314 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



Red-deer " loosely scattered " in many woods be- 

 longing to the Earl of Ormond, in Munster ; and 

 the Earl of Kildare, in Leinster. 



Lord Deputy Strafford, in Charles the First's 

 time, as appears by a letter of his to the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, seems to have enjoyed himself in 

 leisure hours, as he says, " in the country of moun- 

 tains and woods, hunting and chasing all the 

 outlying deer I can light of." O' Flaherty, in his 

 " Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar 

 Connaught," written in 1684, bears testimony to 

 the existence there at that date of Red-deer, 

 amongst other wild animals. 



In less than a century later they were remarked 

 to be gradually getting scarcer, and fears were 

 expressed of their approaching extinction. Thus 

 Dr. Charles Smith, in his " History of Waterford" 

 (1746), writes: "In the mountains of Knock- 

 mealdown, we have some remains of the Red-deer, 

 but so few, that it is to be feared the species will in 

 a few years be extinct, especially if a little more 

 care be not taken of them." 



A second edition of this work was published in 

 1774, in which year a disputed question of boundary 

 on these very mountains gave rise to a suit between 

 the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Cahir. In the 

 course of these proceedings the evidence of some 

 of the witnesses, now a matter of record, is very 

 interesting, as confirming the alleged existence of 

 Red-deer in this part of Ireland at that date. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. F. E. Currey, for 

 many years agent to the Duke of Devonshire, my 

 friend, Mr. R. J. Ussher, has been enabled to sum- 



