fuch a one gave caufe to the fatal day of Chevy-chace, a fact, which though recorded only in a ballad, may, from what we know of the manners of the times, be founded on truth; not that it was attended with all the circumstances the author of that natural, but heroic compofition hath given it, for on that day neither a Percy nor a Douglas fell: here the poet feems to have clamed his privilege, and mixed with this fray fome of the events of the battle of Otterbourne.

When property became happily more divided by the relaxation. of the feodal tenures, these extenfive hunting-grounds became more limited; and as tillage and husbandry increased, the beasts of chace were obliged to give way to others more ufeful to the community. The vaft tracts of land before dedicated to hunting, were then contracted; and in proportion as the useful arts gained ground, either loft their original deftination, or gave rife to the invention of Parks. Liberty and the arts feem coeval, for when once the latter got footing, the former protected the labors of the industrious from being ruined by the licentioufnefs of the sportsman, or being devoured by the objects of his diverfion: for this reason, the fubjects of a defpotic government ftill experience the inconveniences of vaft wastes, and forests, the terrors of the neighbouring husbandmen * while in our well-regulated monarchy, very few chaces remain : we still indulge ourselves in the generous pleasure of hunting, but confine the deer-kind to parks, of which England boasts of more than any other kingdom in Europe. Our equal laws allow every man his pleasure; but confine them in fuch bounds, as prevents

In Germany the peasants are often obliged to watch their grounds the whole night, to preserve the fences and corn from being deftroyed by the deer.

them

them from being injurious to the meaneft of the community. Before the reformation, our prelates feem to have guarded fufficiently against the want of this amusement, the fee of Norwich in particular, being poffeffed about that time of thirteen parks *. They feem to have forgot good king Edgar's advice, Docemus etiam ut facerdos non fit venator neque accipitrarius neque potator, fed incumbat fuis libris ficut ordinem ipfius decet +.

It was customary to falt the venifon for prefervation, like other meat. Rymer preferves a warrant of Edward III. ordering fixty deer to be killed for that purpose.

The ftag and buck agree in their nature; only the latter being more tender is easier tamed, and made familiar. The first is become lefs common than it was formerly; its exceffive vitiousness during the rutting season, and the badness of its flesh, induce most people to part with the species. Stags are still found wild in the highlands of Scotland, in herds of four or five hundred together, ranging at full liberty over the vast hills of the north. Some grow to a great fize: when I was at Invercauld Mr. Farquharfon affured me that he knew an instance of one that weighed eighteen stone Scots, or three hundred and fourteen pounds, exclusive of the entrails, head and skin. Formerly the great highland chieftains used to hunt with the magnificence of an eastern monarch; affembling four or five thousand of their clan, who drove the deer into the toils, or to the station their lairds had placed themselves in but as this pretence was frequently used to collect their vaffals for rebellious purposes, an act was paffed prohibiting any affemblies of this nature. Stags are likewife met with on the moors that border on Cornwal

*Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, 261.

+ Leges Saxon. 87.

and

and Devonshire, and in Ireland on the mountains of Kerry, where they add greatly to the magnificence of the romantic scenery of the lake of Killarny.

The ftags of Ireland during its uncultivated state, and while it remained an almost boundless tract of foreft, had an exact agreement in habit, with those that range at prefent through the wilds. of America. They were lefs in body, but very fat; and their horns of a fize far fuperior to those of Europe, but in form agreed in all points. Old Giraldus speaks with much precision of those of Ireland, Cervos præ nimia pinguedine minus fugere prævalentes, quanto minores funt corporis quantitate, tanto præcellentius efferuntur, capitis et cornuum dignitate*.

We have in England two varieties of fallow-deer which are faid to be of foreign origin: The beautiful spotted kind, and the very deep brown fort, that are now fo common in feveral parts of this. kingdom. These were introduced here by king James the first out of Norway †, where he paffed fome time when he vifited his intended bride Mary of Denmark . He obferved their hardinefs; and that they could endure, even in that fevere climate, the winter without fodder. He firft brought fome into Scotland, and from thence transported them into his chaces of Enfield and Epping, to

Topogr. Hibernia. c. 19. Lawfon in his hiftory of Carolina p. 123, mentions the fatness of the American flags, and their inferiority of fize to the European. L have often feen their horns, which vaftly exceed thofe of our country in fize, and number of antlers.

This we relate on the authority of Mr. Peter Cellinfon.

One of the Welch names of this animal (Gie-vr-danas, or Danish goat) implies that it was brought from fome of the Danish dominions. Ed. Llwyd. Ph. tr.

No. 334.

be

be near his palace of Theobalds; for it is well known, that monarch was in one part of his character the Nimrod of his days, fond to excefs of hunting, that image of war, although he detefted the reality. No country produces the fallow-deer in quantities equal to England. In France they are fcarcely known, but are fometimes found in the north of Europe. In Spain they are extremely large. They are met with in Greece, the Holy Land +, and in China; but in every country except our own are in a state of nature, unconfined by man.

*

They are not natives of America; for the deer known in our colonies by that name are a distinct fpecies, a fort of flag, as we have remarked p. 51. of our Synopfis of quadrupeds.

The uses of these animals are most similar; the skin of the buck and doe is fufficiently known to every one; and the horns of the stag are of great ufe in mechanics; they, as well as the horns of the rest of the deer kind, being exceffively compact, folid, hard and weighty; and make excellent handles for couteaus, knives, and several other utenfils. They abound in that falt, which is the bafis of the spirit of Hartshorn; and, the remains (after the falts are extracted) being calcined, become a valuable aftringent in fluxes, which is known by the name of burnt Hartshorn. Befides these uses in mechanics and medicine, there is an inftance in Giraldus Cambrenfis, of a countess of Chester, who kept milch hindes, and made cheefe of their milk, fome of which the prefented to archbishop Baldwin, in his itinerary through Wales, in the year 1188 .

Pontop. Norway. 11. 9. Faun. Suec. fp. 42.

↑ Du Halde hift. China. I. 315.

+ Haffelquist, itin, 290.

Il Girald. Camb. Itin. p. 216.

THE