72 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX. 



" But famous more, as annals tell, 



Because of Easter chase, 

 Where every year, 'twixt dog and deer, 

 There is a gallant race." 



The famous Epping Forest Easter Hunt was supposed by 

 Harrison Ainsworth (see his novel The Lord Mayor of 

 London} to owe its origin to the sporting habits of the Lord 



Mayors of olden days. 



More information 



about Essex Red 

 Deer is conveyed in 

 The Field (April 

 5th, 1884), and in 

 Messrs. Ball and 

 Gilbey's Essex Fox- 

 hounds (1896, pp. 308- 

 335). There are few 

 records relating to the 

 county but make men- 

 tion of the important 

 part this animal has 

 played in the history 

 of our various families 

 and estates. 



Mr. J. E. Harting 

 quotes (Essex Nat , vol. 

 i-> P- 55) fr m a manuscript note (by Gary himself) in a copy 

 of Gary's Survey of the Country Fifteen Miles round London 

 (1786), owned by Mr. B. G. Cole, the statement that the 

 Crown has an unlimited right to keep Deer in these forests, 

 of which, during Gary's time, as in Norden's (Description of 

 Essex, 1594, ed. 1840, p. 9), there was a goodly stock, both 

 of Red and Fallow Deer. In another manuscript note, Gary 

 records : " 1827, Oct. 2Oth. I met the staghounds at Hoghill 



ANTLERS OF THE LAST RED DEER FROM HAINAULT 

 FOREST. 



