ITS ANIMALS. 71 



ing. We started at four o'clock. I well remember the 

 open plains bordering the Forest swai-med with deer. 

 I am sure there must have been hundreds in sight at one 

 time. This was in the year 1829." Another old in- 

 habitant tells me that he remembers seeing them oppo- 

 site Assembly Row, near Leytonstone. From encroach- 

 ments on the area of the Forest, the depredations of 

 poachers, and from the sporting rights of the Crown 

 having been allowed to fall into disuse, the number of 

 the deer diminished greatly from the beginning of the 

 century ; until, about the year i860, there were said to 

 be under ten left alive. Fortunately, before it was too 

 late, attention was called to the subject, and owing to 

 the fostering care of the Rev. J. W. Maitland, and sub- 

 sequently of the conservators, this unique herd was pre- 

 served, and has rapidly increased. 



I say "unique," as, though the same breed are 

 found in some parts of Scotland, I believe these to 

 be the only representatives in England of the ancient 

 deer. The herds of tame fallow-deer, which are pre- 

 served in so many parks throughout England, differ 

 completely from the Forest breed. The former are 

 chiefly descended from ancestors imported from Ger- 

 many, and, for the same reason that all domesticated 

 animals vary much more than the same species when 

 wild, namely, that peculiarities are preserved and trans- 

 mitted, we find in these herds every shade of colour 

 from white and dun to black. The Epping Forest deer, 

 on the contrary, show no such variations. They are all 

 of a uniform dark brown, which appears to be black, 

 except when one is in very close proximity. The mottles 

 and spots which are so conspicuous on lighter coloured 

 fallow-deer are invisible, except to a minute inspection 

 of the skin after death. They are inferior in size to the 

 park deer, and the horns are less branched, but whether 

 this is due, as some think, to in-and-in breeding, or to 

 the superior grazing enjoyed for many generations by 

 the latter, I am unable to say. Their natural shyness 

 is favoured by the density of the cover, which, from the 

 difficulty of penetrating it noiselessly, gives warning of an 

 approaching intruder. So well aware are they when 

 they are concealed, that they will often allow one to 

 pass within a few feet of their hiding-place without stir- 

 ring. For this reason they are not often seen, and I have 

 known many residents in the habit of traversing their 

 haunts, who have even doubted their existence. There 

 are always plenty within a mile radius of the Wake 



