We have occasionally selected a paragraph from a very pretty volume, by
Mr. Jesse, published under the above title. The author lives in the
neighbourhood of Kew; and, like Mr. White of Selborne, who made a small
village in Hampshire one of the most interesting spots to the lover of
nature, by his ample descriptions of the natural objects which he saw
around him, Mr. Jesse has rendered his walks a vehicle for much
instruction and amusement to himself and to others. He principally
confines his attention to zoology--the most generally attractive of the
departments of natural history; and he looks upon the animal world with
so much practical wisdom, being disposed to be happy himself and to see
every creature around him happy, that there are few persons who will not
read his slight sketches with improvement to their hearts and
understandings.
We copy a passage descriptive of the manner of taking deer for hunting
in the king’s parks:--
“In addition to the herd of fallow-deer, amounting to about one thousand
six hundred, which are kept in Richmond Park, there is generally a stock
of from forty to fifty red deer. Some stags from the latter are selected
every year, and sent to Swinley, in order to be hunted by the king’s
stag hounds. When a stag, which has been hunted for three or four
seasons, is returned to the park, to end his days there, he is generally
more fierce and dangerous than any of the others at a particular season
of the year. At that time it is sometimes not safe to approach him; and
the keepers informed me, that they have been obliged to fire at them
with buck shot, when they have been attacked by them. They account for
this ferocity, by the circumstance of the deer having been much handled,
and consequently rendered more familiar with, and less afraid of, those
whom they would naturally shun.
“Does are longer lived than bucks. One doe in Richmond Park lived to be
twenty years old; and there are other instances of their having attained
the same age.
“A curious circumstance lately occurred, respecting the red deer in the
park in question. In the year 1825, not a single calf was dropped by any
of the hinds, though they had bred freely the preceding, and did the
same in the subsequent year. I find an event recorded in the ‘Journal of
a Naturalist,’ as having happened in the same year in regard to cows. It
is there stated that, for many miles round the residence of the author,
scarcely any female calves were born. This diminution of the usual breed
of deer, and the increase of sex in another animal, is not a little
remarkable.
[Illustration: Red Deer.]
“There is a fine breed of buck-hounds in Richmond Park, and their
sagacity is very extraordinary. In taking the deer, according to annual
custom, either for the royal hunt or for the fattening paddocks, a stag
or a buck, which has been previously fixed upon, is ridden out of the
herd by two or three of the keepers in succession, each of whom is
closely followed by a hound, the young dogs only being kept in slips. As
soon as the deer has been separated from his companions, the dogs have
the requisite signal given to them, and they immediately follow in
pursuit. The scene is then highly interesting. A strong deer will afford
a very long chase, but when he comes to bay, the dogs generally seize
him by the throat or ears; the keepers come up, take him by the horns,
and after having strapped his hind and fore legs together, put him into
a cart which follows for the purpose, and he is then disposed of as he
may be wanted. I have seen an active young keeper throw himself from his
horse upon a deer at bay, which he had come up to at full gallop, and
hold his horns till assistance arrived. Some danger, however, attends
this sport; as, when a deer has been hard pressed, I have seen him, in
more than one instance, suddenly turn upon the horsemen and injure the
horses, and in one case wound the leg of the horseman. The dogs are so
well trained, and are so soon made aware which buck is intended to be
caught, that they seldom make a mistake, even if the deer regains the
herd after having been driven from it, but press him through it, till
they have again separated him from it. It is well known that when a
hard-pressed deer tries to rejoin his companions, they endeavour to
avoid and get away from him as much as possible, or try to drive him
away with their horns. So severe is the chase in Richmond Park in taking
deer, especially when the ground is wet, that three or four good horses
may be tired by a single horseman in one day’s deer-taking, if each deer
is ridden out of the herd, and followed till he is taken. When dogs are
in slips, the man who holds them merely rides as near as he can to the
person who is endeavouring to single out the deer, and awaits his signal
for slipping the dog. These dogs, who are a large, rough sort of
greyhound and very powerful and sagacious, are soon taught not to injure
the deer when they come to them. The cry of ‘hold them,’ made use of by
the keepers in urging them forward, seems to be perfectly understood by
the dogs.”
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