RED DEER. 297 



beast of chase or of " venerie." For obstinate 

 valour, the Badger, and for audacity, the Ermine, 

 are certainly the most renowned of our native 

 quadrupeds. But as regal game, the Red Deer may 

 be properly enough styled noble or royal ; and the 

 laws enacted for its preservation by the Conqueror 

 of England, show that in the eyes of some, a wild 

 beast may be of more value than a human being. 

 " The afforesting of vast tracts of country," says 

 Mr Bell, " by which not only single cottages were 

 destroyed, but whole villages swept away, and 

 churches desecrated and demolished, was the fertile 

 source of misery to the poorer inhabitants, and of 

 injustice to the ancient proprietors of the soil ; and 

 the cruel inflictions of the oppressive laws which 

 were enacted to preserve the Deer, increased ten- 

 fold the curse arising from this tyrannical passion 

 for the chase ; for it was a crime less severely penal 

 to kill a man than to destroy or take a Deer." The 

 proprietors in the north of Scotland were scarcely 

 less tyrannical thirty or forty years ago, and I have 

 heard of instances of despotism connected with this 

 animal, that would sound strangely in the ears of 

 Englishmen of the present day. However, all the 

 restrictions and penal ties imposed were not sufficient 

 to prevent the annual slaughter of hundreds of 

 Deer ; and I know a man, residing in the Island of 

 Lewis, who killed from ten to twenty every year. 

 After all, the Red Deer is a stately and beautiful 

 animal, as a subject of sport certainly the noblest 

 of our native quadrupeds. See him on the granitic 



