LETTER XXVIII. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, March 1770. 



N Michaelmas Day 1768 I managed to get a 

 sight of the female moose belonging to the Duke 

 of Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was greatly 

 disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find 

 that it died, after having appeared in a languish- 

 ing way for some time, on the morning before. 

 However, understanding that it was not stripped, 

 I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped : I found it in an old 

 greenhouse, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a stand- 

 ing posture ; but though it had been dead for so short a time, it 

 was in so putrid a state that the stench was hardly supportable. 

 The grand distinction between this deer, and any other species that 

 I have ever met with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on 

 which it was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grail* 

 order. I measured it, as they do an horse, and found that from the 

 ground to the withers it was just five feet four inches ; which height 

 answers exactly to sixteen hands, a growth that few horses arrive at ; 

 but then, with his length of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no 

 more than twelve inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot 

 forward and the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, 



H 



