186 COYERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



*' It is now more than thirty years ago that his highness sent 

 down a huntsman and six Yeoman prickers, in scarlet jackets 

 laced with gold, attended by the stag-hounds, ordering them to 

 take every deer in the forest alive, and convey them in carts to 

 Windsor. In the course of the summer they caught every stag, 

 some of which showed extraordinary diversion ; but in the fol- 

 lowing winter, when the hinds were also carried off, such fine 

 chases were exhibited as served the country people for matter 

 of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw myself one of 

 the Yeoman prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must 

 confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever 

 beheld, superior to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The 

 exertions made by the horse and deer exceeded all my ex- 

 pectations, though the former greatly exceeded the latter in 

 speed. When the devoted deer was separated from his com- 

 panions, they gave him, by their watches, law, as they called 

 it, for twenty minutes ; when sounding their horns, the stop- 

 dogs were jDermitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene 

 ensued." 



In another place White says, " One thing is remarkable, 

 that, though Holt has been of old well stocked with fallow deer, 

 unrestrained by any pales or fences more than a common hedge, 

 they yet are never seen within the limits of Woolmer, nor were 

 the red deer of Woolmer ever known to haunt the thickets or 

 glades of the Holt." At what time the deer were driven from 

 Windsor Forest into the Great Park, I have not been able to 

 determine, but probably about the same period that Woolmer 

 Forest was cleared of them. Many of my readers will doubtless 

 be surprised to learn that Epping Forest has been inhabited by 

 red deer within the present century ; and there is a man now 

 alive wdio has hunted them. Nevertheless, such is the fact, 

 and I have had particulars of their doings from his own lips, to 

 which I shall refer in another chapter. The last red deer was, 

 he told me, shot in Hainault Forest in 1828, since which time 

 I tliink I am correct in saying that, save the Xew Forest in 



