300 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



trouble to re-stock many of the royal parks and forests with 

 both red and fallow deer. In this Windsor had its full share. 



In November, 1731, the deer of Windsor forest numbered 

 1,300; in 1806 they had dwindled to 318. In 1813 came the 

 disafforesting Act for Windsor, and in the following year 

 a troop of the Horse Guards and a detachment of the 5th 

 Infantry were employed for two days in sweeping through the 

 wild heaths and dells that were about to be enclosed, and 

 driving thence the deer into the parks ; but in this rough 

 process many were slaughtered. 



At the present day the acreage of the Great Park is about 

 3,000 acres, and it contains, in round numbers, 1,000 fallow 

 and loo red deer. Cranborne Park, though part of the Great 

 Park, has a pale of its own, and contains a small herd of white 

 red-deer ! 



