346 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



were a number of delinquents who paid 3^. fines. The total 

 of the peat-cutters, who still paid $d. each, on the whole moor 

 was thirty-five. 



The court rolls for some twenty years later, namely, for 

 1595-6, show that the sheep were increasing. There were 843 

 in the north quarter, 1 10 in the east, and 246 in the west ; the 

 return for the south quarter is missing. 



In the reign of James the sheep on the whole materially 

 increased, at the expense of the cattle. The proportions for 

 the north quarter in 1609-10 were 746 cattle, thirteen horses, 

 and 1,560 sheep ; but they fluctuated much, for in 1617-19 the 

 cattle of the same quarter numbered 640, the horses seven, and 

 the sheep 600. 



The introduction of sheep on Dartmoor probably showed a 

 diminution in the deer, or, at all events, less attention to their 

 interests ; for although red deer, where they roam widely, are 

 not nearly so much affected by sheep pasturage as fallow deer, 

 still it was always the principle to restrict sheep very narrowly 

 in royal forests even when tenanted by the larger deer. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century the red deer had 

 become so plentiful on Dartmoor that the farmers bitterly com- 

 plained, and at last they were exterminated by the staghounds 

 of the Duke of Bedford, sent down from Woburn for that pur- 

 pose. It has been said that "Tavistock was so glutted with 

 venison that only the haunches of the animals killed were 

 saved, the rest being given to the hounds," but this is obvi- 

 ously a somewhat ridiculous exaggeration. Of late years red 

 deer occasionally find their way to Dartmoor, straying thither 

 from Exmoor, although its nearest point is over forty miles 

 distant. 



The return of the jurors of the court of survey of the manor 

 of Lydford and the forest of Dartmoor on i3th October, 1786, 

 as parcel of the possessions of the Duchy of Cornwall, is cited 

 in full by Mr. Rowe. It supplies interesting particulars as to 

 the then obligation of the tenants to assist the foresters of the 

 east, south, and west quarters to make a winter drift for the 

 colts at their own charge, and to drive them to Dunnabridge 

 pound and keep them there for two days and three nights, and 

 thence to the Prince's pound at Lydford, all at their own 

 charge save the taking from the forester one halfpenny white 



