A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



in the park at Stowe) wild rabbits of various 

 colours, viz. white, black, silver-gray, spotted 

 and brown in plenty. No doubt these must 

 be the descendants of tame rabbits introduced 

 for the sake of variety. 

 Mr. W. Uthwatt writes : 



I have seen a stoat after a young rabbit, and the 

 old one come out and kick the stoat over with its 

 hind foot, and the stoat run away. They all seem 

 to go in one run when going out to feed, and all 

 migrate in a body when there is insufficient food, 

 or the place has been disturbed. 



UNGULATA 



Deer only exist in Bucks at the present 

 time in some seven parks. Of these parks five 

 contain 



31. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



Abridge Park (Earl Brownlow). the larger 

 half of which is in Herts is the only one 

 where the species can be considered as likely 

 to be indigenous, or enclosed while wild red 

 deer still roamed the county, it having been 

 enclosed at any rate since 1286. ' The close 

 of the Park ' of the manor of Ashridge (then 

 about 1,300 acres) was given in that year by 

 the Earl of Cornwall to the Rector and 

 Fraternity of Bonhommes ; and a confirma- 

 tion of this charter was granted by Edward I. 

 two years later. 1 ' The Park, about five miles 

 in circumference, . . . was anciently in two 

 divisions, one of them stocked with fallow 

 deer and the other with red deer.' * Lips- 

 comb states that the park contains about 

 1,500 acres, of which 385 are in Pitstone 

 parish, 258 in Ivinghoe and the remaining 

 larger half in Hertfordshire ; but Mr. Whit- 

 aker 3 gives the total acreage at the present 

 time as i , i oo, and the number of red deer as 



IOO. 



Fawley Court Park. Within two miles of 

 Henley, a portion of the park being in Ox- 

 fordshire. The park was formed afresh and 

 stocked with deer by Mr. W. D. Mackenzie, 

 the owner (whom I have to thank for the fol- 

 lowing information), about 1 88 1, and in June 

 1901 contained eighty to ninety red deer. It 

 consists of about 250 acres. The red deer here 

 are full grown at about seven years old, and 

 improve up to twelve years, after which they go 

 back. Duration of life believed to be about 

 twenty years. A stag which had a splendid 

 head of fourteen points for two years was shot 

 the succeeding year (about 1886), and had then 



1 Lipscomb, Hist, and Antiq. of Bucks, iii. 432, 

 433. He is a little mixed in his account. Richard 

 Earl of Cornwall died in 1272 and he was brother 

 and not son of Henry III. (and consequently a 

 younger son of King John). It was Richard's son 

 Edmund who founded the house of Ashridge in 

 1283 (see Kennett's Paroch, Antlq. (ed. 2, 1818), 

 i. 423 et seq. 



" Ibid. 447. 



3 Deer Parks and Paddocks of England (1892). 



a poor head of ten points. He was an old 

 animal, and the grazing was very short that 

 year. The master stag was once killed during 

 the rutting season by the two next best stags ; 

 he had something like seventy wounds on 

 him. One Easter Sunday (about 1897) a fine 

 stag was found by the keeper with his horns 

 right through the master stag, who had just 

 shed his horns ; they were both dying when 

 found. The younger stag was believed to 

 have harboured a grudge against the master 

 stag since the rutting season in the previous 

 October. The chief rutting season here is 

 early in October ; calves are born in April 

 and May. The horns of the older stags are 

 shed early in April, but the last horns of the 

 younger animals are not shed until the middle 

 of May. Number of points, ten to twelve 

 when five years old, and then run up as 

 high as eighteen points. In hard weather 

 the deer are given a few locust beans and 

 acorns, a little hay, and ash-poles to bark. 

 A deer park existed here at the breaking 

 out of the Civil War, but the park pales 

 were broken down and the deer destroyed by 

 Prince Rupert's troops. In Memorials of the 

 English Affairs* it is stated that in 1642 



' Prince Rupert ranged abroad with great 

 Parties, who committed strange Insolences, and 

 Violences, upon the Country. . . . They 

 broke down my Park Pales, killed most of my 

 Deer, though Rascal and Carrion, and let out 

 all the rest, only a tame young Stag, they carried 

 away and presented to Prince Rupert, and my 

 Hounds which were extraordinary good.' 



The allusion to a ' young stag ' shows that 

 there were red deer here at that date. Fawley 

 Park is mentioned in Memoirs of the Verney 

 Family. 6 'In the spring of 1660 "Cousin 

 Winwood " is negotiating for Sir Ralph the 

 purchase of " my Lord Whitlocke's deere," 

 which has also to be discreetly managed, for 

 " if it be knowne at Henley that the deere are 

 sould, my Lord being now under a little 

 cloud, they will endeavour to share with his 

 Lordshipp, therefore the sooner & the privater 



By 'Mr. [Bulstrode] Whitelock,' 'A New 

 Edition,' fol. London, 1732, pp. 64, 65. (Not in 

 the original edition). 



5 Vol. iii. p. 411. 



172 



