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.
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.