into the Brocas family, who held it until 1633.
Under Henry VIII. a new institutionthe privy Buckhounds-had arisen, more suited than the old feudal system to the ideas of that liberal age, of which the mastership was to be held during the king's pleasure. The first master of the privy though deer may have been carted about previously to this for the royal chase, from that time onwards the deer cart may be said to have become the centre and pivot of modern staghunting.
A few words may be said here upon the causes which led to the introduction of the deer cart.
George III. at his own pace and convenience hunted the Berkshire side of the Thames and the Hampshire heathland very much in the same way as it is hunted now.
He liked long runs, strong deer, the open Naumann * IN THE PADDOCKS. pack was the ill-fated George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, who thus heads the rôle of Masters of the Buckhounds as we understand the office in these days. The two packs were jealous rivals; but eventually the hereditary mastership was sold by Sir L.
Watson, a ruined cavalier, and the office became obsolete. So much for the past, now for the present.
The Deer Cart. - Until evolution or some other process demolishes the proposition that the greater includes the less, precedence justly belongs to the deer cart. Without a deer cart there could clearly be no staghunting; but this solid engine of the chase claims our early attention upon higher grounds, inasmuch as the popular character of modern staghunting in the widest sense of the word "popular"; witness, for instance, a turn-out at Salt Hill or Maidenhead Thicket-may largely be ascribed to its exciting influence.
In the course of my reading I have not been able to establish the date of the first deer cart, or discover its talented inventor.
George III., however, acquired the freehold of Swinley paddocks in 1782, and started the hunting herd there about that time. Alcountry as against Windsor Great Park, and a field as against a court.
The deer cart and artificially conditioned deer were the only means to these ends. But the new system, as a system, was an innovation, not a revolution. Owing partly to the countless Enclosure Acts of the two previous reigns, the spread of agriculture, and the growing taste for high farming and reclamation, the area of staghunting in the environs of Windsor and all over the country was rapidly disappearing. As a matter of fact the red deer had long ceased to be the first "beast of venery" in England.
We should have to go back several hundred years to find in this country any such astonishing extent" of forest as Colonel Thornton remarks upon in his sporting tour to France in 1805. Parks and fallow deer abounded in the year 1530.
According to Manwood there were upwards of a hundred parks in the counties of Essex and Kent alone; and the best French writers upon venery of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (an Augustan period of this sort of literature) held English staghunters in doubtful esteem, because their experience was limited to parks, and to fallow buck hunting as against stag- In short, by the end of the last century, setting aside the gaunt and unvisited Highlands of Scotland, wild herds of red deer were only to be found upon Exmoor and Dartmoor, in the New Forest and in Wolmer Forest.1 It is true that a Swinley deer is recorded as having afforded a record run into Oxfordshire to the Duke of York and his suite, but I question whether this was a wild deer in the Exmoor sense of the word "wild."
The red deer, saving the stately remnant who still enjoy the high privileges and ancient distinction of their race on Exmoor, has no such abiding city in England as he appears to hold and to keep in France. But perhaps whatever the "tall deer" may have lost in prescription he has gained in popularity. Upon the "greatest happiness" principle the carted deer may be congratulated upon rendering services to his generations which would have delighted Bentham, and upon playing a part, especially in the Ascot and Windsor districts, which merits the attention of the economist and the gratitude of the Inland Revenue. The deer cart used at the royal kennels, which, as the result of a century's experience, may be taken as typical of the species, consists of a rectangular wooden van on four wheels, giving the interior dimensions of 5 feet 9 inches by 3 feet 4 inches and 4 feet I inch high. A longitudinal division made in two parts and to slide, divides the cart into two compartments, each compartment having a door. When the deer are carted in the morning, this sliding partition is so arranged as to allow the first deer to enter on the left and turn past the inner end of the partition into the right-hand compartment. The deer thus faces the right-hand wing of the double door in readiness for the turn-out. The second deer remains in the left-hand compartment in case the first does not afford a good run.
The floor of the deer cart should be 3 feet 3 inches from the ground, and battened to prevent slipping; it should never be scrubbed, but merely brushed out, leaving some manure in order to improve the scent for hunting. The double doors are ventilated in the upper part on the Venetian blind principle, with two windows near the top that the deer may not be dazzled when first freed. The interior walls are padded and covered with strong cocoanut matting.
Under the driving box is a place for lame 1 Vide Rural Sports, Rev. J. Daniel (1805); and for a description of the Wolmer deer, White's Selborne. hounds, 2 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 4 inches by 2 feet 6 inches. A deer cart of this type, and all of the best, costs about £120.
The best is the cheapest, for a deer cart has to stand exposure to much wind and weather and the wear and tear of all sorts of country roads. Initial solidity is an essential, and unfortunately solidity means weight. The approximate weight of the Ascot van, which has been in use since 1874, with its freight of two men and two deer, is about 23 cwts., which involves a strain of somethng like 16 cwts. upon the horses.
THE DEER CART.
In these resourceful days it seems strange that something less cumbersome has not been discovered: pending the invention of a motor deer van, any suggestion for lightening the burden should be welcome. Mr. Kemsley, of the Royal Hotel, Ascot, who has horsed and driven the deer cart by contract for some years past, to whom I am indebted for the foregoing particulars, advises as an improvement the use of a cranked axle, which would lower the body six inches and render the van more practical for loading: and he would add higher front wheels and closer couplings, and make the body six inches shorter. This would materially decrease the weight. It has always seemed to me that a further lightening might possibly be effected by the substitution of a strong wicker roof, instead of the present wooden one, made waterproof by a covering of strong tarpaulin, on the principle and in the style of that important factor in every day life, the lady's travelling dress trunk.
Mr. Kemsley tells me that he reckons the average day's journey at forty miles. I know, speaking from my own experience, that this is within the mark. But an instance occurred last season when seventy miles had to be covered by the deer cart, which got back to the paddocks at about three in the morning. Mr. Kemsley reserves four horses solely for this work, each pair doing one journey a week. He likes a shortlegged horse with plenty of bone, not over 15.3 and not under seven years. They must be well seasoned and fairly bred, in order to stand the long miles and face the weight.
The master of a pack of staghounds is exempt from the cares of earth stopping, but the efficiency and staunchness of the deer cart are heavy items in his budget and serious considerations.
Let us glance for a moment at some of these considerations: a well-horsed deer cart can even on woolly roads manage a steady six or seven miles an hour. As most staghounds do not meet till twelve, a very early start is seldom necessary. At the meet the deer van attracts as much attention as the Trojan horse might; upon its being driven into the field selected for the turn-out, popular enthusiasm knows no bounds, the excitement being kept up by conflicting suggestions as to the position it should occupy and several elaborate changes of front. But after the uncarting, the deer cart repairs to some central point. Among free-born Englishmen this always means a public-house-and here we come to a question of morals. The well-ordered number of these bulwarks of civilisation, coupled with long hours, stress of weather, agreeable company and personal popularity, mean that the driver and his comrade must unite the self-discipline of a St. Simeon Stylites to the hardihood of a Nansen. "They also serve who only stand and wait " in the circumstances a difficult thing to do without a glass of beer; but it is not all waiting. Possibly the first deer is taken or disgraces himself in half an hour, and the second deer is quickly wanted. A messenger arrives on the spur, and the deer van is expected to exhibit all the dash and alacrity of a London fire engine in getting to the scene of action. If, on the other hand, no orders have arrived by the time agreed upon, the whole caravan gets under its ponderous way, and follows to the best of its ability the line of hounds: depending upon the reckless information of passers-by or the vague accounts of discouraged sportsmen who have lost a shoe, lamed their horses, or had enough of it. This may go on for hours, and it will be admitted that a good deer cart driver is a valuable servant.
The safe carting of the deer, its comfort in transit, and the soundness and welfare of the horses_depend upon his care and competence. In a well-managed establishment the driver should always have a man with him who should be a good stableman, and if possible accustomed to the ways of deer.
Unless your men, your horses, and your deer cart are all of the best, recognise their responsibilities, and work harmoniously together, your troubles will not be to seek. It may here be remarked that the vandriver and his comrade should be suitably but not too soberly dressed. The green plush coats and gold lace of the Royal Hunt give the deer cart a very classical appearance. In Utopia, I think, these officials would wear heavily furred white beavers, and a gaily attired postillion might be added. But in any case the rather prisonvan-like appearance of the conveyance should be relieved somehow by colour and character.
The Carted Deer. The managing partner of a stag-hunting company next claims my attention.
Successful stag-hunting, by which a staghunter means a good run, in which little or nothing is seen of the deer until he is taken safely and artistically, depends upon several things.
There is the mood and temperament of the deer; there is the weather, for though deer run well in under bright skies and a hot spring sun, I have seldom seen them run up to their form in muggy, hazy weather; there is the country, that is the line taken by the deer, a matter of prime importance in such a riding pastime as stag-hunting.
But, with the exception of the weather, all these largely depend upon the deer's condition-condition in the sense we mean when we speak of a Persimmon or a Slavin being trained to a day. In the case of a deer this training is the test and result of the paddock management. It will be good or bad in the same ratio as this is good or bad.
The number of deer in the paddocks depends upon purse, space, and the number of days a week the pack hunts. The hardest running deer are always the soundest, and very seldom get themselves into any trouble. Thus a crack deer will come out six or seven times in an open season; but three days a season is the most you can reckon upon with an average animal, and to hunt a two-days-a-week country properly, i.e., assuming two deer are taken out daily, this may be taken as the basis of calculation.
At Swinley, the Royal Deer Paddocks, things were done on a liberal scale, but it is much better to have rather too many than rather too few deer. Deer easily get stale; like human beings, they have their days, and to my mind it is both foolish and wrong to hunt a weak or unwilling deer. at the death, out stag-hunting the exertion of all is to save the deer's life. This then is the grand test of a huntsman's skill and success: season after season old names and old friends in the paddocks.
To my mind the artificial conditions and high feeding of paddock life are not alone sufficient to put a deer in wind for the deep and holding country over which he is often hunted. Deer should therefore be exercised. As an example of how this may be Country. I spoke just now of country as a condition of successful stag-hunting.
In my opinion the prime requisites are extent and variety. From the riding point of view a very material one-nothing can be imagined better than the Elysian fields of the Aylesbury Vale and the emerald provinces of the Ward Union. At the same time, if only some magician could do away with the wire, restore the Harrow country, obliterate many villas and an occasional STAGHOUNDS IN FULL CRY. done, I may say that in the Swinley Paddocks we formerly had a bob-tailed lurcher to whom this duty was confided. He performed it admirably. The deer and he thoroughly understood each other, and nothing would have induced him to turn into earnest the play which both parties thoroughly enjoyed. It is only fair to say, however, that the contrary opinion is held by many who are conversant with the subject as to the desirableness of this artificial exercise. The "Druid" in one of his books endeavours to point a distinction between the hunting aptitudes of different breeds of deer, the Woburn deer, for instance, being superior to the Chillingham, and so on. In my opinion, the question is not so much one of strain, which has little bearing on the question of a deer running well or ill, as of local antecedent conditions. It is a great point that the deer destined for hunting should have been bred in large, rough parks, where they have had plenty of range and wild life. village, and, perhaps, whilst he was in the humour, abolish the Thames, the Queen's county would be an ideal stag-hunting county. There is country of all kinds, and, above all, lots of room, and the value of the bold sweep of forest and heath lands cannot be over-rated. Staghounds should not meet in a systematically wired country, and they should always be stopped in water meadows or low-lying riverside lands. The best mounted and most resolute hunt servants cannot be counted upon to keep with hounds in these circumstances. "The Lord of the Valley stands proudly to bay."
Like every other line of Whyte Melville's appreciative verses, this is absolutely true.
Besides, habit is ten times nature, and the pack are so accustomed to bay round their deer in a lusty "Freischütz" chorus, but at a respectful distance, that so long as he is on his legs, it does not occur to them to do anything else. But the carrier of water meadow, or the ooze of a withy bed, a has a fatal attraction for deer, which they seem powerless to resist; they seem to abandon themselves to a sort of Nirvana.
With the loss of the advantage of ground, there is the more serious loss of prestige and then it is soon all over.
The Staghound. - The Rev. J. Daniel and other writers of authority in the first years of this century speak with disparagement of the slowness and heavy outline of the royal staghound. But a very few years after the publication of Mr. Daniel's Rural Sports in 1806, the old staghound type was extinct, at all events in the royal kennel.
Both George IV.'s and Lord Derby's staghounds were pure bred foxhounds, and the good ground gained in the first quarter of the century has been more than held.
Nothing could be more different from the old Georgian staghound or the Massy buckhounds a celebrated pack of curiously bred Talbots in Tipperary-than the type a Master of the Buckhounds or of the Ward Union sets before him and works up to to-day. Horses and men want to go faster and faster, and so must the hounds. Moreover, nothing is to be gained by the majestic size and massive bulk still honourably associated with these Vieille Roche aristocrats. A racing foxhound pack of the highest breeding-24 ins. at the very outside, 23 ins., in my opinion, is better with the Blankney necks and shoulders, above all with the tirelessness which Lord Henry Bentinck and Mr. Tom Smith set such store by, are what the present conceptions of hunting and of riding to hounds require. To some extent, too, a staghound's is a thankless service; bon sang ne peut mentir, and only a foxhound of high degree will go on doing his very best in the face of the moral, and often practical, rebuffs which are his only meed when once it becomes a question of a deer's safety.
As the tendency of staghounds is to string, and as the drive and speed of your hounds are the first things to think about, a pack should be drafted hard up to high standards of pace and dash. In a pack of twelve couple-quite enough, in my opinion, to have out with a large field of eager and courageous horsemen-every hound should be fast enough to get to the front and determined enough to do his utmost to stay there. Nose is hardly the first consideration in a staghound, for, as Charles Davis used to say, the_scent of a deer lies so high and sweet. It may be an impossible ideal, but a master of staghounds should not rest conmaster of staghounds should not rest content till, in Beckford's phrase, he sees his hounds topping their fences " like the horses of the sun, all abreast," or, to quote another high authority, "spreading like a rocket," in a difficulty. of the old staghound, bred, as he was, with It is difficult to establish the exact origin care and patience for the express purpose of stag-hunting. Perhaps the old Devon and Somerset pack, rather than George III.'s hounds, may be taken as the best of the sort. In height they ran from 26 to 28 ins.; in colour they were hare and badger pied, yellow and white, and black and white with long ears, colossal throats, deep chests, and slab sides. Even when running hard, these hounds gave plenty of sonorous music; comparative silence is the price we have had to pay for pace. But a modern staghunter on a grass-country horse, with the Vale of Aylesbury unfolding itself in front of him, will cheerfully bear the loss of the melodious operations of the past.
Horses. Little need be said with regard stag-hunting; "thoroughbred horses make to horses. The best is not too good for thing yet but it was done by a thoroughbred the best hunters; I never heard of a great horse," said Dick Christian. I believe he was quite right, especially for stag-hunting. them with lots of action and to see all four Dick Christian goes on to say that he likes feet at once. It is not very clear what this comfortable idea of action; but in buying a means, though it gives one an almost unstag-hunter bear in mind that road work, and fast road work, is inevitable, and that a noisy hackney-actioned horse knocks his legs to pieces in no time. Send him a quarter of a mile away, listen to him gallop down a road towards you, and if he recalls Of course, a stag-hunter must go fast. A to you Virgil's hexameter, don't buy him. slow or underbred horse, if not outpaced by staghounds, soon gets blown by the persistence of the pace; for if the deer is really in the humour, a horse has few opportunities his rider can save him by riding cunning for getting his wind, and it is but seldom hours and the ever lengthening miles home, and getting a nick. In view of the long which stout deer usually mean, it is an economy to send out two horses for all the hunt servants; thus you want more horses than you would in a fox-hunting stable.
Unfortunately, too, the second horses do not often mean any great saving to the first.
They can seldom get to points or make had to come along a pretty good pace and short cuts, and, when they do arrive, have jump a few fences. Three days a fortnight is quite as much as a hunt horse can full of condition, and fairly ridden. But, manage, and even then he must be seasoned, given these desiderata and a capable stud groom, the effect of the most severe day's stag-hunting soon passes off.
It may here be remarked that the whippers-in should be quite as well mounted as the huntsmen, and on really bold horses.
They should be emergency" horsemen; by this I mean men who will jump a really big place at a critical moment. 66 The Past and Present of Stag-hunting. -Since 1857, the first year the Field published its annual list of hunting establishments in the United Kingdom, the number of stag-hunting packs has steadily increased from six to sixteen in 1897, the highest lacks much of the uncertainty which certainly distinguishes fox- and hare-hunting; but this very feature is in itself from some aspects commendable. To begin with, unless the deer cart has got lost, you are sure to find; and there is always scent enough to hunt a deer when hounds could not own to a fox. Then there are conditions attached to stag-hunting which make it an eminently suitable amusement and exercise for busy men who like a ride. Several of the most notable staghound packs are, thanks to our benevolent railways, within easy reach of London. In a good country, with a fast THE HUNTED STAG TAKES TO THE WATER. figure recorded in this period. I have not got the figures for Ireland. But it is not an industry which has suffered from overproduction, and this increase bears no proportion to the remarkable increase of foxhunting establishments. As exhibited and practised by the Queen's, the Surrey, Lord Rothschild's, and other well-known packs, stag-hunting has never been more popular than at present; yet it continues to be, as it always has been, a localised form of the chase. For all but a century there have been staghounds in the home counties, in Hampshire and in Norfolk; but, as far as I know, this sport has never taken root in the midland and northern counties; and whilst there are several packs of high reputation in Ireland, stag-hunting has made no way either in Scotland or in Wales.
As a good deal has been urged at one time or another to the depreciation of staghunting as compared with fox-hunting, I may be excused for briefly noticing here some of the advantages which our good humoured and democratic pastime affords.
It is claimed, for example, that stag-hunting pack and a straight deer, a run of an hour, or at the most an hour and a half, should satisfy most people. Staghounds meet late, and nine times out of ten the best of the run is over early. Then we trouble ourselves less about conventions than foxhunters. If anything, stag-hunting is too liberal a school of morals; there are no ca canons of dress, and very few of behaviour.
Lastly, from a master's point of view, our profession is absolved from many of the anxieties which take up a good deal of the time of a master of foxhounds. Your master of staghounds is spared, for example, all heart searchings as to the soundness of Mr. Jones' views on foxes; he need not upset all his arrangements owing to Lord Hawkeye's big shoot, or answer letters about massacres of poultry and game. If only he can keep his field in order-who are as a rule not good judges of seeds and meadow land-the damage done to land by staghounds should compare favourably with that caused by foxhounds in a fashionable country; a good deer runs over a long stretch of country, he runs straight, and a does not, if he is worth his salt, dodge and twist about, like a bad fox on a poor scenting day, dragging a large and impatient field backwards and forwards over a few hundred acres of affectionately farmed land. If he does, a wise master leaves him to his own devices, and sends for the deer cart and the second deer. ،، Ethics naturally bring us to a freely debated aspect of stag-hunting, the humanitarian. A discussion of the cruelty" question would be outside the scope of this article; besides, I have said all I have to say in the chapter on this subject in my Staghunting Recollections. Perhaps THE RIBBLESDALE BUCKHOUNDS. a rather closer acquaintance with our manners and customs may mitigate the asperities of our opponents; and if my book should have any such effect I should indeed be pleased; but on the broad issue I would recommend to their notice the discussion between Mr.
Fox and Mr. Wakefield (the editor of Lucretius), given in Lord John Russell's Memorials and Correspondence of Charles 1857.
Her Majesty's.
East Berks.
Cheltenham.
Devon and Somerset.
Heathcote's.
Baron Rothschild's. 1862.
Her Majesty's.
Burton Constable.
Devon and Somerset.
Mr. Heathcote's.
Hon. F. Petre's.
Baron Rothschild's. 1865.
Her Majesty's.
Sir C. (Yorks).
James Fox (Vol. IV.), and in the words of Mr. Wakefield, "I wish that any dispute of the kind would terminate as amicably and after such gentle litigation" as theirs did.
In Literature. The literature of carted deer hunting, though adequate, is not large:
Mr. Beckford declined to include us in his Thoughts, Mr. Daniel only just admits it to his Rural Sports. "Nimrod" touches upon our pastime with occasional condescension, but his heart is far from us. Scott and Sebright the "Druid" devotes a vivid chapter to the stag-hunting of his own and the preceding generation. Then we can see a fine run with the Baron in the pages of Satanella, and laugh at ourselves with the late Mr. Higgins in the Harrow country (Wild Sports of Middlesex), or with Mr. Surtees and John Leech when the Benicia Boy electrifies Miss Birch's establishment. Starting from Edward III., Mr. Hore in his History of the Royal Buckhounds traces the fortunes and investigates the budgets of the royal pack under successive sovereigns. Of my own book I will only say that its facts, experiences, and recollections are the result of three years' close association with deer, staghounds, and staghunting.
RIBBLESDALE.
The latest addition to the list of the staghunting packs is the Ribblesdale Hunt, which was founded by Lord Ribblesdale, who was at one time master of the Queen's Buckhounds, and Mr. Peter Ormrod. This pack hunts wild Sika deer in the Ribblesdale country. It was formed in 1906, and as at that time stag-hunting was not known in that part of the country, its formation was met with great opposition, both on account of the cruelty alleged, and the amount of damage that the farmers imagined would accrue to their property.
However, owing to the energy and tact of the joint masters, this opposition was overcome, and the hunt now enjoys great popularity, meeting, as it does, twice a week. LIST OF PACKS.
Constable's Devon and Somerset.
Mr. Heathcote's (now the Surrey).
Mr. Nevill's (Winchester, given up).
Hon. F. Petre's (now the Essex).
Baron Rothschild's.
Same as above, except Sir C. Constable dropped out; but two new names appeared -the Easingwold in Yorks and the Berkhamsted in Herts. 1875.
Her Majesty's.
Mr. Angerstein's.
Berkhamsted.
Colchester.
Devon and Somerset.
Easingwold.
Mr. Nevill's.
Hon. F. Petre's.
Baron Rothschild's.
Surrey.
Mr. Farnell Watson's.
Waveney (Norfolk).
Lord Wolverton's (Dorset). 1880.
Her Majesty's.
Berkhamsted.
Lord Carrington's.
Colline Dale. (He bought Lord Wolverton's and Mr.
Nevill's.) Devon and Somerset.
Mid Kent.
Norfolk and Suffolk.
Hon. F. Petre's.
Sir N. de Rothschild's.
Surrey.
Mr. Farnell Watson's. 1885.
Her Majesty's.
Berkhamsted.
Devon and Somerset.
LIST OF PACKS-continuea.
Devon and Somerset.
Enfield Chase.
Essex (late Petre's).
Mr. Giles's (Herefordshire).
Mr. Greene's (Suffolk).
Mid Kent.
New Forest.
Lord Rothschild's.
Surrey.
Lady Meux's (Wilts). Surrey Farmers'.
Mid Kent.
New Forest.
Hon. F. Petre's.
Sir N. de Rothschild's.
Surrey.
Warnham. 4th Hussars. 1891.
Her Majesty's.
Berkhamsted.
Warnham. 8th Hussars. This is a regimental pack at Norwich, and the hunt is transferred from regiment to regiment. 1895.
Her Majesty's.
Berkhamsted.
WILD RED DEER ON EXMOOR. If any one branch of hunting can be said to be especially popular with the readers of Devon and Somerset.
Enfield Chase.
Essex.
Mr. Gerard.
Mr. Greene's.
Mid Kent.
New.
Oxenholme.
Lord Rothschild's.
Savernake.
Surrey.
West (Farmers').
Warnham.
Surrey 7th Dragoon Guards. 1910.
Sir John Amory's.
Berkhamsted.
Berks and Bucks.
Mr. Burton's.
Devon and Somerset.
Enfield Chase.
Essex.
Mr. Gerard's.
Mid Kent.
New Forest.
Norwich.
Oxenholme.
Ribblesdale.
Lord Rothschild's.
Surrey.
Warnham.
IRELAND.
Antrim, East.
County Down.
Ward Union. 1818 the hunt was prosperously carried on a private gentleman. From that time to by various magnates of the district; then MEET OF THE DEVON AND SOMERSET STAGHOUNDS. sporting magazines and other periodicals of the present day, surely that department of sport with which the Devon and Somerset Staghounds are associated may lay undisputed claim to the distinction. Yet the hunt has had its days of adversity, and many staunch supporters thereof can well remember the days when the future of the chase of the wild red deer seemed more than doubtful.
Turning first to the History of the Hunt, it seems probable that deer were first hunted by the rangers of the forest of Exmoor from a very early date, apparently the thirteenth century, but it was not until 1775 that a pack of hounds was hunted there by VOL. III until 1825 the sport would seem to have languished, and from Vol. XV. of the Sporting Magazine, published in that year, it is obvious that the "North Devon" Stag Hunt was in a moribund state. In the volume above referred to is included a lengthy article by "Nimrod," which appeared in the November number, 1826, and describes the experiences of the author scription of the hound is of interest. "The on a sporting tour in the West. His de- North Devon hounds appear to be, with hounds, having all the peculiarities of the one or two exceptions, thoroughbred stagbreed. They are heavy-or perhaps I should say strong-in their shoulders; short E in their necks; slack in their loins; rather deep-flewed; heads long; ears fine and pendulous; noses somewhat flat and wide; tongues deep and sonorous; very good legs and feet; and from 24 to 26 inches high.
The prevailing colours are yellow, badger, and harepie-not one black and white hound among them. They carry their heads high with a good scent, but will stoop to a low one; and are all line-hunters-a -a flinging stag-hound being seldom met with."
Nimrod, however, does not seem to have seen any sport on the occasion of his visit, and the heavy rains which prevailed were little to his taste.
In the February number, 1825, there is a piteous letter on the subject of the decline of the hunt, which, the writer avers, had received its death-warrant; and, in fact, at the end of that season the hounds were sold by auction in London to a German baron.
From 1825 to 1855 there was more than one interregnum, but in the latter year began a new era, on Mr. Fenwick Bisset coming forward as Master of the pack.
How that gentleman faced difficulties of every kind unflinchingly, and how, thanks to his efforts, the sport has prospered, all Literature of the Sport. Following this brief summary of the history of the "Devon and Somerset Staghounds," allusion must be made to two works, in which the seeker for information on this subject will find ample matter of interest; though it must be mentioned that both books are comparatively rare. The first of these is Dr. C. P.
Collyns' Notes on the Chase of the Wild Red Deer, published in 1862. It deals very fully with the sport which the writer loved so well, and consists of eight chapters, besides an appendix of upwards of 80 pages "descriptive of remarkable runs and incidents connected with the Chase from the year 1780 to the year 1860." The book is, moreover, profusely illustrated and contains a map of the district.
The second work is entitled Records of Stag-Hunting on Exmoor, by the Hon. John Fortescue, published in 1887, and contains many illustrations, besides a map of the stag-hunting country, the extent of which is described in the opening chapter. Three appendices are subjoined, in which are to be found a "Record of the most notable Chases from 1855 to 1885," and a "Tabulated History of the North Devon and Somerset Staghounds," which is followed SORTING OUT THE TUFTERS AND COUPLING-UP THE REST OF THE PACK. interested in the annals of the Chase must know. He retired from the Mastership after twenty-six seasons of good sport, and his successors have all maintained the standard of excellence to which the management of the Hunt had been brought. by a list of the ear-marked stags killed between 1855 and 1885.
Though the above two volumes stand out as those in which the best of information is given by writers well qualified for their task, there was published in 1840 a book entitled Exmoor; or the Footsteps of St.
Hubert in the West, by Herbert Byng Hall, Esq., with illustrations which, however, can hardly be said to deal entirely with sporting subjects, nor indeed is the book itself confined to Exmoor. Mr. Hall's work is not easily obtained, but there are accounts in it of several runs which are of interest. passed; it is a topic on which unanimity of opinion cannot always be expected, but the age of the stag can, as a rule, be distinguished up to a certain point, when the stag's head is said to be "going back" or -as Dr. Collyns called a deer in such a state-a "bater" or "backer." The deer in the Devon and Somerset country do not TAKING THE TUFTERS TO DRAW.
As for the Red Deer, in Dr. Collyns' book the noble beast of the forest is fully described in Chapters II. and III.: the author cites Manwood to show cause why the hart and the hind are both mentioned as beasts of forest in the book Antiquitatis Britannia, which dates from before the Conquest.
Even at that early date "the hart hath his season in summer, and the season of the hart doth end." The render is then inducted into the distinguishing names of deer at different ages; since Dr. Collyns' day some of the more purely technical terms of distinction have fallen out of use; e.g., one does not hear a deer in his third year called spire or pricket," or a four year old a staggart "nowadays they are generally called "three" or "four year olds," whilst a "knobber, or knobbler, or brocket" is called a "male deer" simply. Similarly, the term of "hearst" for a hind in a second year is seldom used. To continue observations on Chapter II. of Dr. Collyns' book, his notes on the size and character of stags' horns at various ages are not to be sura “ 66 differ from the Scotch deer in any respect; the size of "beam" is generally a question of the quality of food accessible.
The author of the Chase of the Wild Red Deer is, in the matter of enthusiasm for the noble beast of venerie, hard pressed by one Richard Blome, to whom we are indebted for the Gentleman's Recreation, published in 1686, in which the modern sportsman will find much instruction and not a little amusement. The book was intended, it appears, to be a general storehouse of sporting knowledge in its widest sense. Amongst "Profits and Advantages of the Stag," one learns that "the Horns are said to be Antidotes against Poyson, being little inferior to those of the Unicorn, if there be any such Beast." But the sportsman and lover of Nature will read, perhaps, with greatest pleasure Richard Jefferies' Red Deer, the first edition of which work was published in 1884. Though a born naturalist, the author, when he first visited Exmoor, knew little or nothing about hunting, but it must E2 be admitted that, during the short time that he was collecting materials for this book, he learnt his woodcraft with marvellous TAKING THE PACK TO WHERE THE STAG HAS BEEN LOCATED. thoroughness. If Dr. Collyns' book is hard to obtain, this cannot be said of Jefferies' Red Deer, for an excellent edition of it is obtainable at a small price. In its ten chapters there are many passages descriptive of the beauties of red-deer land, whilst probably so familiar (in print) nowadays that it seems almost superfluous to write down that it is the duty of the "harbourer " to report at the meet of the staghounds where a "warrantable" stag, i.e., one over four years old, has made his bed or lair.
To ascertain this, the "harbourer's" movements are guided by the "slot" or footprint, which varies with the age of the deer in size, length, and shape; the greatest care being exercised by the harbourer during his investigations not to disturb the deer, who are particularly shy in the early hours.
Hunting. Arrived at the meet, the Master directs the huntsman to kennel the pack in any farm buildings, &c., that may be convenient, and the huntsman forthwith starts off with a few hounds (the number varying according to the place where the stag is reported to be lying) to rouse the deer. These hounds or "tufters" seldom exceed in number four couples; that they should have good tongue is most necessary, though, if a stag is lying out on the moor, a couple or so of particularly fast hounds may be selected. This tufting is frequently a long process; the deer may have moved after the harbourer has duly satisfied himself as to his work being done, and many untoward accidents may bring this about.
Then, with the deer fairly found by the tufters, hinds, or young deer, may distract hounds' attention; indeed, a cunning old stag A CHECK AT A STREAM. will do his best to put up other deer. But as a rule the patience and experience of his pursuers will be too much for him in the end, and he is forced to fly. The first from a sporting point of view Chapter VI., on "Tracking Deer by Slot" or “ Harbouring," is most instructive. Harbouring. This branch of venerie is opportunity is seized for stopping the tufters, and the field, most of which is waiting at the farm where the pack is kennelled, is set in commotion by the sound of the horn, giving the signal that the time has come for the "lay on." Though it may be half an hour or more before the pack is brought to the spot where the tufters have been stopped, the scent of the deer generally serves well enough, and to the lover of THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. bay, and jump into a road full of horses, the riders lose no time in dispersing, for he would stop at nothing in his desperate case. matter of considerable difficulty to give the In some streams it is occasionally a stag the coup de grâce, and he will run up and down the water until he can be lassoed, not often that a stag is killed on dry land, or seized by the horns from behind. It is though a notable case was that of the gallant ON A HOT SCENT. hounds at work perhaps laying on the pack is the prettiest sight of the day's hunting, for there is a crash of music and hounds " drive along. This drive does not often drive " along. This drive does not often last for long; the deer leaves behind so good a scent that hounds do not fling for it as they would after a fox, and they settle in their places , striding along at a good pace nevertheless nevertheless. So the chase goes on; if the deer is a very heavy one, and he has been found near the sea, it will not take long to drive him down the cliffs, and he will swim out into the Bristol Channel; thence to be brought back by boatmen, and despatched on the beach. It is more often in the rivers and streams that abound in the district that the finish of the run takes place, the stag standing to bay in the water; when once he has been brought to bay, he fights for his life, and should a beaten stag break from stag killed on October 9th, 1889; he was found in the Bratton coverts sixteen miles from Luckham, where the kill took place, but instead of being brought to bay in the jumped the high wall that surrounds the Horner Water, he still ran on, and finally rectory garden, hounds rolling him over on the lawn . Cases such as this are dangeraforesaid Richard Blome, whose advice " ous; and this is evidently the opinion of the opinion of the and burnished then the place is well to be to the Land Bay is " If the Hart be frayed considered of; for if it be in a Hedge side Hounds you may come covertly amongst or thicket, then whilst he is stareing on the the bushes behind him and so kill him, but if you miss and he turn Head upon you it is convenient to take refuge behind some tree." as The excellence of this advice is beyond dispute; other words of counsel from the same source of authority, perhaps more rarely acted upon, tell us that "it hapneth very often that through some accident or other the Hart escapeth. Now for the recovering of the Chase the next day let there be some Mark set where the Chase is left off."
The Deer Country. -As to the nature of the country over which the red deer are suffered to roam unmolested save by hounds, their territory is bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, fringed with steep cliffs and strong woodlands for the most part as far as Minehead; east of this, the country lies lower and consequently is more enclosed until the range of the Quantock Hills is reached. These heather-clad hills, and the large coverts that surround them, abound in deer, and, as this district lies wide of the Exford kennels, the hounds are kennelled at Bagborough for a week or ing instincts of the inhabitants led to an auxiliary pack being formed to hunt the deer south of the line. Close to Dulverton the river Exe is joined by the Barle, and both these rivers, the latter especially, run for miles down deeply wooded valleys. The part of the country in this district that is free from woods is strongly enclosed, though on Winsford Hill and its environing commons good galloping ground is frequently to be met with. West again of the Barle valley, Anstey and Molland Commons stretch away to the Molland Woods, whilst some distance further west come the Bray coverts; the latter, with the Bratton Woods, though immediately surrounded by a rather impracticable country, are generally reckoned as most likely to provide a good deer that will boldly face the moor. When Yard Down is the meet, a stag will often set his head straight for Moles Chamber and the Forest, perhaps not touching THE STAG AT BAY. fortnight at a time when the Quantocks are to be hunted. Some distance west of this are the Brendon Hills and the Haddon Woods, which afford shelter to deer galore.
To the south of Haddon Hill and Skilgate Common runs the Devon and Somerset Railway, beyond which the territory of the staghounds does not extend, though in 1896 the liberality of a gentleman and the sportanother covert until the Horner woodlands, on the north-eastern extremity of the moor, are reached. Similarly, from a fixture at Friendship Inn, a Bratton deer worthy of the name climbs the ascent to Chapman's Barrows, and affords a fine run to the same fastnesses, should he have strength to reach them. Exmoor forest itself, i.e., the Simonsbath side of the moor, is almost free from heather; sedge grass here prevails, and in many parts the moor is intersected with narrow drains, which, being covered with thick grass in the stag-hunting season, are responsible for many an empty saddle. The commons of Brendon, Badgworthy, and interval was usual between the stag-hunting and the hind-hunting, but nowadays the vast area over which the large herd of deer are duty on the part of the Devon and Somerset hunted makes any prolonged cessation of Hunt establishment impossible. Thus the THE STAG TAKEN IN THE WATER. practically all the moors east of the Badgworthy Water, are covered thickly with heather: over these moors the riding is good enough. On the Forest side the going is soft, in places very much so, and the dictum of a well-known deer preserver and follower of hounds that there is no such thing on Exmoor as a bog has not met with universal assent.
Season. The stag-hunting season begins about August 10th, Cloutsham being always fixture, followed a few days later by Hawkcombe Head; both these meets are in the Porlock or northern district. For the former meet, the Horner Woods, composed principally of oak scrub, may be relied upon to furnish a warrantable deer; Hawkcombe Head is more likely to mean a moorland gallop, though with so many coverts adjoining the rendezvous the starting point of the run from this fixture depends on circumstances.
The stag-hunting season usually comes to an end about the 10th of October, after which the hind-hunting season commences, and is continued until the end of April, that is, when the deer are plentiful, as is now the case.
Towards the end of September a visible change comes over the male deer, for the rutting season is approaching; the stags stags' necks begin to swell, and they bell in search of the hinds. In the old days an Hind-hunting is productive of more hard season for hounds and horses is a long one. days than the chase of the stag, for a hind will generally stand before hounds for three hours or more, and much trouble is caused if the pack gets among a herd of deer. The hind-hunting meets are not often very largely attended. hounds are out, as a rule, three days a week, Hounds. The Devon and Somerset and the arduous nature and duration of their work are a severe strain on them; perhaps what tries hounds more than anything is the work that they have to do in the the water; and hounds drafted from the Exford kennels often turn out to be valuable otter hounds. The pack is entirely composed of dog-hounds, and the average height is 25 inches; owing to the wear and tear of the kennel being heavy, a large entry is annually put on, consisting of hounds drafted from fox-hound kennels owing to found and those to whom a good-looking their height. The very best blood is to be hound is an attraction much appreciate an inspection of the Devon and Somerset kennels.
The hunting experiences of Dr. Johnson are reported to have led him to aver that "the dogs had less sagacity than he could have prevailed upon himself to suppose," and "that it was very strange and very melan- 1 choly that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us to call hunting one of them."
But as we gather from the biographer who mentions these obiter dicta that the great man's observations on the chase were solely derived from the Brighton Downs, it may be suggested that after a few days with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds he might have qualified these aspersions on the sport of kings.
L. J. BATHURST.
OTTER HUNTING. Otter hunting has been termed "The Queen of Summer Sports," and is, indeed, the only form of the chase, or pursuit of a quarry by means of a pack of hounds hunting by scent, that may be followed during the months that intervene between the killing of a May fox by some late-hunting packs of foxhounds, and the opening of the next cub-hunting season or the commencement of stag hunting upon Exmoor in the following August. With the exception of angling and hawking, it is, in fact, the only field sport, as distinguished from pastimes and games, which may be enjoyed during the heat of summer.
To the sportsman who has been properly entered to otter hunting, it will ever appeal because he is pursued during the best days of the year, when nature and the weather are to be found at their finest, and during the best time of the day, in the early morning, when the dew still lies damply on the grass and flowers of the water meadows , the birds are in full song, and a majority of the world's inhabitants-all, in fact, but the keenest sportsmen and sportswomen-are still a-bed and asleep. were Otter hunting can boast an antiquity, as an organised sport, which it does not share with any other field sport save only with coursing and the chase of the "tall deer."
It was a "Royal" sport, and the first recorded M.O.H. was King Henry II., the first huntsman of otterhounds having been Roger Follo, who acted as such to that Other Royal masters monarch.