70 EPPING FOREST. 



the cub grew up he turned out to be an undoubted 

 coayote or prairie wolf. It was conjectured that their 

 parents must have been turned out for fox cubs, 

 and although the gentleman to whom their intro- 

 duction was attributed has assured me that what 

 he enlarged were undoubtedly Spanish foxes, it is 

 quite possible that some one else may have turned 

 out coayotes, and that they have lived and bred 

 unsuspectedly for some years in the Forest. The 

 story is, however, not sufficiently confirmed for me 

 to include wolves among the Forest animals. 



The Fallow-Deer are the most conspicuous and distinctive 

 of the wild animals inhabiting the Forest. They have 

 wandered there for many centuries, but are believed not 

 to be indigenous, but to have been introduced by the 

 Romans. No fossil remains are found, although those 

 of roe and red deer are frequently dug up. The deer, 

 both red and fallow, as I have explained elsewhere, were 

 formerly rigidly preserved for the use of the King, but 

 some favoured individuals were allowed to hunt. For 

 instance, Heniy III. enacted, " Whatever archbishop, 

 bishop, earl, or baron shall be passing through our 

 forests, it shall be lawful for them to take one or two 

 deer, by view of the forester, if he shall be present ; if 

 not, he shall cause a horn to be sounded lest it should 

 seem a theft." Presents of venison were also frequently 

 made in the following form : — "On sight hereof you 



are to kill and deliver to the bearer for the use of 



one fat doe of this season, for which this shall be your 

 sufficient warrant, and herein you are not to fail." At the 

 beginning of the last century so many demands had been 

 made upon the herd in this way, and by marauders 

 locally known as "Waltham Blacks," that we find in 

 the Court Rolls an order that "the stock of red and 

 fallow being so low that they are likely to be extirpated, 

 no more are to be taken for three years." After this they 

 again increased, and our grandfathers describe them as 

 being visible in large herds between Woodford and 

 Epping by the passengers in the numerous coaches 

 which passed that way, bound for the eastern counties. 

 An old inhabitant writes : " When a boy my father took 

 me for a treat to London. It was a fine summer morn- 



