220 COMMON BlUTlSll AN'IMALS 



pursue deer formed of clouds, and bend their airy 

 bow. They still love the sport of their youth, and 

 mount the wind with joy/' 



From eai'ly Saxon times the privilege of hunting- 

 the deer in English forests belonged solely to the 

 king. Barons who held freehold land could obtain 

 a licence to hunt in their own domains, and could 

 also procure licences to empark an unclaimed area, 

 and construct deer-leaps or saltatoria. A saltatorium 

 was a ditch so constructed as to enable the deer to 

 leap into the park, but not out of it. 



Not only was the chase the recreation of kings 

 and barons, but the bishops also had their deer 

 parks. At the time of the Reformation the See of 

 Norwich owned thirteen deer-parks, and the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury had the right of hunting in 

 twenty parks. Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and James I 

 were devoted to the chase, but during the kill-joy 

 period of the Commonwealth the upkeep of parks 

 declined, and most of the deer parks now existing 

 were re-stocked and re-formed at the Restoration. 

 Red deer are to be found in eighty-six English parks. 

 Of these the largest is Savernake Forest, over 4000 

 acres in extent ; next in size come Windsor and 

 Eridge. In most of these parks fallow deer are also 

 kept, but in Blenheim, Bolton Abbey, Barmingham 

 and Calcot parks red deer alone are kept. Red deer 

 are found wild in three localities in England. Their 

 chief stronghold is in the wooded valleys and moor- 

 lands of North Devon and Somerset, where they 

 have roamed since the days of the Saxons. A few 

 head remain in Martindale Forest in Westmoreland, 



