A HISTORY OF SURREY 



UNGULATA 



35. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



The red deer was a native of the primeval 

 forests of England. Their remains have been 

 found together with those of the mammoth in 

 the gravel deposits of the Thames valley, and 

 no doubt it roamed free all over Surrey until 

 the time of the Conquest, when the Normans 

 arrived on the scene, with their love of hunt- 

 ing, and formed the first parks for that pur- 

 pose, enclosing large tracts of the country 

 and making the most stringent laws regarding 

 them. In the twelfth century Henry II. re- 

 duced the whole of Surrey to the state of a 

 forest, and converted the royal manor of Guild- 

 ford into a deer park. 



This excessive extension of the royal forest 

 of Windsor was complained of by the county ; 

 and under Richard I., John, Henry III., 

 Edward I. and Edward III. successive and 

 at last successful efforts were made which 

 ended in reducing the bounds of Windsor 

 Forest to the boundaries of the counties of 

 Surrey and Berkshire, but in leaving the 

 Surrey parishes west of the Wey and north 

 of the Hog's Back as a purlieu of the forest, 

 known as the Surrey bailiwick. 1 Here the 

 red deer were numerous, not only in enclosed 

 parks, but all over the country. Keepers were 

 appointed whose business it was to drive them 

 back to Windsor Forest. This was not always 

 done, it was probably impossible, and the wild 

 red deer are continually spoken of as present 

 in the county. A stag and a hind were ordered 

 in 1519 to be delivered yearly to Sir Chris- 

 topher More from the Surrey bailiwick of 

 Windsor Forest. 8 



In Queen Elizabeth's reign the Surrey 

 bailiwick was practically treated as forest, 

 and the deer were preserved there. On April 

 24, 1573, the Earl of Leicester wrote to 

 William More and Edward Docwra, Esquires, 

 appointing them to view the deer in the walks 

 of the Surrey bailiwick of Windsor Forest, 

 and to certify him of their numbers and state. 8 

 Disorders and poaching in Surrey are continu- 

 ally spoken of in the Loseley Papers as calling 

 for the interference of the verderers of Wind- 

 sor Forest, whence probably they include deer 

 stealing. This offence is specified on one 

 occasion, July (no day), 1604.* The red deer 

 were common in the royal and many other 



1 Manwood, Treatise and Discourse of the Laws 

 of the Forest, 1598, pp. 243-86. 



2 Loseley MSS., August i, 1519, ix. p. 9. 

 s Op. cit. April 24, 1573, i. p. 82. 



* Op. cit. July, 1604, i. p. 50. 



parks, whence no doubt they often escaped. 5 

 A curious monument to John Selwyn, the 

 royal keeper at Oatlands, in Walton church, 

 represents him astride upon a deer and plung- 

 ing a knife into its throat. The feat is said 

 to have been performed in the presence of 

 Elizabeth. 6 James I. hunted in Surrey in 

 the open country outside the royal parks. 7 

 He was fond of hunting deer, as we learn 

 from the number of references to the sport 

 in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic 

 Series, and did all in his power to preserve 

 them. 



In a letter from Secretary Conway to the 

 justices of the peace of Surrey, 8 dated April 

 5, 1624, temp. James I., we read, ' requests 

 them to put the laws into execution as far as 

 possible against Taddy Farnwill, who has 

 killed red deer in Windsor Forest (in the 

 bailiwick of Surrey), the king being very 

 particular to have justice done in such 

 cases.' 



In the time of Charles I. the deer became 

 so plentiful in west Surrey that the inhabi- 

 tants sent a petition, dated 1630, to Henry, 

 Earl of Holland, lord warden, asking for his 

 help as the deer had impoverished the land to 

 a very great extent by eating all the grass and 

 corn. We also learn that Charles I. had two 

 stags turned down in Sir Francis Leight's park 

 at Addington for his disport. 9 



At the time of the Commonwealth the 

 soldiers killed many of the deer and tore down 

 the park fences, and those that escaped the 

 soldiers took to the woods again. We find 

 that in 1652 red deer were kept in Hampton 

 Court Park. 10 When Charles II. came to the 

 throne the royal parks were nearly denuded 

 of deer, so he collected them from various 

 private enclosures to restock his own herds. 

 In a letter dated March 7, 1662, an order for 

 a warrant was made to pay Sir Lionel Tolle- 

 mache, Bart., 300 for feeding the deer lately 

 brought to Richmond Great Park for the king s 



disport. 11 



Charles II. also imported a large number 

 of both red and fallow deer from France to 

 replenish his parks of Richmond and Sher- 



Op cit. August 26, 1583, x. p. 93, an d Au 8 ust 

 31, 1583, vi. p. 27. . 



6 Grose, in the Antiquarian Repertory, vol. i. 

 p. 27, tells the story. The monument is extant. 



7 Loseley MSS., June 8, 1608, i. p. 55- 

 Cat. S. Papers, Domestic, p. 208, 1624. 



8 Op. cit. p. 294, 1624. 



10 Op. cit. p. 349. 1652. 



11 Op. cit. p. 302, 1662. 



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