102 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



in Warburton as there are. We could do 

 very well with fewer in the gardens and 

 orchards, and there would then be less in- 

 ducement to hold such frequent public cours- 

 ing meetings, which, in my opinion, we could 

 do very well without. Some years before 

 1900 a large number were imported and 

 turned down. These were at first a great 

 annoyance to everybody, and did much 

 damage to fruit trees even in mild open 

 weather; it was almost unbelievable the 

 height to which they could reach, gnawing 

 off every bit of bark all the way round. 

 They were, besides, far too thick upon the 

 ground for their own comfort. I was told 

 by a man who worked on the estate that he 

 often came across bucks fighting together; 

 they fought so savagely, he said, that they 

 would hardly get out of his way, and almost 

 knocked up against him. They begin fight- 

 ing, it appears from his account, by giving 

 slaps with their forefeet, but in the end they 

 go on to worry at one another like dogs. 



