Admitting the affinity between the DISEASES, as lethargy, or sleeping-evil, falling-evil, or convulsions, frenzy and madness, stag-evil, or staggers, all practitioners consider them individually a species of APOPLEXY, originating in nearly the same cause, and to be relieved only by the same means. Under which conjunctive authority, plentiful bleedings, repeated stimulative glysters, and internally, assafœtida, camphor, valerian, castor, and such other ingredients as powerfully act upon the nervous system, constitute the whole that can with consistency be introduced in all cases of a similar description.
STAG-HUNTING
—is one of the most rapturous and enchanting pursuits within the privilege or power of the human frame and mind to enjoy. As HUNTING, in its general sense, is known to comprise an imaginary view of different kinds under that concise term, so various remarks will be found upon each, under the heads of Chase, Fox-Hunting, Harriers, and Hunting; rendering unnecessary the introduction of new, or repetition of former matter, more than what may strictly appertain to the distinct sport now before us.
Opposite opinions have always been entertained by the advocates for each particular kind of chase, as may have proved most applicable and convenient to their situation, occasions, residence, and time of life. That every description of HUNTING has its proportional attraction to its distinct and different votaries is well known; but the constant struggle for superiority in vindication of their respective sports, has ever been between those who hunt FOX and those who hunt STAG; each being equally violent in defence of the cause his private or personal reasons prompt him to espouse. Mr. Daniel, in his "Rural Sports," when animadverting upon the STAG, makes the following remarks: "At the present day, as an object of chase to the sportsman, the stag requires but cursory mention: those, indeed, who are fond of pomp and parade in hunting, will not accede to this opinion; but the only mode in which this chase can recommend itself to the real sportsman, is, when the deer is looked for, and found, like other game which hounds pursue. At present very few hounds, except those of the royal establishment, are kept exclusively for this amusement; and were the King once to see a fox well found, and killed handsomely, he would, in all, probability, give a decided preference in favour of fox-hounds; for what a marked difference is there between conveying, in a covered cart, an animal, nearly as big as the horse that draws it, to a particular spot, where he is liberated, and cheerly riding to the covert side with all the ecstacy of hope and expectation!"
After quoting a few lines of beautiful imagery from the poetic sublime of Somervile, descriptive of throwing off, the drag, the unkenneling, and breaking covert with fox-hounds, he proceeds thus: "The most impassioned stag-hunter must confess, that no part of his chase admits of such description. The only variety he can fairly expect, depends upon the wind and the temper of the deer, who, by being either sulky, or not in condition to maintain a contest with the hounds, (to whom he leaves a burning scent, that gives them no trouble in the pursuit,) shortens or extends his gallop; but there is none of the enthusiasm of hunting, which the sportsman feels, when he is following an animal, upon whose own exertions of speed and craftiness his life is staked; and where no stoppages, but the checks arising from the two sources above mentioned, intervene."
Without the most distant intent of endeavouring to depreciate the noble, exhilarating, delightful, and universally admitted excellence of FOX-HUNTING, (of which, by the bye, no adequate description can issue from the pen,) such few remarks may be made, as will display the sport of STAG-HUNTING in a different point of view to that in which the writer just mentioned has been pleased to place the picture; and probably rescue it from any little stigma of disgrace, or inferiority, which his promulgated opinion may have stamped upon the canvass. There is positively no instance in which the philosophic decision of Sir Roger de Coverley ("much may be said on both sides") could have been more strictly applicable, or more truly verified, than upon the present occasion. The candid, judicious and experienced sportsman will readily admit, that each retains its attractions too powerful to resist, as well as some inconveniencies impossible to remove: these, however, are reconcileable to the modification of those whose motives induce them to engage in either.
Previous to the recital of a chase with the STAG-HOUNDS, a few preparatory and comparative remarks are due to the observations already quoted from the justly popular work of Mr. Daniel. That there are but "few establishments" of the kind is certainly true, and for a most substantial reason; if they were numerous, the question would instantly present itself, from whence are they to be supplied with GAME? The idea of "the King's giving the preference to FOX-HUNTING, if he had once seen a fox well found, and killed handsomely," is an entire new thought; and affords immediate mental reference to the degradation of MAJESTIC DIGNITY, should it ever be found making its dreary way through the bushy brambles of a BEECHEN WOOD two or three miles in length, following the chase by the reverberating sounds of distant holloas! but without the sight or sound of a single hound. This is a constantly occurring trait in FOX-HUNTING, constituting no small drawback on its boasted perfection.
Whichever kind of chase is pursued, the ultimatum of enjoyment is much the same; horses, hounds, air, exercise, health, society, and exhilaration, constitute the aggregate: and TIME, which, to the opulent and independent, seems of trifling value, is to the scientific inquisitant, or professional practitioner, neither more nor less than a LIFE ESTATE, no part of which should be wasted or squandered away. The former class, in general, are industriously engaged in killing time: the latter, who know and feel its worth, are as constantly employed in its preservation. The loss of time in the enjoyment of the two chases, is nearly or full half between the one and the other: this is a circumstance, however, not likely to attract the serious attention of the gentleman who has thus attacked the "pomp and parade" of hunting the STAG; for as a clerical character, he had, of course, all the week upon his hands, being particularly engaged only on A SUNDAY. To one of this description, who has most of his time to kill, and very little to employ, a long and dreary day through the gloomy coverts of a dirty country, without a single challenge, or one consolatory chop of drag, must prove a scene of the most enchanting enjoyment; and in the very zenith of exultation, it must be acknowledged by professed and energetic FOX-HUNTERS, that riding thirty or forty miles in wet and dirt, (replete with alternate hope, suspense, and expectation,) to enjoy the supreme happiness of repeated disappointments, terminating with a blank day, is equal, if not superior, to a STAG HUNT of even the first description.
Stag hounds are very rarely kept, and the sport but little known in many parts of the kingdom: those of the most celebrity are the Royal Establishment upon Ascot Heath, in Windsor Forest, (see "King's Hounds;") the Earl of Derby's, near the Downs, in Surrey; and the Subscription Pack near Enfield Chace. The greatest inducement to hunt with either of which, is, the invariable certainty of sport, that first object of desirable attainment, not to be insured with hounds of a different description; the great gratification of going away with the pack, and covering a scope of country, without perpetual interruption from frequent intervening coverts, where checks, faults, delays, and a repetition of wood riding, so often ensue. Stag-hunting, indifferently as it is spoken of by some, is too severe and arduous for others to pursue: laborious as it is to the HORSE, it is in many cases not less so to the RIDER: difficulties occur which require great exertions in one, and fortitude in the other, to surmount, and none but those can lay at all by the side of the hounds.
Rapturously transporting as is the moment of meeting and throwing off with fox hounds, no less so is the awefully impressive prelude to turning out the deer. The scene is affectingly grand, far beyond the descriptive power of the pen, and can only be seen, to be perfectly understood. Unless an outlying deer is drawn for, and found in the neighbouring woods, as is sometimes the case, a STAG, HIND, or HEAVIER, is carted from the paddocks of his Majesty at Swinley Lodge, (where they are previously and properly fed for the chase,) and brought at a certain hour, (ten o'clock in the morning,) to the place appointed, of which the surrounding neighbourhood have been sufficiently informed. At the distance of a quarter or half a mile from the covered convenience containing the deer, are the hounds, surrounded by the Huntsman and his assistants, (called Yeoman-Prickers,) in scarlet and gold; a part of these having French horns, and upon which they must be good performers.