CORRESPONDENCE.
NETTING STAGS IN RICHMOND PARS.
[To TER EDITOR OF Tax "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Perhaps the nearest approach to the ideal of "hunting without hurting" is the annual deer-hunt at the opening of spring, when the largest stags in Richmond Park are netted and transferred to Windsor. Two brace was the number proposed to be caught this year, but in a long day's work, with mounted riders, deer-hounds, and nets, only three stags were taken. The means used are the most ancient of the "fixed engines" of sport. The deer are literally "taken in the toils." These are long lines of netting which are, and have been for centuries, part of the equip- ment of all the Royal deer-parks. These nets are made of thin rope, with an 8 in. mesh. The height is nearly 12 ft. ; but part of this lies upon the ground, the nets being hung loosely on ash poles, so that when a stag does charge them he catches himself like a gigantic rabbit. Quite 200 yards of this netting, forming a heavy load for a farm horse and cart, are used in one of these hunts, and even with this equipment it is no easy matter to catch the largest and most cunning stags in so wide a park. The long line of nets was set at right angles to the Penn Ponds, on the Richmond side of the water, stretching up a gentle hollow towards the wood on the bill top. The deer were lying on the fern-covered hillsides half a mile from the Sets, to the south of White Lodge, and as they need to be driven down wind, and the breeze was from the south-east, the conditions were exactly those required for success. The line of nets did not cover the whole of the space between the Penn Ponds and the wood; but the interval was guarded by '" stops" with white flags to prevent the deer breaking through the gap. Half way between the deer and the, nets a couple of deer-hounds were held is leash behind a screen of hurdles, to hurry the stag if it approached the nets too leisurely ; but the main duties of the day lay with half a dozen riders, one a lady, who had to cut out the big stag from the herd and drive him in the right direction. Mr. Sawyer, the:head-keeper, directed the forces so engaged. Like Bruce before Bannockburn, he was mounted on a white pony, the other riders being on big hunters; but the pony, a delight- ful old-fashioned animal, with a suspicion of a tarned-up nose, and a general look of being a family friend, was evi- dently, like his master, an old hand at the business, and uncommonly workmanlike both of them looked as they rode through the grove of giant oaks, and then with whips cracking "rounded up" the deer. It was not till after some hard riding that the big stag was cut off from the herd, and when this was done he showed the utmost disinclination to hurry himself or go where he was wanted. "It's those bicycles ruin them," an old forester grumbled. "Now those wheels are grinding round the park all day, the stags have got so as they are afraid of nothing ; they'd hardly move if you asked them with your hat off." This stag just trotted into the oak grove, and dodged round the big trees. When he did break he came straight down wind, but only at a trot, until the hounds were slipped after him. Then he broke into a gallop, and making straight down the valley,. charged the net and rolled over like a rabbit. It was astonishing to see how completely this big deer was en- tangled in the Sin, mesh. Both horns, his nose, and all four feet were meshed ; and it was not without considerable difficulty that the body of keepers and watchers who pounced on him and held him fast could disengage him. When this was done, and his feet were firmly strapped together with leather bands, it took seven men to lift him into the bed of fern at the bottom of the cart in which he was to be driven to the stables. This vehicle is a curiosity. It is painted blue, and bears in large capitals the inscription, "HER MAJESTY'S CART," as if it were the one and only cart owned by Royalty. The stag, who had hardly lost his self-possession, except when being sat upon, at once struggled on to his knees, and sat gazing- out over the front of his carriage, like the "kneeling hart" of heraldry. The next stag was even more reluctant to be driven, and far more lucky. He played a game of "post" among the oaks with great success for some twenty minutes, then made straight down the valley. The two deer-hounds were slipped to hasten him, and he rushed at the nets, which be struck with his nose and chest. At this moment the hounds were at his heels. The net was an old length and rotten; the stag and both hounds burst clean through it, and went away up the valley. Presently he came back, going very easily, and obviously not afraid of the game of romps with muzzled deer-ho unds. Then tiring of the run, he "took soil" in the upper lake. This he crossed, and after standing in the shallow water by the plantation fence, leapt from the pond straight over the fence and trotted off among the rhododendrons. Mr. Sawyer then made an effort to take him in the wood. The nets were packed up and shifted in wonderfully little time, and set right across the cover. But the stag baffled this scheme by leaping the fence once more, and making off to a distant part of the Park. The second and third stags were caught in almost the same way as the first. One, a "Royal," was the largest deer in the Park, and had last year evaded every effort of the keepers to net him. There is always a danger that an overgrown stag may do mischief in the rutting season in so frequented a Park as Richmond. In Windsor Great Park, even if a stag does grow savage, he has so much space to himself and so little disturbance from visitors, that he is usually contented to satisfy his ill-temper by fighting with others.
of his own species.—I am, Sir, &c., C. J. CORNISH.
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