THE CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER.*
Taz high moorlands of Exmoor and the open country stretching away along the shores of the Bristol Channel as far as the Quantock Hills is the last haunt of the wild red deer in England. Ever since the close of the sixteenth century this district has been regularly hunted with stag-hounds down to our own times. Of late years, however, the breed has sensibly degenerated, since the sale of Mr. Stucley Lucas's noble pack to a German baron in 1825. Indeed, the old breed, which was a cross between the blood-hound and the old southern hound, has now ceased to exist in this country. Those splendid animals are described as remarkable for two of the highest qualifications required in stag-hunting—sagacity in hunting in the water, _and staunchness in pursuing a hunted deer through the herd. The value of these qualities arises from the characteristic cunning of red-deer. It rarely happens that a stag does not take to the water more than once in the course of a long run. In "soiling," as it is technically termed, he lays his horns back over his neck and leaves nothing above the surface but his nose and mouth. As he generally selects a pool beneath an overhanging tree, it is quite possible for a whole pack to be completely thrown out, unless, perchance, he may have touched some twigs, or stones, on his way to his hidiug-place. Now, the old breed of hounds would quest every bush and pebble up and down the stream leading to the stag's improvised cover, and then, with a jubilant crash of deep-toned voices, announce the reco- very of the scent. Another common trick of the hunted deer is to turn a young animal or a hind out of its lair, and lie down in it, keeping his head close to the ground, so that the hounds may over- shoot him in their headlong rush and follow up the wrong track. An old stag has been known to have recolurse to this ruse three times in a single run, and when at last compelled to break, he baffled his pursuers by sinking himself in a deep pool and allowing the hounds to pass him. Again, when hotly pressed, the wily animal is wont to dash in among a herd in the hope of throwing out his enemies by the many divergent and intersecting lines of scent which must naturally fall in their way. In such a case as this everything depends upon the staunchness of the hounds ; but the old breed were oeldom at fault, as "they ran almost in a line one after the other, not carrying a head like fox-hounds, but each hound apparently revelling in the scent and doing his work for himself; not putting his faith in his neighbour, but trusting to his own nose and to that alone." On the breaking up of Mr. Lucas's pack a wasteful destruction of the red deer was caused by poachers and other idle vagabonds, who mortally wounded more than they killed and carried off. Fortu- nately, after an interval of two years, the late Sir Arthur Chi- chester, of Youlstone, made up a pack of large foxhounds, by drafts from different kennels, and hunted the country until the spring of 1833, when he disposed of his hounds, and the poacher resumed his destructive habits. Another dreary and fatal blank then occurred, and there appeared to be some danger of the red deer being speedily improved off the face of the earth. At last, in the autumn of 1837, Mr. Palk Collyns succeeded, by almost superhuman exertions, in getting up a subscription pack, which struggled on till 1842, when the Honourable Newton Fellowes generously undertook to keep it at his own expense. For the next five years that thorough. sportsman acted, to use his own words, as "a stop-gap ;" but the interregnum between his resignation, in 1847, and the assumption of the manage- ment by Mr. Fenwick Bisset, in 1855, was marked by a laxity of discipline utterly inimical to the true enjoyment of sport. A brighter prospect, however, now opens out for the chase of the wild deer, and it is hoped that, with a little encouragement, "the once loved, but now deserted coverts will again re-echo the bell of the stag, which for many a long year has been unheard in them." It has been asserted that the red deer was originally introduced into this country from France ; but after much inquiry Mr. Collyns has come to the conclusion that it is a native of this island, where from time immemorial it has been regarded as "a beast of fo- rest." In common parlance, the male is called a stag, or hart, the female a hind, and the young of either sex a calf, but in venerie the distinctions are more closely marked. "In Devon and Somerset," says our author, "the male deer is still called for the first year a calf; in the second year, he is termed a knobber, or knobbier, or brocket ; in the third year, a spire or pricket ; in the fourth year a staggart; in the fifth, a stag, or warrantable deer ; and at or after six, a stag or hart. Anciently, the terms applicable to hinds were—the first year, a calf; the second year a brocket's sister; the third year a hind. In our country we call them, in the se- cond year, a hearst, and, in the third year, a young hind." The glory of the stag is his antlers, the size and character of which depend chiefly upon histhough not a little influenced by the quality of the pasture to vIrCh he is most habituated. The horns of the red deer consist of a large beam with spires, or points, projecting from it, but occasionally in old age a palmated horn or "cup" is observable at the top of the beam whence the spires issue. The horns are technically known as "the head," and have been so for ages. It is not until the second year that a knob of bones, about two inches long, grows out on each side of the head. In the fol- lowing year these develop into an upright spire, from six to eight inches long, with a brow antler projecting from the same, close to its base. In the fourth year, the spire shoots up to the height of fourteen inches, with the brow antler, and another projection called the "tray." At five the "bay" antlers are, as a rule, added to the former points, and two points or "crochets" at the extre- mity of one horn. At six, the stag has not only all the points, or * Notes on the Chase of the Wad Red Deer in the Counties of Demo mod Somerset. By Charles Palk Collyns. Longman and Co.
" rights," of earlier years, but also two points on the top of each horn. In the next year he becomes " a stag of ten," and has all his " rights," with three points on the top of one horn, and two on that of the other. At eight he bears three points on each horn, when he is distinguished by sportsmen as " a stag with three on top." After this period the beam" gradually increases in size and strength, and additional points are thrown out near the top. At an advanced age, however, the majesty of the antlers is lost, and the once glorious " head" is represented by a single upright spire. The poor old animal is then called a "bater" or " backer." In the present day it is rarely ,that a stag with more than three points is met with in Devon or Somerset, but even then if he has all his "rights"—brow, bay, and tray—he would properly be named a stag of twelve. The horns are shed or mewed every spring, towards the latter end of April, a little before which the stag retreats into the thickest coverts, and courts concealment, until his new honours begin to sprout, when he makes for the open moorland or for grown-up plantations, where there is no danger of anything coming in contact with the 'extremely sensitive velvety substance about to be developed into horn. This velvet is actually a covering of blood-vessels, soft and vascular, so that blood is drawn by the slightest abrasion, and the injury is perceptible when the "head" has come to maturity. It takes from sixteen to eighteen weeks from the shedding to reproduce a full-grown horn, but it is generally the second week in September before the stag has quite disencumbered his antlers of the velvet which has continued to case them, though now dried up and hanging in strips. When it begins to peel, the stag" frays his head" by rubbing his horns against the frank of a tree, thence designated the "fraying stock." It is a singular thing that the cast horns are seldom picked up in a perfect state. They usually appear to have been gnawed, and the common belief is that the hinds are in the habit of eating them, though one would rather suspect the rats, or mice, or moun- tain cats.
During the growth of the horns, the stag shuns the society of the hinds, but rather affects that of young male deer, over whom he exercises feudal sway. He even employs his youthful companions and henchmen, when the rutting season is at hand, to bring the hinds to his hareem. "Waiting by the side of some favourite stream, or 'soiling' pool, to which he knows the hinds, wearied and heated by the incessant but fruitless attentions of the young gallants, will resort, the' old sultan lies in wait till his viziers believe they are about to enjoy the fruits of their labours, and then rushing out, soon puts the involuntary panders to flight, and pays his devotions to the dames whose favours they so ardently sought for." Terrible, and not unfrequently fatal, are the fights which take place between the stags in defence of their own, or in attempting to seduce the hinds from a neighbour's seraglio. The principle that none but the brave- deserve the fair is strictly observed among deer, and a NV Lcie herd of hinds will sometimes fall as the prize of victory to a hart of superior strength and prowess. "Thus deterioration of the species is pre- vented, and the degeneration which would otherwise be consequent upon constant intermixture of blood provided against." It is well for society that courage rather than strength is valued by human "hinds," for otherwise Mr. Tom Sayers would be the pater gentitem, or father of a whole generation. The male deer speedily weary of consorting with the females, and after disporting themselves for ten days or a fortnight, abandon the herd, and seek repose and solitude. "Sorry animals they are at this period ; their necks swollen enor- mously; their bodies lean and drawn up, and their gait and move.- ments indicating the state of debility to which they have been brought." Until the following summer their flesh is quite unfit to be eaten.
The hind seldom produces more than one at a birth, though twins are not altogether unknown. In almost every instance the calves are dropped between the 7th and 21st of June, and in the course of an experience extending over forty-six years Mr. Collyns was ac- quainted with only two eases as exceptions to that rule. With the commencement of the rutting season, or the 8th of October, ter- minates the chase of the male deer. Three weeks afterwards the hinds are hunted, and, if the weather remain open, up to Christmas. Hind-hunting begins again soon after Lady-day, and continues till the 10th of May. The cry of the stag is called belling," apparently a diminutive of bellowing, but it is, in truth, "a most weird and unearthly sound." The sense of smell in deer is exquisitely deve- loped, nor is that of vision less acute. The eye is full, dark, and thoughtful, and covered with moisture which trickles over in the form of tears. This is owinga to the glandular saccus, or tear pit, which is placed at the inner angle of the eye, not communicating with the nose by glandular passages, so that the redundant secretion has no other outlet than from the eye ; hence the poetic fiction of the tears of the gentle animal. The epithet "gentle,' indeed, is hardly appro- priate, for in the rutting time the stag is a perfect wild beast, and a blow from his horns is a very serious affair, even if less deadly than it was formerly supposed to be according to the old proverb : "If thou be hurt with hart, it brings thee to thy bier' •
But barber's hand will bore's hurt heale, whereof thou needst not lean.'
The ancient belief in thb extreme longevity of the deer is now ex plodecl, and Mr. Collyns is of opinion that it seldom lives more than thirty years, arriving at its prime when about fourteen or fifteen. .
A very important personage connected with the chase of the red deer is the "harbourer," whose business it is to ascertain where a "warrantable" deer harboureth, or makes his lair, in the neighbour- hood of the meet. This is a far more difficult matter than it may seem at first sight. A good "harbourer" must be as close an observer of the minutest signs and tracks as a Red Indian, with not a little of the patience and reticence of the savage. The covert should first be drawn by " tufters," or two couple of trusty old hounds, while the pack is safely locked up in some neighbouring barn, or other outhouse. As soon as the " warrantable deer" is fairly roused and has gone away, the pack is speedily brought up and laid on, and "the hunt is up." The pace is generally killing, though the country is not particularly difficult for sportsmen acquainted with the nature of the ground. The greatest danger lies in the bogs con- cealed beneath a tempting verdure. Horses accustomed to the country carefully avoid these treacherous spots, in which they would certainly sink up to the saddle-girth, and be rendered useless for the rest of the day. The fences are chiefly stone walls, loosely piled up without mortar, and full of broad gaps. Still, it takes a good horse and a bold rider to keep well up with the hounds, especially if the stag bears for the sea. The best rims, with their most remarkable incidents, from the 23rd August, 1780, to the 5th October, 1860, are chronicled in an appendix, which to sportsmen will probably prove the most attractive portion of Mr. Collyns's pleasant volume. That gentleman has deserved well of his country in producing such an instructive and entertaining monograph on the habits of an animal now fast becoming extinct. It is a book that naturalists will value almost as highly as sportsmen, but probably no readers will take a more eager interest in his exciting records of the Exmoor hunt than the home-staying youths and greybeards whose untoward destiny has never yet placed them on the back of a hunter. Every man is by nature a sportsman at heart, even though his only feat may have been a lucky shy at a cock robin on the top of a raspberry-cane. Nimrod is a household word, while Esau is certainly a more popular personage than his more civilized brother Jacob, just as most men would rather be a Gordon Cumming than a merchant or a solicitor.
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