224 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



Fallow deer have been hunted in Epping Forest 

 since the days of Canute, whose standard bearer, 

 Tovi, seems to have organised the hunt for the king, 

 and all the English sovereigns have hunted there 

 from the Norman Conquest up to, and including, 

 Elizabeth, who is said to have been able to shoot the 

 buck with her crossbow with " great suret3\^^ The 

 re-introduction of fallow deer to this forest has, with 

 many other importations, been attributed to the 

 Romans, but Mr. J. G. Millais holds the opinion that 

 it is much more likel}^ that these animals were landed 

 in England long before, by the enterprising Phoenician 

 sailors. 



Shooting the fallow deer with horse, hounds, and 

 crossbow was formerly a ver}^ favourite after-dinner 

 summer amusement from mid June to mid September. 

 '^Every man,^^ says Moryson in his ^ Itinerary ^ (1617), 

 "with an income of £500 to £1000 hath a park for 

 them (fallow deer) enclosed with pales of wood for 

 two or three miles^ compass.^' 



With present-day weapons buck shooting is not 

 considered to afford the highest kind of sport. In 

 the New Forest they are still hunted with hounds. 



Fallow deer were kept in Hyde Park from the 

 days of Henry VIII to the Coronation of Queen 

 Victoria, when they were removed to Bushey on 

 account of the Coronation Fair. 



Inasmuch as they are not dangerous, fallow deer 

 are more commonl}^ kept than red deer_, and are to 

 be found in 390 English parks. 



The Hon. C Lascelles says that all the New 

 Forest fallow deer have the same colouring. In 



