io6 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



every deer should be given a second or perhaps a third chance 

 of winning the affection of the estabhshment and the esteem 

 of the public. 



I see, by some notes taken in 1892, that the Swinley 

 herd consisted in the middle of the hunting season of 

 twenty-five deer altogether. We had eleven stags, seven 

 hinds, four polled haviers and three haviers in the paddocks.' 

 This may be taken as the average constituency. Most of 

 the deer at Swinley are Windsor-bred deer, with the excep- 

 tion of one or two from Kichmond Park. At that time I 

 remember the only really intractable deer we had was a 

 Richmond stag, and, from a hunting point of view, a very 



' I am indebted to Mr. F. Simmonds, of the Woods and Forests Department, 

 for the following rather technical particulars of Svvinley Paddocks, which are 

 in his charge : — 



There are five separate deer paddocks at Swinley, comprising altogether an 

 area of 12. 0. 35. acreage. The paddocks are supplied with water from a stream 

 flowing out of a neighbouring pond, small bays being made for the recep- 

 tion and storage of water. A certain acreage of the paddocks is manured, 

 harrowed and rolled every year, and the deer are shifted about from one 

 paddock to another, as occasion may require. If deer are left to graze the same 

 pasturage year by year, as at Swinley Paddocks, the herbage would go back 

 unless well manured and attended to by manual labour, although deer manure 

 is of first-rate quality. Deer are not good farmers, because they willcnly feed 

 upon the very best grazing to be had, leaving the rough parts untouched. The 

 paddocks are fenced by an oak fence standing eight feet out of the ground, 

 five feet of this being a close pale fence from the ground, and the upper three 

 feet open palisade. An iron ground sheet at the bottom of the fence is let 

 into the ground about nine inches, and an iron sheet about three inches wide is 

 laid along the fence where the close pale fence and the open palisade meet. 

 The average i^rice of the fencing, including banking, is 3Z. 12s. iSd. per rod. The 

 paddocks are treated as permanent pasture and never meadowed. Fencing for 

 deer paddocks must be strong and kept in constant repair. In September, 

 1889, a very high wind broke down several rods of the fence, and when 

 Goodall began forest hunting, all the deer, with one exception, were lying 

 wild in the forest, but he took them all by degrees. The area of each 

 paddock is — 



