ANIMALS INTRODUCED FOR AMENITY 285 



Deer entirely disappeared, leaving no trace in the peat or 

 marl of the Scottish lakes, nor in the shell-mounds, kitchen- 

 middens, or dwelling places of the Scottish peoples, even to 

 the time of the brochs, which extends almost to the ninth 

 century of our era. 



The Fallow Deer owes its subsequent introduction to the 

 grace and interest which its lithe body and handsome antlers 

 contribute to the pleasure parks of the great. There is no 

 record to tell when it first returned under the protection of 

 man, but we know that shortly after the Norman Conquest 

 it was regularly hunted in England by the king and his 

 barons, and there can be little doubt that it was imported 

 from one of those districts of southern Europe, from Portugal 

 to Greece, in which it retained a hold through the changes of 

 post-glacial times. To Scotland it was in all likelihood trans- 

 ported a short time after its establishment in England. It 

 appeared at first as a guarded and pampered tenant of the 

 pleasure park, for the earliest historical reference to the 

 species is that mentioned by Professor Cosmo Innes, record- 

 ing how in 1283 an allowance was earmarked in the accounts 

 of the King's Chamberlain for mowing and carrying hay and 

 litter for the use in winter of the Fallow Deer which lived in 

 the park at Stirling. Now as this "new" park was formed and 

 surrounded with a palisade in 1263 for King Alexander III, 

 it is possible that the Fallow Deer were imported at that time 

 specially to grace the new royal pleasure ground. 



Three centuries later, in 1564, Queen Mary watched from 

 the Braes of Athole the great gathering of Deer arranged by 

 the Earl of Athole for her entertainment. In Dr William 

 Barclay's account of this notable hunting, as translated from 

 the Latin by Pennant, occurs a passage describing how the 

 Highlanders of the "tainchel," forming a ring round the area 

 to be raided, "went up and down so nimbly, that, in less than 

 two months' time they had brought together two thousand 

 red deer, besides roes, and fallow deer." If both translation 

 and original account are accurate, the presence of Fallow 

 Deer in the wilds of Glen Tilt would indicate that they had 

 already escaped from the narrow limits of the parks, and 

 become established in the highlands of Perthshire. 



Standing by itself this evidence seems little to be de- 

 pended on, but it is supported by more trustworthy hints, 



