There is a sport called stag-hunting still carried on in
England, but which would be looked upon as a farce by
those accustomed to the chase of wild animals. The Queen
keeps a pack of stag-hounds and some trained stags, and
when a stag hunt is announced, one of the trained stags is
conveyed in a cart to a certain spot and there let loose.
After a few minutes grace the hounds are sent in pursuit,
followed by the whole field of hunters, till after a run of
some miles the stag gets tired, and deliberately waits till the
huntsman comes up and captures him, when he is again
put into the cart and taken back to his snug quarters. Oh,
shade of Robin Hood ! with what utter contempt must thou
regard this poor remnant of ancient British sport !
The death of the beautiful fallow-deer has always caused
a certain feeling of remorseful pity, even in the breast of the
successful hunter, and poets have drawn many beautiful
similes from the chase and its accompaniments.
SUNDR Y ME A TS 9 r
' As pants the hart for cooling streams,
When heated in the chase, '
will occur to the mind at once, and Shakespeare
describes the melancholy Jaques moralising on the same
event : —
1 As he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood ;
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish ; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting ; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase : and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears. . . .
" Poor deer," quoth he, "thou mak'st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much." '
Pity, however, does not weigh much in the scale when
savoury meat is the result of a day's hunting, and from time
immemorial venison has been regarded as a delicacy fit for
a king's table. Solomon in his magnificence had his venison
of stag and roebuck daily, and Cyrus of Persia would not
dine without it. But long before Cyrus and Solomon our
rude forefathers had found uses, not only for the flesh, but
also for the horns and sinews of various kinds of deer ; for
among the earliest known relics of man, the horns of the
deer are found forming handles for stone implements, picks
for digging flints, etc., whilst the sinews were used as thread
92 OUR VIANDS
for sewing the skins together for clothing, and for making
strings for bows, fishing lines, and other purposes.
One of the earliest known drawings found in the caves of
France represents a group of reindeer, for the reindeer at
that remote period lived in France and Great Britain, as it
now does in Lapland, and appears to have been domesticated,
and was probably as useful to the old cave-dwellers as it is
now to the Lapps.
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1893Page 42
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There is a sport called stag-hunting still carried on in
England, but which would be looked upon as a farce by
those accustomed to the chase of wild animals. The Queen
keeps a pack of stag-hounds and some trained stags, and
when a stag hunt is announced, one of the trained stags is
conveyed in a cart to a certain spot and there let loose.
After a few minutes grace the hounds are sent in pursuit,
followed by the whole field of hunters, till after a run of
some miles the stag gets tired, and deliberately waits till the
huntsman comes up and captures him, when he is again
put into the cart and taken back to his snug quarters. Oh,
shade of Robin Hood ! with what utter contempt must thou
regard this poor remnant of ancient British sport !
The death of the beautiful fallow-deer has always caused
a certain feeling of remorseful pity, even in the breast of the
successful hunter, and poets have drawn many beautiful
similes from the chase and its accompaniments.
SUNDR Y ME A TS 9 r
' As pants the hart for cooling streams,
When heated in the chase, '
will occur to the mind at once, and Shakespeare
describes the melancholy Jaques moralising on the same
event : —
1 As he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood ;
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish ; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting ; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase : and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears. . . .
" Poor deer," quoth he, "thou mak'st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much." '
Pity, however, does not weigh much in the scale when
savoury meat is the result of a day's hunting, and from time
immemorial venison has been regarded as a delicacy fit for
a king's table. Solomon in his magnificence had his venison
of stag and roebuck daily, and Cyrus of Persia would not
dine without it. But long before Cyrus and Solomon our
rude forefathers had found uses, not only for the flesh, but
also for the horns and sinews of various kinds of deer ; for
among the earliest known relics of man, the horns of the
deer are found forming handles for stone implements, picks
for digging flints, etc., whilst the sinews were used as thread
92 OUR VIANDS
for sewing the skins together for clothing, and for making
strings for bows, fishing lines, and other purposes.
One of the earliest known drawings found in the caves of
France represents a group of reindeer, for the reindeer at
that remote period lived in France and Great Britain, as it
now does in Lapland, and appears to have been domesticated,
and was probably as useful to the old cave-dwellers as it is
now to the Lapps.