ITS ANIMALS.
75
ones, set at liberty. A cart for the purpose was in
readiness, and the deer caught were placed in it and
taken to Loughton Bridge, where they were kept in
the paddock till wanted." The following graphic ac-
count, taken from Bailey's Magazine a few years ago,
is from the pen of an old writer well acquainted with
the Forest:—" The limits of the grand old Forest have
been grievously curtailed since the days when Mr. Long
Pole Wellesley played high jinks at Wanstead House,
where he kept a pack of staghounds, in a style of
princely magnificence, to hunt the wild red-deer. These
hounds were not foxhounds entered to deer, but the old-
fashioned staghounds, such as King George III. used
for the purpose. The servants were dressed in Lincoln
Green. There were constant hunt breakfasts at the
Eagle, at Snaresbrook (then in the midst of the open
waste), where all were bidden at Mr. Long Wellesley's
expense. Everything was done with the most reck-
less extravagance; and he would scatter sovereigns to
countrymen in the hunting field as readily as other
liberal sportsmen would give shillings or sixpences.
The pace was too great to last; and when the establish-
ment at Wanstead was broken up, Tommy Rounding
managed to secure a few couples of the hounds, which
he kept in a rough sort of a way at the back of his
house, the Horse and Groom, at Woodford Weils. It
may seem passing strange to the present generation that
a publican, living within nine miles of the London
stones, should have kept hounds to hunt the wild red-
deer ; but there are those living who can vouch for the
fact. Rounding was a capital sportsman, and so were
all the family ; his brother Richard, who had died pre-
viously, and his brother Robert, who only died last year.
We must borrow from Mr. Thomas Hood, who knew
him well, a description of the man himself:—
' A snow-white head, a merry eye,
A cheek of jolly blush ;
A claret tint laid on hy health
With Master Reynard's brush !'
And so the game was kept alive until an order came
that the red-deer were to be caught up and taken to
Windsor Park. This was carried out as far as practic-
able ; the few that had escaped the toils of the yeomen
prickers gradually fell victims to poachers and pot-
hunters, until of the whole herd only one old stag
remained. This stag was hunted by Tommy Rounding,