30 THE MAMMALIA OF DORSETSHIRE. 



Order RUMINANTIA. 



Family CERVID^. 



Genus CERVUS. 

 Red Deer, Cervus elaphus. 



Formerly common in the wooded districts of the county, but 

 now extinct. There were still some in Cranborne Chase as late 

 as 1 8 14, or perhaps later. The Rev. W. Chafin, in his 

 "Anecdotes of Cranborne Chase," gives an interesting account 

 of them and the deer stealers. He calls them bucks, but I am 

 under the impression that stag is the proper name for the male 

 of this species, hart for that of the fallow deer, and buck for that 

 of the roe-deer ; the names seem in former times to have been 

 used indiscriminately. In the reign of King Henry HI. a white 

 one frequented the Vale or Forest of Blackmore, and the King, 

 who had a hunting lodge in Holwell, was so enamoured of it 

 that he gave orders that no one should on any account hunt or 

 kill it. However, Sir Thomas de la Lynde, son of Sir John 

 de la Lynde, who lived at Hartley, and was forester of Black- 

 more, with his companions hunted and killed the white hart at 



Anciext Tilks in Glaxvilles Woottox CiiuEcn supposed to 



EEPEESEXT THE SlAYIXG OF THE WhiTE HAET. 



King's Stag Bridge, in the parish of Lydlinch. On hearing of 

 it, the King was so enraged that he not onlv punished them with 

 imprisonment, but taxed their lands, the owners of which until 

 the last few years paid a yearly sum of money into the 



