The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-07 00:00:00

NEW SPORTING MAGAZINE.

We are glad Co see "Craven" entering his protest
against the unsportsmanlike practice of butchering deer
in battues ; for ourselves, we can see little difference
between the " wild wood craft" of Gotha and the un-
po'tical butcher-craft of the practitioners in the Abat-
toir. If a sportsman really wishes to enjoy a chase
after the wild deer, let him go into Devonshire, and
there he will see real sport. There the deer roams at
lar2e in his native forest, and there he is not butchered,
but bunted in a fair and sportsmanlike manner. From
an excellent article on the red-deer we extract the
following:—
" No one who has not seen a stag at bay in one of his
lovely, rugged, roaring rivers, bravely defending himself to
the last, can form a proper estimate of its enchantments. It
is not enough to ride racing-pace over a few miles of meadow
laud with a pack of stag-h,,unds, and perchance at the finish
to find a timid and perhaps unhealthy stag, which, besides
the loss of his noble antlers, had well-nigh lost his senses by
being but a few hours previously jolted for miles in a covered
tax-cart safely ensconced in some muddy pond, or perhaps
a cow- shed, or e'en a coal-yard, quietly awaiting his pur-
suers, to form an estimate of a run and a finish with the
Devon and Somerset stag-hounds. No; the red-deer must
be hunted in his wildness and in his native country, with all
the resources which nature has afforded him ; his lofty
wood-crowned hills, his rapid mountain torrents, and his
deep, dark, secluded pools, must be present to allow him to
practise his accustomed craft and show sport to the hunter
worthy his enjoyment. And then his rights—those noble
ornaments, the only protection which nature has afforded
him—must notbe wanting ! I would as soon course with a
greyhound that had lost his tail, as hunt this noble animal
deprived of these his natural defences. I suspect me much
that the barbarity practised by other hunts, in sawing off
his antlers, is not only for the expressed but futile purpose
of protecting her Majesty's liege subjects from harm. 'When
were they in danger from a hunted stag? I rather imagine
that some of these said stag-hunters have slight misgivings
of their ability to take him, though at bay, when his rights
are perfect as nature formed them, and so they cruelly de-
face his noble brow and rob him of his only defence in order
that they may the more safely attack him. Not so the hardy
Devonian ; he would scorn to hunt him when deprived of his
'head,' as his horns are emphatically termed; he would as
soon think of hunting him without his head. No ! he never
lays the hounds on the slot of a stag that is not well fur-
nished ; and he must hunt him, too, in his native fastnesses
for sport. I cannot conceive that there is any real pleasure
in hunting an animal deprived of his natural energies and
courage, and which perhaps for months or years has been
confined in a paddock or stall, and then turned out of a
cart, almost a prey to the hounds, in a country to which he
is a perfect stranger. It may be enough for those who de-
light in steeple-chasing to hunt such a stag, but it is not
sufficient for the true stag-hunter, whose sport is as great in
counterfoiling the manoeuvres of his game as that which his
lengthy runs afford him. Our forefathers would have con-
sidered it unmanly and unworthy of them, and why should
we encourage what they would have derided? We should
with hounds and horses
srather
r in
bythisr
teonllvighhatt etnheefly
paogsee,ess e d
seek to excel them in
their hardihood than adopt a sport unbecoming to them."