AND ITS FAMOUS TEEES. 197 



from the park. Some of these claims are in compensation of old 

 rights of sport or of way in the royal domains. Visitors who see 

 the number of deer that are sometimes gi'ouped together will be 

 surprised to hear that they are scarcely sufficient to supply all 

 demands. The head-keeper, I am told, some time ago lamented 

 that he had warrants for twelve more bucks than his herds would 

 fairly afford. The deer, you see, are of both kinds or of all kinds. 

 There are the pretty, small, dappled deer with some white among 

 them, and there are the stately red-deer. As a fre(][uenter of the 

 park I observe very sociable habits among the two diiferent sorts. 

 You may see the red-deer mixed up with the others, though in 

 James the First's time they were carefully assigned to ditferent 

 rides. It is grand and not quite safe in October to come upon a 

 red stag that has not been successful in his wooing. He stalks 

 about with the resentment of one whose advances have been rudely 

 declined or whose claims have been brutally overpowered by one 

 stronger, though as he thinks not handsomer than himself. There 

 are notice-boards warning strangers of the danger of coming too 

 near to a big stag which has been crossed in love. The deer now 

 are in every sense of the word confined to the park, but there 

 "was a time when they ranged through the forest. 



There is also a heronry. 1 look forward in the summer to making 

 the acquaintance of the herons. At present I know nothing of 

 them, and for this reason : they have moved their establishment. 

 They did live near the sandpit-gate and in the open park, but they 

 disapproved of the Prince Consort's workshops built somewhat near 

 their abode. They determined to pack up and go. Happily the 

 love of the old spot prevailed. They went no further off than 

 Virginia Water, no doubt attracted by the fishing privileges. There 

 they have formed on the north side an airy domicile, and there I 

 hope they may long continue to flourish. 



I should be sorry, in a paper upon "Windsor Forest, to appear 

 to be altogether unacquainted with one English classic that has 

 immortalized the name to some. I mean Pope's poem with this 

 very title, " Windsor Forest." You know how it begins : 



' ' Thy forest, "Windsor, and thy green retreats, 

 At once the monarch's and the muses' seats." 



It has but little — may I say it with all reverence — to interest the 

 student of natural history. It might be written about any other 

 forest as regards the local colouring of the woods and trees. It is 

 something like Thomson's "Seasons." It deals with matters on 

 so large a scale that it hardly affords information to those who now 

 examine natural objects more minutely. If the account I have 

 read of its composition be true, the poem is not likely to add much 

 to our knowledge of the immediate neighbourhood of Windsor. It 

 was written when Pope was only 14 years of age, and when he 

 was living at Binfield, some ten miles from Windsor, and the 

 health and strength and habits of the poet were not such as to 

 qualify him in any way to be a forester. He has some grand and 



