70 THE NEW FOREST 



varieties in the district when the Conqueror 

 afforested this great tract, where he desired to 

 take his pleasure near his capital of Winchester. 

 We read of him that he " loved the tall [i.e. 

 the red] deer, as if he had been their father," and 

 probably most of his personal hunting was the 

 pursuit of the noble stag. But the fallow deer 

 were certainly there in greater or in less numbers. 



Of the roe deer we have no record. His only 

 appearances have occurred in recent years in the 

 form of solitary deer mostly old bucks, that have 

 probably been worsted in fighting and have 

 strayed up from Dorsetshire, where they are now 

 plentiful enough. They were, however, only in- 

 troduced into Dorsetshire about 1830, though they 

 have thriven so well there, and spread so greatly, 

 that it is strange that more of them have not 

 established themselves in the New Forest. 



The first that came into my ken was about 

 the year 1880, when a solitary buck, wandering no 

 doubt out of Dorsetshire, tried to make his way 

 over to the Isle of Wight at low water by way 

 Hurst Castle, and its long approach over that 

 pebbly beach which leads to it. No doubt the 

 buck thought that the tongue of land he tra- 

 versed went all the way to the Island downs 

 that he could see far-off, but he was deceived. 

 First, he stuck in the mud, and then the tide 



