A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



as 200 have been killed in a day in late years. 

 A pretty incident was seen on these downs a 

 few years ago. A brood of five late leverets 

 was found in a turnip field in September. 

 They were about the size of guinea-pigs. 

 One of the brood repeatedly hopped out of 

 the nest and struck at the stick with which 

 the keeper was putting aside the turnip leaves, 

 at the same time uttering a kind of snuffling 

 sneeze as if to terrify the keeper ! 



29. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. 

 The downs are admirably suited to rabbits, 



but the only regular warren of which the 

 writer knows (one at Lockinge) is only just 

 maintained. Rabbits have greatly decreased 

 since the Ground Game Act, and as farming 

 has pronounced against them their numbers 

 will continue to diminish. Lately His Ma- 

 jesty King Edward VII. has allowed a very 

 large head to be got up in Windsor Great 

 Park, where they lend an ornamental and 

 cheerful appearance to the high ground near 

 the memorial to the Prince Consort. At the 

 beginning of the last century George Elwys of 

 Marcham had a well stocked warren. 



UNGULATA 



30. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



There can be no doubt that the red deer in 

 Windsor Great Park are the descendants of 

 those which were imported into Windsor 

 Forest after the destruction of the herds which 

 took place during the Commonwealth period. 

 Besides Windsor Home Park there are others 

 in which deer remain. A small deer paddock 

 made by the late Mr. John Allen of Hendred 

 Downs House (now the property of Lady 

 Wantage) is no longer kept up. But Windsor 

 Great Park, covering 3,000 acres, contains 

 (within a pale of its own) Cranbourne Park, 

 in which is a herd of twenty-five white red 

 deer. In the Great Park itself are at least 

 100 red deer, the stags being of remarkable 

 size. Neither stags nor hinds are ever killed. 



In the rutting season, i.e. in September and 

 October, the big stags gather many hinds 

 round them. Continuous watch and ward is 

 kept, the smaller stags being constantly routed. 

 At such times the public are warned that it 

 is dangerous to approach the stags. 



At Hampstead Marshall Park, the property 

 of the Earl of Craven, on the Kennet a few 

 miles above Newbury, are twenty-five red 

 deer, as well as fallow. Calcot Park, the 

 property of Mr. Henry Barry Blagrave, though 

 only of ninety acres, has the largest herd of 

 red deer in the county, numbering 150. 



In the Paddock at Ascot, until the Buck- 

 hounds were discontinued, the deer were 

 kept, which provided runs with these hounds. 

 They were often selected from stags removed 

 from Richmond Park, where the largest stags 

 were caught in the ' toils ' or nets in January 

 and taken to Windsor. One of these, a fa- 

 mous stag called ' Moonlight,' returned after 

 being hunted all day, jumped the high fence 



of the paddock from outside, and so rejoined 

 its companions. 



31. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



Fallow deer are kept in no less than nine 

 parks in Berkshire. Windsor holds one 

 thousand, Hampstead Marshall 180, and at 

 Englefield Park Mr. James Herbert Benyon, 

 Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, has a large 

 herd. The park is 450 acres, and 330 fallow 

 deer are kept. At Aldermaston, the property 

 of Mr. Charles Edward Keyser, a part only 

 of the park is devoted to a herd of 70 or 80 

 fallow deer. 



Sir Gilbert A. Clayton East, Bart., at Hall 

 Place on the Thames, has a herd of 1 20 fallow 

 deer. Mr. Philip Wroughton at Woolley Park, 

 between Wantage and Newbury, has some 

 200; at Silwood Mrs. Cordes has 120; Sir 

 William Throckmorton at Buckland main- 

 tains a herd of about 100, and Colonel G. B. 

 Archer-Houblon at Welford, in the Lambourn 

 valley, has 80 of these deer. Formerly herds 

 of deer were maintained at Park Place and 

 at Buscot Park. 



32. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn. 



Bell Capreolus caprea. 



By a fortunate combination of circum- 

 stances the roebuck, which has been restored 

 to Epping Forest, to Dorsetshire, and parts of 

 Wiltshire and Devon on their Dorset borders, 

 is and has been for some time resident in Berk- 

 shire. These elegant deer were turned out 

 in the Virginia Water woods. There they 

 have more than maintained themselves, and 

 have spread into the wooded estates near 

 Sunningdale, especially into those owned by 

 the Countess Morella. 



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