The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-24 00:00:00

A ROYAL DEER RUNT.

•
• • The correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, writing
' .evane. OHIO. gee, last Sunday. sends the fellow/jug in.
terestir g ',articulate of a hunt with the Emperri.es
deerhounds:—
Vesteroay was the first mutter day of the seaeon—the
" Kirby Gate," the "Lawn Meet," of thee arnerial steghounits.
A I twelve o'clock we remelt, et nee hacks and proct Oiled to
.4.
.the ',meet," which *stet • earrstou rarer...road, orrather
croft,- rides of the forest of Comptes:lie, about three.aelles
from the palace. To arrive there you pass by the trkinittg
ermine ci, which the meat and gotad Gladiateur toek his
esrlient gallops. The forest is now In the grentest possible
beau'v, and the liehts and shades nested by Ike fitful my.
, of a November sett ware eo aetonishMg that t really believe
I shmild have steeped to admire then, even if I Imo. hero
Rothe to met t the hounds, and rily servant had told rite at
starting You're altrtel late, tile" The forest of Compiegne
must have been male for spectacle hunting. • Ettending
over a space of ee OCO English scree, it is divided by vast
main Wm, and at frequent intervals you find large circular
ern steam, from which radiate glades glorieqs to
- gallop Vip, and along whieh the female or the lazy hun-
ter may view the chase from her or his caniage The
meet as a splendid sight. Imagine a large, clear, circular
space in a splendid woodland sofnething like those of Rock-
ingham. fleughton, Permieg Woods, tt,c , the centre kept
clear. exceet for the privileged, by the inevitable !madame ;
but around that magic space, ctowd of ladles in cerrieges,
men in all aorta ef coeterne-1 particularly noticed one in
• Meek velvet, who Vol " /Parmelee a very'efethuse/eh of
white teeniest, with a scarlet britileoti horseback, officers
and their aide de camps in (nil uniform—l wonder what
wove] be saki If the gunmen of Weed., In waste order,
turned out with the Pytchley—hoys on Milk. ye, Chesseure
de Vincennev, a multitude of gamekeepers, sad, tepreeible,
more tweeters. On entering the centre circle there wet a
eight to glad the eye of any sportsman from anycoelitty.
Twenty coupleof English foxhoun a, get frees the begotten.
eels in England, Amu looking very fit, mere leteuelly straipiNg
the leash; among them I recognised the familiar 10" ,Oak.
ley , and "P " ,petchleye aki a was glad to see one of the
latter leading- the pack across the Compiegne road after
they had beensrundfng an hoer. From the hounds we natu-
rally turned to the horses, which were grouped antler the
seelter of the trees. There were forty from the Imperial
stables slohe, and i think they couldpotebave cost lees than eel, I. or 10,000/ There was one group of six, wattleg to
be ridden by field.lbarshals of France, which woul I have
been cheap at 1,00/ I ventured to oblerve to lete. Gamble,
"That's a nice cheeitnt. I think I lilt, him better than any
I have men to day." "Ala" he replied, '• Mammon's not •
had pick Geeeral Fleury bought him at Islingtow, where
he took the prise." But there were rows.of hunters, upon
anyone of whith any'huntleg man we. alit have got, asked nq
questions, and opened no gates. As for tbeiFemidition, I
(Melt it sternly. MO. Gamble as the best stable mamwrer in
Europa Nor is thi. only show condition they are highly
tried. Yesterday the hoentisran for one hour and forty,five
minutee. ard military banes, slack reins, and rolltrg ate
will tell in that time, yet when they went horue all the
horses looked fit to begin again. There are six mounted
men and four on foot with the hounde, besides the lieutenant
of the chseeOlarski...l.amhert. They all carry horns.
At one o'clock the 'Prince Imperial cantered into the ring,
and made a bow to the assembled swells which did honour
to his tutor. It was quite the salute of the eon of aME it.
when be Is going to !eke his father's duty for the day. He
was riding a very clever Arab peny, a present from a Sheikh,
and was attended by hi. coestaut cerepenion, ; young Con.
U, au, mid his tutor. The Prince is much grown, and seems
to me much atrouger, seed, if I may nee the expression,
jollier than he wee Coming home from 'Meeting we csme
medei ly on him in. byr.eoid; it had grown very cold, so
the two boys had got out of the carriage, and were running
tares, sit ging. dancing, anti crackng their infantile Mentieg
whips with awnse and evideet delight which must be proper
for Princes as for other juveniles. The Prince, too, I should
tell you, "rides like a man." "Just his father's seat, you
see," was observed to me yesterday "and I be.
neve be will go as well and I myself saw Prince
Louis Napoleen 'stop 5 spring field ' with the
• Que ens' twice in one day" I trust add, the Prince
wore the uniform of the hunt, which Is even prettier
for children than for men. It is a emits between • high-
wayman of the last century, tied Edgar of Ravenswood,
before he guns into mourning and the "stela tomb."
O -ir eta f the last act i f Lucia : a green velvet frock,
uceekine, Hessian eoots, heavy spurs, a contents de chairs,
anti the whole ennnotented by a three-ceruered " Frederic
the Great" bat ! Imagthe aeout • hundred of these gorgeous
costumes galloping about the finest woodland scenery, to
the cry of a pack of foxhounds, and the perhap. excessive
neusc of the eel oing horn ; at every turn a carriage full of
"fair women and brave men," or a beep of beauties on
berseback, leekirg tee n more beautiful for their exercele
and you will bare an Idea, trough only a feint one,
of the picturnque Ode of a day In the ferests of
Feat cc, But I must hark back to the cars...low% and
cast 'if afreeh ort the line off the meet With a
cret•king of whips and jie Ong .1 bells, the Imperial pro-
ceseien arrived Seven chars about', each drawu by Mar of
them wouderful Percnerou mares, which teem capable of
galloping all day with the heaviest rani tee behind them,
brought to the ground the Emperor, Empress, and their visi-
tors. It was clear from their dresethat neither Emperor or
Empress was going to ride, and imbed there was a council to
be held just as the idle guests would he "chasing the wild
deer" A great shout welcomed the Emperor, who got out
of tee char a bane, followed by that dear old brown dog
which never 1 • him, and smoking his cigar—for I regret
to say his Majesty does indulge In that pernicious habit—
strolled about talking to everybody. It was generally re-
Marked that his Majesty raver looked beVer, and so far as
my very small experience and chance of keovritig go, I
should say I have never seen hint look either more active
or more amused Then the fun began The Princes.
Gh.kr gets out of the carriage and mounts her hone
such an animal ' Long, low, grand action, and the
colour, that dark cleeseut which, as in the case of
Ishmsel and his eon, the eswitcher," is almost black In
certain lights The flret thing the horse did was to stand up
on his hi, d legs and perform little scenes in the circle, to
the delight of the audience, and, as I think not the ,lightest
to the alarm of the Teter Ido not know which the public
admired moat—public taste is eccentric; but really the
Princess was so fitted to the horse, and the horse so worthy
of its rider, that tam sure all tile "gallery" must have felt
incite :ad to join in the recommendation of the Empress, who,
after the cbeenut had made the first plunge; said •' Preteens,
pray take the greatest care of yourself." More diversion!
An equerry fads oif his horse before he gets on He is car.
rieel into the lodge. The Emperor goes to vuet him. 'There
is little hunt and less dirt, for he tell in • clean place. Then
the marshals get 011 their horses. Marshal II -Mahon
rode a bay, and if he was net satisfied with lala mount
he must be hard to please. Matehei C dirty ert in
mufti, and indee all the chefs of the Preside army were
prestnt on Wheeleor in the sadole Sueldehly there
was a fanfare. which frigletened all the horses out of their
coate a peat bailie; of restrained hounds. m. ire bells and
whip., and so cn avant for the "attack," Aughce toe
"find ;" after wlrch the Emperor and Empress retiree to
bnehaes. The Prince, however, Stuck to the hounds The
"attack" is not, however, a" find." as we understand it in
England; Mr a species of "earthetopper " starts at two
a.m , and walks about till he stalks a eeer ; then he spots
the place, goes home, aml tells the chef where h will fted
his "quarry.' Then when the hour to come, and the fan-
fare sounds, they proceed to route the red deer from his
WC; which they do, not with a great crash, as we like it,
but with a couple of homets. When this proceeding took
place we an began to gallop. I do not think everybody
guile knew why, but gallop we did. I was riding aen year
old thorough bred, innocent of bounds, and which trembled
like that aspen we have been Invited to "come and see
mime.," but which was such a " goer " as you seldom
see, and elleh a " stayer " as I have rarely ridden.
As for her condition, I will only say that when
e'reen stone—,; ur correspondent, trough possibly a
light and frivolous writer, is scarcely a feather
wtieht—bad persevered with her for an hour and
forty•flve minutes, she was ready to jump out of her skin
the whole way home. Just as we turned a cooler I heard
the cry of honeds. Two valets immediately reentered us
with st " voluntary" on the horn, and two hounds carried
the scent over the ride ; presently there was • rush, and
another "dog varlet' came with a lot of hounds, and
I,esed them on the track Then there was some very
pretty Minting and the hounds crossed a wide open space
with a crash which caused at least one Englishman to cheer
them on But hark to cry ! There Is a modem crash We
2.6 efe the steam again, end suddenly come on a group look-
ing at a tbicket, at which the pack is baying, to the tune of
reverse horns. We have ran Into 'or stag. M. le Baron
Ltreleert dismounts, an the valeta dismount • one takes a
miniature rifle and he proceed• to load it, In order to kill the
quarry; suddenly the hounds rush one man with rifle
rushes in, and find. lets abqe with wild boar !
Tne hounds had divided, anti the mein body had
preferred the lesser animal The rest of the pack
persevered, and at dark killed a One Meek Two hours and a
dinner are suppetted to have elapsed between the acts. The
-cterteinrisets for stir conclusion of this long performance over
the Palace of Compiesine, a fine etructure ock upying three
; pies, of a vast zouttyard, the fourth being the " Grande
'GriPe," Iron pullisades, ard the treat entrance gate The
palace itself is as yet sombre without, but within all Is
re velry. floasebold guests, end attendants, there are nearly
700 persona to sleep to night under that roof, and they are
at present barneteelng In the great hall—not the little hall,
decorated with the history of Don Quixote; that is reserved
for small parties The courtyard Is now the centre of at-
traction. A line of soldiers, reaching from the iron gates to
the entrance ha'l, keep a deer space about twenty yards
wide in the centre ; behind thews sentries are arranged the
"general public," just allowed to enter. Suldenly thirty-two
footmen, in lull livery, advance and piece themselves one
between each two soldiers. Each footman carries an enor-
mous torch; two more torches are lighted at the deer.
A haying of hornets is Mare. A cog varlet appears
learn g before him the head and antlers, the Ain
and Hal if the stag which has dle.l to thy. Then fl ,urish
forth the trumpets, the window of the greet balcony over
the door opens, and the Emperor, Empress, Prince Imperial.
and their elllte appear. All the other swim ows are tenanted,
Eitel the scene ru gaze down upon is strange end weird
Like the phaumm pack of which Versed in German popuar
tales, the manes rush on their prey; they are sent beck.
Amon they atteck aid are repulsed, and then to a great
entetere they repeat the assault, the varlet drops the skin,
rues away, and this third time it remelt es a case of werry,
Vi rry, worry." Suck is the curee by torchlight of which we
have read so often, and in welch our ance,tors so delighted.
1' is no more like a kill in the open" than Purgatory it like
Pareeire ; but it is a womlerful sight, and a fitting 11.103 for
the gorgeous spectacle of a day with the Emperer's deer-
hounds.