RUTTING TIME
—commences the latter end of August, and continues to the first and second week in October; during which both the STAG and BUCK assume a degree of courageous boldness in approaching man, that they never display at any other time of the year. At this season their necks swell; they range from one place to another incessantly, in seeming search of some object to attack; the voice of the stag is loud and alarming, to those who have not been accustomed to hear it. When opposed, they are so exceedingly strong and ferocious, that no common force can stand against them: they attack an individual in RUTTING TIME with a certainty of success. Some few years since, the LOCKSMITH who inspected the gate locks of Windsor Great Park weekly, was pursued by a stag, and when within a few yards of him, most luckily escaped by climbing a small tree, where he was kept in jeopardy near twenty-four hours, till the next day the stag made a retreat upon the accidental approach of the keepers. A short time after which, a girl, about fourteen years of age, passing through Hackwood Park, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire, (and having on a red cloak,) was attacked by one, the oldest inhabitant of the district, who literally not only perforated her body with his ANTLERS in almost every part, but extended his fury so much to her apparel, that the melancholy spot was covered with rags; and the corpse so maimed and disfigured, that it retained but little of the appearance of a human frame.