HART ROYAL
.—A stag hunted by KING or QUEEN, obtaining his perfect liberty by beating the hounds, was formerly called a hart royal; and proclamation was immediately made, in the towns and villages of the neighbourhood where he was lost, that he should not be molested, or his life attempted by any farther pursuit; but that he should continue in a state of unrestrained freedom, with power to return to the FOREST or CHACE from whence he was taken at his OWN FREE WILL. This ceremony is, however, discontinued, and bids fair to be buried in a perpetual oblivion; as two instances have recently occurred worthy recital: one in the neighbourhood of High Wycombe, where the STAG was killed before the hounds, by a rustic, during the heat of the chase, in which the King at the time was personally engaged. And another at Mapledurham, near Reading, where the deer was wantonly shot, as he lay in a willow bank near the Thames, two days after he had beaten the hounds; yet it is publicly known, that no steps were taken to prosecute the offenders, which probably originated in his Majesty's clemency.