* * * * *

THE KING'S STAG, &C.

_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_


As several of your correspondents have lately interested themselves in the
sign of "The Cat and Fiddle;" a few observations may not be thought
irrelevant, on the probable origin of the "King's Stag," a description of
which, under the signature, _Ruris_, appeared in the MIRROR, of Saturday,
the 30th ult. Its rise may, I conceive, with tolerable certainty, be
traced to the stag said to have been taken in the Forest of Senlis, by
Charles the Sixth, about whose neck was a collar, with the inscription,
"_Caesar hoc mihi donavit_," which induced a belief that the animal had
lived from the reign of some one of the twelve Caesars. This inscription
also exists in the following form:--

"Tempore, quo Caesar Româ, dominatus in altâ
Aureolo jussit collum signare moniti;
Ne depascentem quisquis me gramina laedat,
Caesaris heu causâ, periturae parcere vitae."

which has been thus literally translated in nearly the same words quoted
by _Ruris_--

"When Julius Caesar reigned king,
About my neck he put this ring,
That whosoever did me take,
Should spare my life for Caesar's sake."