The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-31 00:00:00

A STAG HUNT IN FRANCE.

(Nimrod—New ~porling
,Maaazine.)
Saturday, 23rd, being a dies non in the Chantilly Racing
Calendar, other pastimes were provided, and at an early
hour of the morning, pigeon-shooting commenced between
the members of the Paris Tivoli Clu. At twelve o'clock,
however, a sport more to my taste was announced, namely,
the meeting of the Prince de Wagram's stag-hounds in
the forest, where a fine stag was said to, be harboured.
This was quite an unexpected pleasure to me, and enhanced
for the following reasons. First :—I had never seen stag-
hnnting, or any hunting indeed, in France ; and, secondly,
I had the honour of being mounted on the occasion by his
Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans, and a great honour
did I consider it to be. .

The place of the meeting, or the " fixture'," as we call it
in England, was once celebrated in the annals of French
hunting, being La Table, about two miles from Chantilly,
and so called from the fact of there being, at a division of
four roads in the forest, a large stone table, of about three
yards diameter, on rrhich, in the late Duke de Bourbon's
time, a splendid breakfast was often set out, for himself and
the field. Here were assembled, not only a great many
carriages, but at least three hundred horsemen in-
deed, some said, nearer four than three. Be this as it
may, there were sufficient to make a very grand display, and
a large proportion of the field were mounted on horses fit
to be seen any where. I also observed a fair sprinkling of
very well turned-out sportsmen, in red coats and leather
breeches and boots, that would have passed muster at Mel-
ton. The two Princes were not in red, but the boots,
breeches, saddles, and bridles, were all right of their kind ;
and I have reason to believe, from what I heard from
those who have seen them at work, that their Royal High-
nesses require nothing but practice to make them front-rank
men in any country. Of the first grand essential—nerve—
they are said to have enough.
About an hour before the hounds left the kennel, I had
an opportunity, of having a peep at them, but only for a
few minutes, as I had another engagement to attend to.
They appeared to me to have nothing of the stag-hound
in them, but to be a large sort of fox-hound, half English
and half Norman, with, I'believe, unrounded ears, which,
in addition to their being rather high on the leg, gave them
somewhat the appearance of stag-hounds, although greatly
disfiguring to them as fox-hounds. They looked about as
well in their skins as the majority of hounds do at that
period of the year ; and I saw nothing amiss with their
condition, which was light, and therefore suitable to con-
tend with a wild stag in cover, on a warm day, in the last
week in April. I could not count them correctly on the
benches, but running my eye qver them, supposed them to
be from 17 to 18 couples.
The Prince de Wagram, who resides at Gros Bois,

about 20 miles from Paris, in the department of Seine and
Marne, was with his brother on a visit at the Chateau, for
the races. The following is the style in which they were
turned out :—There were two tolerably well-mounted men,
in green coats, heavily laced with silver, laced cocked hats,
and jack boots, and each carrying a huge French horn over
the shoulder. One of these men, however, whom I had

seen in the kennel in dishabille, appiiiiled to take the lead, I
during the shore time I was in company with him, as hunts-
man. In addition to these were two more servants, either
styled whippers-in, or prickers, but which I cannot say, and
they were turned out thus :—They wore the plain black
velvet hunting cap, straight cut green frock coats, with scar-
let collars, jack boots, the couteau de chasse at their girdle,
and large French horns. Secured also to the couteau de
chasse, was a hunting whip, with the thong lapped round
the crop—such being, except on occasions, considered the
properest place for this, with us considered indispensable, in-
strument in the hand of a huntsman, or whipper-in, by reason
of its being inconvenient to carry it, when the horn is to be
played upon, in chase. The horses these men rode—especially
one in a crupper—appeared not the sort to go " the pace," but
they looked fat and sleek, and the condition of their riders
was in keeping with them. The Duke and his brother were
in dress and accoutrements, fac-similies of these two men ;
and as the party of six, with the hounds, rode away from
the crowd, to begin their day's work, their appearance was
not only highly respectable, but sportsman-like. The day
likewise was tavourab,le to effect, inasmuch as the rays of a
meridian sun added greatly to the glitter of the heavily-
laced coats and hats which the two huntsmen wore, as well
as being reflected brightly in the well-polished French horns
which they carried.
A stag having been harboured, we were not long before
he was roused ; and, nearly at the same moment, another
stag, which must have couched near to him in his lair, was
on foot From him the hounds were quickly stopped by
the prickers, and laid on to the harboured deer, who went
away as if he intended to run. The sight was a most in-
teresting one to those who witnessed it, as I myself did ;
although deprived of much of its grandeur, by the ab-
sence of the branching antlers which ornament the
" stately monarch of the forest"—this being the period at
which he generally casts his head. However, according to
the fable, stag's horns, though beautiful, being an impedi-
ment to tight, may be dispensed with by the sportsman,
and a fine chase of three hours and twelve minutes, with
death at the end of it, was the final result of the day's sport,
a short description of which I will endeavour to give.
We went off at a very good pace, so good, indeed, as
at the end of somewhere about an hour to have shaken off
the crowd. " The field is becoming select, as Mr. Aiken
would say," exclaimed the Duke of Orleans to me, with a
smile, as we came to a momentary check ; " I _am glad to
see you well up." " It is, Sir," I replied, " and it will be
more so presently if we continue this pace, for the day is
very hot." (The cuckoo was singing merrily, and close to
us at the moment.) Away we went again, however, with
apparently a breast-high scent for about half an hour, when
rather a singular occurrence took place. Many of those
who were with the hounds at the check I have- just alluded
to—and amongst them the Duke and his Royal brother,
the former on a fresh horse—were well up with them also
at a certain point of the chase, when they all at once dis-
appeared, and, strange to say, had it not been for one for-
tunate circumstance, no one but myself and two more
horsemen would have seen the hounds again that day. The
state of the case was this :—Up to this time we had not
quitted the forest in which our game was found, but per.
ceiving we were approaching the extremity of it, and the
hounds on good terms with their stag, I quitted the road,
or the " ride," as we call it in our country, and brushing
through the cover, got close to them. The ground was
rough and uneven, and the pace good, but finding the mare
I rode knew how to take care of herself, I clapped
to her in right earnest, and, in about ten minutes,
found himself in the open country with the hounds, who
were streaming away with a good scent. It being seldom
any man's lot, and still less mine of late years to be a-head
of such a numerous field as this, I turned myself round
on my saddle, after a short time, to see who was coming,
and what part of the field had got away. To my surprise
not a soul was to be seen excepting Edgar Pavis, the Duke's
jockey, on a thorough-bred one, Mr. Corringham, his Royal
Highness's trainer, and one French gentleman, on a clev-
erish gray horse. Having, I knew, travelled pretty straight
up to this point, I began to speculate as to whether the
chase would lead us, for a champaign country was before
us, and the hound's heads were put straight for it. I was
also aware that our game was not far a-head by the fact of
their carrying the scent, best pace, over a sand bank, on
which it soon gets cold, and I ventured to cheer them with
a holloa, but which, of course, they would not understand.
Soon after this, however, an awkward accident occurred.
Pavis and myself, who were leading, and nearly abreast of
each other at the moment, found ourselves all at once
amidst rabbit holes, which the Duke had so kindly
cautioned me against, although luckily for us our horses
avoided getting into them. But turning my head around
to see how the others had gotten over them, I saw the
French gentleman stretched, apparently lifeless, on the
ground. " Hold hard," said Ito Mr. Corringham, who was
not aware of the accident, " I fear the gentleman is hurt ;"
and when we raised him from the ground he was quite in-
sensible to his situation. We %hould have bled him had
we had a lancet ; but, as it proved, he was only stunned by
the fall ; Pavis and I followed the hounds, and got up to
them at the first check. Here, as they were feeling for the
scent, a second, to me, novel occurrence presented itself.
Seeing some woodmen at work on the skirts of a large
wood, Pavis asked them if they bad seen the stag, when
they replied they had not, but they had seen two Ivolves,
which probably the cry of our hounds had disturbed!
The hounds recovered the chase, which led straight into
this wood, Pavis and myself accompanying them ; and Cor-
ringham to be seen making his way towards us in the dis-
tance. And here two things were apparent. First, it was
evident, from the manner in which the hounds took up the
scent at this point, that their game was not far before
them ; secondly, that, having ben turnins, to the right
and towards home, for about three miles beforeb we came
to it, he was afraid to face the open country, after the
rattling he had bad in the forest, and the pace he had been
travelling at afterwards—added to the fact of his having
been, at this time, at least ten miles in a direct line from
where he was roused. This turn to the right, however,
was just what we wished, for who would be so selfish as to
desire others to be shut out from the enjoyment of sport
which should be common to all, and particularly so, as
there had been no superior horsemanship displayed in our
case, neither of us having as yet been over a single fence ?
Again, we were without any one belonging to the hounds,
to assist them when they wanted assistance, and we were
not only in a country in which we had never before been,
but upon the point of entering what we believed to be a
forest, in which we had a very fair chance of being lost.
However, enter it we did, and guided by " the cheering
cry," we endeavoured to keep within the hearing of it, lead
us whithersoever it might.
How long we pursued our course by ourselves it is not
in my power to determine, but as it was evident we were

\

bearing towards, rather than from Chantilly, wo hoped to
fall in with some of the field, and at length we eneunn•
tered some stragglers, amongst whom was a servant of
the Prince of Wagram, one of the two clad in green'
He arrived just at the right time, for the stag was beat-
ing us ; and although one of the huntsmen, with some more
of the field (having heard the horn) soon afterwards came
up, he would have beat us altogether had it not been for
the science displayed by one man in the stag'-hunting art.
In fact, he was fairly lost, and I question his having been
recovered, had not this person (an old servant of the
late Duke de Bourbon, I was told) found him again by the
slot, and on very different ground. We then renewed the
chase, picking up a few more stragglers on our way ; but
it was not till after we had forced bins again into the open
country, that the Royal Dukes, and. from 40 to 50 more
horsemen, joined us, having been hitherto seeking for us le
vain. The rest of this numerous field, indeed, never sawus at all, unless it were those, the Prince of Wagram him-
self amongst the number, whom we found mustered at
La Table, on our return home.
From this time to the finish it was all slow hunting.
The chase was all over ploughed land. with much naked
fallow, and under a very warm sun ; and the stag, having
had rest, was now a good bit a-head of us ; and we
not
only wanted a greater body of hounds, but those we had
began to get slack. To-do them justice, they hunted, or
rather picked their way, well up to their game, over about
five miles of country,- when he waited for us in a small
cover, and we re-found him. The finish was most satis-
factory. We viewed him three times in this cover ; and
when he did break, it was only to conclude the scene. In
endeavouring to leap a wall close to a gentleman'se house
called St. Martin, he fell backwards, and died.
Although I had seen wild stag-hunting in England (in
Devonshire), I had never seen it accompanied by
that custom having been discontinued before my time-
There was something very cheering, I thought, in the
notes of the French horn on this day, which, as it WCIT'
responded to those of the hounds, when they threw their
tongues on the scent, over the open, after having occasion-
ally lost it ; and no doubt it is cheering to hounds as ye'
The snort blown at his head has likewise an animating,
effect, although not quite without its alloy in seeing one 43'
the noblest animals in the creation wit his eyes glazed bY
death, and that death created by somewhat protracted suf-
ferings—for doubtless this deer's heart was broken.
After the mort was blown, one of the huntsmen having
stripped off the skin of the fore-legs, from the knees down"
wards, and cut off the slots, they were presented to the
master of the pack, as is the general custom in France ;
and the carease, after being brought to the Chateau, sv,_as
given with some ceremony to the hounds. The late Duke
de Bourbon, I was told, always gave it to them in the flow
The extent, or boundary of the Duke de Bourbon's country.
I have reason to believe, was interminable. The town of .
Chantilly is in the centre of 60 miles of-forest ; and I have,
heard that, with certain intermissions, there is a chain 01
forests extending to the Black-forest, in Germany.
After experiencing one of the highest sensual gratifica-
tions of which human nature is capable of receiving--
namely, a glass of something sharp and cold to lips parellei
by heat, and a body exhausted by fatigue, but what to ea',
it I know not, we remounted our horses and proceeded
towards Chantilly, from which place we were said to be
distant just six leagues, or about 15 English miles. A,s
nearly as I could judge, there were present at the dent'
about a third of the number of horsemen that started in
the morning with the hounds, and we fell in with about a
score more who were waiting for us at La Table, the
owner of the pack and his brother being of the number.
We had likewise now a full chorus of horns, on which the
most was played to great advantage on our approach to the
Chateau ; and thus ended, making allowance for the tim
of the year, and one or two other matters, which I 11K
touch upon hereafter, a very fair day's sport, but wine'
might have been rendered better, as I may also hereafter
make it appear.

CLAUDE LORAINE A PASTRY-COOK !---San-
draat, who was a contemporary of Claude, wrote his life in
Latin, and from this source all subsequent writers have 0134
plied themselves. Sandraat says that Claude being found (1111
at learning was taken from school, and put under a painter of
eatables—" a parentibus suis in disciplinam tradebatur, picto
cuidam artocreatum." This latter part has always been trans'
lated, " put him apprentice to a pastry-cook" Every mode
life of Claude has it so, and many of the great masters in tr"
art and mystery of pastry have no doubt glorified greatly IP.
having had so illustrious a brother. How " cuidam pictor.t
artocreatum" came to be translated into a pastry-cook, it 150
useless now to consider. The fact is, both in Germany auo
Italy, the painting of signs for shops and other places whe,
eatables are sold, was an extensive trade, and is even 116.,
practised by many, as the signs on the shutters and doe"
throughout Germany and in parts of Italy prove; the repre-
sentation of rolls, pies, cakes, sausages, &c., being oft
" done to the life."— Table Talk.

Passengers on landing at Dover from the Continent
have been allowed to bring a bottle of brandy, supposed to be
the remains of what may have been in use to comfort them 03
the voyage, and avert sea sickness ; which indulgence has been
so much abused, that all bottles are now seized containing
more than half-a-pint, which may, however, be recovered on
payment of duty at the Custom-house.

ROSSINI IN LONDON.-ROSSIIII'S residence in
London was very profitable to himself. He was just the kina
universally popular ; he was himself a first-rate Hcoism music
of man to be the fashionable lion of his day.
singer;
and his manners and address were calculated to gain the favt
of the gay and the courtly. The aristocracy, from R°Y"
downwards, were profuse in their invitations and attentions
and he left England loaded with solid proofs of their liberaliti(;
His regular fee for attending a private musical party was iv,
guineas ; but those who invited him seldom contented the ,
selves with giving him that sum. As if this were not enoue
two subscription concerts were set on foot for him, to, to
place at Almack's rooms ; the price of admission to both
rie
be three guineas, and none to be admitted except such as webly
usic vins
approved by lady patronesses, appointed to guard the asseti
from the approach even of that portion of the profanum vuig
who were able and willing to give three guineas for a otic
of concerts This, however, was too much even for the _eas
travagance of our beau: monde ; and the price of admission 40
reduced to a guinea for each concert. The concerts */,',00
attended by a crowd of fashionables, who had the gratifica"er
of hearing Rossini's most hackneyed songs sung by the ,13„ $
formers whom they heard every day, and accompanied 'Jtjul
pitiful band of twenty paformers. They, however, c°ets,
boast of having heard two or three comic songs and "the
sung by the great maestro himself. What a contrast to
.„a
treatment experienced two years afterwards by the modest
high-souled Weber.—Hogarth's Musical History.

r N
LADIES' FINE GOLD CHA
The weight is given by comparison with the weight of Seveil a;rts.
being more easily referred to than if stated in ounces anv_oryett
The quality of the gold is warranted equal to any that is "
into articles of this description.
Price of the Cable Pattern, or Matted Ring Pattern . cl•
£ s. d. s"
Same weight as 3 sovs. 4 4 0 Same weight as 6 sovs• 7 8 0
Ditto as 4 sovs. 5 5 0 Ditto as 7 sovs. 0 9 0
Ditto as 5 sovs. 6 6 0 Ditto as 8 sous. 9 lit 00
Price of the' above Patterns, with bright star ornaments cu
every link.
X s. a.
Same weight as 3 sovs. 5 5 0
Ditto as 4 sovs. 6 6 0
Ditto as 5 sovs. 7 7 0

X sei; 0
Same weight as 6 sous. 9 0
Ditto as 7 sous. 9 0 0
Ditto as 8 sovs.lo 1

THE NEW FLAT GOLD WATCHES.
The price in gold cases, with accurately-finished vertical 7
X I 0
movements, warranted
Ditto, with well-finished horizontal movements, in double-
bottomed engine-turned cases, jewelled, with silver 9 0
dial, warranted
T. COX SAVORY'S, Working Silversmith and
47, Cornhill, London. _let&
N.B. A variety of Second-hand, Silver Watches may be
from, all at Two Guineas each, warranted.

BIRTHS.

3i,boe

- --- - --
On the 29th hist., in Grosvenor-place, the lion. 11Irs. 11'
Cockerell, of a daughter. 5.
On the 27th inst., at Fetwell Rectory, the lady of the Rel.
B. Sparke, of a daughter. O. 11.
On the 30th inst., in Portman.• square, the lady of Sir 1%1•
Beach, Bart., of a son and heir. °f Sit
On the 27th inst., at Calke Abbey, near Derby, the lady
G. Crewe, Bart., M.P., of a son. Carries
On the 26th inst., in Cavendish-square, the lady of A. ,
hilit
Esq., of a daughter.
On the 29th inst., Mrs. J. Wright, Trinity-square, I°Yfer- L'of a daughter. grs'
On the 27th inst., in Frederick-place, Gray's Inn-road,
Bellamy, of a son. Good
On the 27th inst., in Great Russell-street, the lady 0-f .1. .„
oo
eve, Esq., of a daughter.
On the 28th it at Forest-place, Leytonstone, Mrs. J•
. ,
of a son.

MARRIED. —,-; a of C°o:t
On the 27th inst., Barclay Farquharson Watson, .'s''' ,ooutt
bridge-terrace, and Lincoln's Inn-fields, to Mira EdivaineOt 10, '
daughter of the late Major Philip Codd, of Rumsted CO" ' ,r,
and of Kensington. f St. I%'sOf
On the 29th inst., the Rev. H. R. Dukinfield, Vicar 0- thter
tin-in-the-Fields, to Jane, widow of Gen. Chowne, and clauu ilia°
Sir J. Craufurd, 'Bart.
f .i•
On the 23d inst., at St. George's, Hanover-squarey pa.
Rumbelow, of Haddenham, surgeon, to Lucy,
Watson, Esq., of Old Kent-road. ss(l4
On the 26th inst., at Hampstead Church, William Pr lie' fol''
...,,y,
of Kilburn, to Eliza, fourth daughter of the F. Kirkpa," 0,
Car
of Rathmoon county of Wieklosv. to
On the 29th inst., at Dover, Lieut -Col. Bower, C. 13"
line, daughter of Captain Hopkinson, R.N
only (laugh

c' , of
DID reli,,„ Jr,
On the 30th inst., in WelbeekE r
s " taged 87, Sar•l ot11"-5-
the Rev. George Watson, D.D.-,t e
foerrnerly Rector of " 011'
Northumberland,
zabeth, only child of W. Hetherington, Esq. days'
oaOrt
evnley thelHaymarket.
On the 27th inst. aged five weeks and • Georg Op
H
I. Of
II
f
On the 28th inst., aged 53, Mr. George KnuNel' °
mBthtaherki:ea"tmt.
paltaL.eytonstoe,Mrss7Harper, re
vitro

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