2i8 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



Shakespeare alludes to the process as " powder- 

 ing " in the First Part of King Henry IV., Act 4, 

 Scene 4, where the Prince of Wales, spying Falstaff 

 shamming dead, says : — 



Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, 

 Though many dearer, in this bloody fray, 

 EmbowU'd will I see thee by and by : 

 Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. {Exit.) 



Falstaff (Rising up). Embowelled ! If thou embowel me to-day, 

 I'll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 



Allowing for the utmost skill on the part of the 

 larderers, most people would prefer not to be called 

 on to dine on a haunch killed after a hard run in 

 August on Exmoor, and then salted and barrelled 

 and jolted about in the sun by pack-horse and 

 wagon to Windsor, and there stored till required. 

 Even Chicago tinned meat would be preferable. 



Such appears to have been an outline of the 

 practice during the fourteenth century, but after 

 that time there is a dearth of authorities, and during 

 the turbulent times when the Houses of York and 

 Lancaster were contending for the mastery, it is 

 impossible to believe that this system can have been 

 regularly adhered to ; and as we have no record of 

 the enforcement of forest law by the courts, the 

 conclusion is almost forced upon us that outlying 

 and distant forests, such as Exmoor and Dartmoor, 

 must have been left practically at the mercy of local 

 sportsmen, who no doubt made the most of their 

 opportunities. 



