MAMMALS 



wood, and in 1664 he had all the red deer 

 and 200 fallow deer removed from Richmond 

 to put in ' such places as shall be ordered.' 1 

 In the same year, 1664, the inhabitants of 

 the old Surrey bailiwick complained that their 

 crops were overrun by deer. Their petition 

 is printed in Manning and Bray, vol. iii. 

 appendix Ixxx., and is said there to be pre- 

 served at Windlesham, Surrey, in the church 

 chest. Mr. Evelyn in his diary (1685) re- 

 cords that Bagshot Park was full of red deer. 8 



In the reign of Queen Anne red deer were 

 still common in the south of England, as on 

 her way from London to Portsmouth she saw 

 a herd of 500 from a bank east of Liphook, 

 very near the meeting place of Surrey, Sussex 

 and Hampshire. 



Mr. Joseph Whitaker in his descriptive list 

 of the deer parks of England, 1 892, states that 

 fifteen red deer were kept in Mr. Godman's 

 park at Park Hatch near Godalming, but no 

 herd is now preserved there. 



Red deer are still kept in Richmond Park, 

 and Mr. H. Sawyer, the junior ranger, says 

 that at the present time (1901) there are sixty 

 head, but they usually number fifty (in lit.). 



36. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



Whether the fallow deer is indigenous to 

 England or not is a question that has not yet 

 been finally settled, but the general opinion 

 seems to be that it is not. In 1868 Mr. 

 Boyd Dawkins described a new species of 

 deer in Mr. Brown's collection, 3 which he 

 named Cervus browni. This deer is almost 

 identical with the existing fallow deer of our 

 parks, but it is somewhat larger, and it pos- 

 sesses a third tyne above the bez, which, accord- 

 ing to the late Sir Victor Brooke, occasionally 

 occurs in the fallow deer. Bewick tells us 

 that James I. introduced a dark variety from 

 Norway, on account of its hardiness, and 

 turned them down in Scotland, and from 

 thence transported them into his royal chases 

 of Enfield and Epping. 4 In a letter from Sir 

 Roger Ashton to Salisbury, dated Greenwich, 

 May 1 1, 1 6 1 1, he writes : 'the king will not 

 despatch the ships which brought the deer 

 before he knows what Salisbury gave for the 

 last that came,' etc., 6 but Mr. J. E. Harting 

 has shown us that this dark variety existed at 

 Windsor in the reign of Edward IV., about 

 the year 1465. 



Mr. Shirley in his book, p. 21, quotes an 



1 Cal. S. Papers, Domestic, p. 13, 1664. 

 8 Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 570. 



3 The Quarterly Journal of the Geokgical Society, 

 1868, vol. xxiv. p. 511. 



4 Bewick, History of Quadrupeds, p. 143. 

 6 Cal. S. Papers, Domestic, p. 3 1 . 



interesting letter written by the command of 

 Queen Margaret of Anjou : 



By the Queene ! To my Lords, squier 

 and ours J. D. Keeper of Shene Parke (now 

 Richmond, Surrey) or his depute there : 



Trusty and well beloved, For as moche as 

 we suppose that in short tyme we shall come 

 righte negh unto my Lord's menoir of Shene, 

 we desire and praye you heartly that ye will 

 keepe against our resortinge thedor, for oure 

 disporte and recreation, Two or iii of the 

 grettest bukkes in my Lord's pare there, 

 saving alwayes my Lord's owne command- 

 ment there in presence as we trust, etc. 8 



Fallow deer were so plentiful in the middle 

 ages that they were looked upon as a recog- 

 nized article of food. Moryson, writing in 

 i6i7, 7 says (in a discourse on the English- 

 man's love of pleasure) : ' Lastly (without 

 offence be it spoken), I will boldly say that 

 England (yea, perhaps one county thereof) 

 hath more fallow deare than all Europe that 

 I have seen.' 



Queen Elizabeth used to hunt the fallow 

 deer in the royal park of Nonsuch, Cheam. 

 Camden mentions this park as being full of 

 deer, and as late as 1650 there were 100 

 fallow deer in it. In the royal park of Guild- 

 ford (of which no trace now remains) there 

 were, according to Mr. Nordon, in 1607, 600 

 fallow deer. Mr. Evelyn, writing from Albury 

 near Shere on July 2, 1 662, says : ' We hunted 

 and killed a buck in the park. Mr. Howard 

 invited most of the gentlemen of the county 

 near here.' 8 



Mr. Shirley gives an historical account of 

 no less than thirty-nine parks in Surrey, thirty 

 of which at the present day have ceased to 

 exist. Fallow deer are still preserved in the 

 few remaining, which, according to Mr. Joseph 

 Whitaker's list, written in 1892, were : 



Richmond . . . . 1,100 



Clandon .... 100 



Park Hatch . . . 2OO 



Peper Harrow. . . 22O 



Farnham .... 300 



Wonersh .... 200 



Carshalton .... 42 



Ashstead .... 120 



Wimbledon ... 35 



37. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus. Linn. 



Bell Capreolus caprea. 



The roe deer is indigenous to Britain, and 

 was very abundant in prehistoric times. Mr. 

 John Millais has examined perfect skulls from 



6 Letters of Queen Margaret of Anjou, printed by 

 the Camden Society, 1863, pp. 100-37. 



7 Moryson's Itinerary, pt. iii. p. 148. 



8 Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 286. 



225 



