322 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



only in the houses of the said Earls and of the 

 English commanders." 



At Raheen Tomgraney, co. Clare, a royal deer 

 park was granted to the representative of the Brady 

 family, who held it by the tenure of furnishing a 

 certain number of bucks annually for the royal 

 table ; and it was a felony punishable with death to 

 steal a deer out of this park. The estate was sold 

 about twenty years ago in the Irish Encumbered 

 Estates Court, when, I believe, a new title was 

 given. 



There are now, of course, herds of Fallow-deer 

 in many parks in Ireland, and it is not an uncom- 

 mon thing for individuals to make their escape, and 

 remain at large for a considerable time until they 

 are killed, it being impossible to get them back. 

 Thompson was informed in 1850 by a keeper of 

 Lord Bantry, at Glengariff, that there were a great 

 many Fallow-deer at large throughout the woods 

 and on the mountains in that locality. They had 

 then become so numerous as to be very destructive 

 to the plantations, and a good deal of his time was 

 occupied in shooting the does. 



At the present day Fallow-deer roam unchecked 

 through many counties of Ireland in a wild state, 

 though originally truants from preserves. In coun- 

 ties Galway and Clare, and across the Shannon, 

 every large cover holds its two or more. In the 

 spring they descend at night from the woods and 

 uplands, and make sad havoc in the gardens of the 

 peasantry. They are especially numerous near 

 Clonmell, on the Waterford side of the River Suir, 

 having originally escaped some time ago from the 



