AS THE stag lay dead in the field, the hunting horns fell silent. The master of hounds raised his hand, and waited until the pack had stopped its baying and was silent too.

Then he lowered his arm and the dogs leapt forward, jaws open as they threw themselves upon the carcass. Within a quarter of an hour, there was nothing left except for a few bones, the skin, and a set of antlers.

It was a scene to make an animal rights activist rage. But, here in the Dreux Forest, west of Paris, there were no animal rights activists, only dozens of villagers gathered around in a respectful circle. In France, stag-hunting — along with all the other types of hunting that are threatened in Britain — is largely uncontested.

Indeed, hunting with hounds is becoming increasingly popular on this side of the Channel, with almost 450 hunts already established and 20 new ones created each year. The boom is surprising. Modern forms of hunting, notably with guns, have been losing popularity for the past three decades.

“I think people like hunting with hounds because it is very natural,” said Pierre de Boisguilbert, of the French Game Hunting Society. “There are no tricks and no gimmicks. It takes place the same way now as it has for centuries.” Hunting can be traced back in France to Roman times, and the rituals and the codes that surround it to the 15th century.

Twice a week the 50 members of the Normand Piqu’Hardi Hunt ride through the 3,300 hectares (8,150 acres) of Dreux Forest, dressed in blue and red coats as they accompany the hounds in search of stags.

The horns still play an 18th-century fanfare written by the Marquis of Dampierre. The stag has run on ahead, but as the day goes by, its lead shrinks until the pack catches up with it on the edge of farmland, north of Dreux. It is trapped, encircled and finally killed by a sword thrust into the neck.

It is to the ancestral roots of this tradition that the French seem drawn. Philippe Grousset, a 42-year-old commercial lawyer from Paris, said: “It is a way of getting away from modern society, of getting back to something that is entirely natural.”

About 10,000 people pay to hunt hare, fox, rabbit, roe deer and boar as well as stag. It costs up to £2,000 a year to be a member of a club.

Then there are the 100,000 or so suiveurs — the people who regularly follow on foot, bicycle and car. They are not there to protest, as can be the case in Britain, but to applaud.

All agree with M de Boisguilbert when he says: “You may say this is cruel, but then nature is cruel. People from towns may think that nature is nice and sweet, but they are wrong. It is not.”

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