The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the FieldTaplin, William
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The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field
Taplin, William
Hunting -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Dictionaries
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.
In a very short time after the expiration of the hour agreed on, his
MAJESTY is seen to approach, attended by the MASTER of the HORSE, and
Equerries in waiting; it being the official duty of the MASTER of the
STAG-HOUNDS to be with _them_, and ready to receive his Majesty when he
arrives. So soon as his Majesty resigns his hack, and is remounted for
the chase, the Huntsman receives an injunctive signal from the Master of
the Hounds to liberate the deer. The moment which is obeyed, the usual
_law_, amounting to ten minutes, (more or less,) is allowed for his
_going way_: during this interval the sonorous strains of the HORNS, the
musical melodious echo of the HOUNDS, the mutual gratulations of so
distinguished an assemblage, and the condescending kindness and
affability of the SOVEREIGN to the loyal subjects who love and surround
him, is a repast too rich, a treat too luxurious, for the side of a
fox-hunting covert to be brought into the least successful similitude.
The anxious crisis thus arrived, and every bosom glowing with emulative
inspiration, a single aspiration of acquiescence, and a removal of the
horse who heads the leading hound, give a loose to the _body_ of the
PACK; and superlatively happy he who can lay the nearest to them. Upon
the DEER'S going off from the cart, two of the YEOMAN-PRICKERS start
likewise, in such parallel directions to the _right_ and _left_, as not
to lose sight of the line he takes so long as they can keep him in
_view_; by which means they get five or six miles forward to assist in
_stopping_ the _hounds_ at any particular point where they happen to run
up to them: and if it was not for this prudent and necessary precaution,
half or _two thirds_ of the horsemen would never see the hounds again in
the course of the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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