AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK. 299 



have necessitated the constant use of a bow from child- 

 hood, so that it became second nature. But almost any 

 man who has strength to set a cross-bow, with moderate 

 practice, and any idea at all of shooting, could become 

 a fairly good shot with it. From the cross-bow to a gun 

 was a comparatively easy step, and it was the knowledge 

 of the power of the one that led to the quick introduction 

 of the other. For gunpowder was hardly discovered 

 before hand-guns were thought of, and no discovery 

 ever spread so swiftly. Then the arquebuse swept away 

 the old English chase. 



These deer exist by permission. They are pro- 

 tected with jealous care ; or rather they have been 

 protected so long that by custom they have grown semi- 

 consecrated, and it is rare for anyone to think of touch- 

 ing them. The fawns wander, and a man, if he choose, 

 might often knock one over with his axe as he comes 

 home from his work. The deer browse up to the very 

 skirts of the farmhouse below, sometimes even enter 

 the rick-yard, and once now and then, if a gate be left 

 open, walk in and eat the pease in the garden. The 

 bucks are still a little wilder, a little more nervous for 

 their liberty, but there is no difficulty in stalking them 

 to within forty or fifty yards. They have either lost 

 their original delicacy of scent, or else do not respond 

 to it, as the approach of a man does not alarm them, 

 else it would be necessary to study the wind ; but you 

 may get thus near them without any thought of the 

 breeze — no nearer ; then, bounding twice or thrice, 

 lifting himself each time as high as the fern, the buck 

 turns half towards you to see whether his retreat should 

 or should not be continued. 



The fawns have come out from the beeches, because 

 there is more grass on the slope and in the hollow, 



