Mr. J. E. Hatting on Forest An'iDiah. 79 



delightful series of letters to Pennant they had dwindled 

 down to about fifty, and he hhnself saw one of the last 

 that was taken, the survivors of the herd being captured 

 alive by Koyal command and removed to Windsor/'' 



A few red-deer lingered down to the present century 

 (1827) in Epping Forest; and Bell, in his "History of 

 British Quadrupeds," speaks of having seen some, many 

 years ago, in the New Forest. They were doomed in 1851. 

 It would be interesting to trace out the last haunts of 

 red-deer in the various counties of England, and I do not 

 doubt that the inquiry would result in the acquisition of 

 some curious information ; but to attempt it here would 

 cause too great a digression. 



Those who have not the leisure or opportunity of fol- 

 lowing the red-deer in the Highlands of Scotland, the wilds 

 of Kerry, or the moorlands of Devonshire, must be content 

 to study them in the few parks where they are still pre- 

 served in a semi-domesticated state. It was formerly the 

 practice to keep the red-deer and fallow-deer apart in 

 parks where both species were maintained, owing to an 

 impression that the stags of the former species would kill 

 the latter. Gervase Markham, in his edition of the "Maison 

 Kustique, or the Countrey Farme," printed in 1616, says 

 (Chap, xix.) : — "You shall not by any meanes in one parke 

 mixe the Red-deere and the Fallow-deere together, for the 

 Red-deere is a masterfull beast, and when the time of 

 bellowing cometh, he grows fierce and outragious, so that 

 hee will be entire lord of the field, and will kill the Fallow-- 

 deere if they but crosse him in his walke ; and therefore 

 each must be kept severally in severall parkes." 



That such was the practice in the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries is proved by the " Eed-deer Parks," 

 distinct from parks for fallow-deer, which are found in 

 many of the great places of England, such as Badminton 

 in Gloucestershire, and Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, 

 where separate parks for the different kinds of deer were 

 formerly kept up. The present practice appears to be 

 generally to allow both red and fallow deer to be 



* Gilbert White, Letter VI. to Pemiant. 



