308 THE COOKERY OF VENISON 



declares that the fat buck from a southern park is 

 fitting food for heroes and princes. Meg sniffs in- 

 dignantly at his southland fancies, and holds for the 

 deer of her native hills. Whereas the Indian nabob, 

 ' stiff in opinions,' like Buckingham, pronounces : 

 ' For my own private eating a leg of five-year-old heath 

 wether mutton before all the venison in the world.' 

 In sober truth, it is a case of the two sides of the 

 shield. All depends on the sex, age, condition, 

 feeding and breeding of the deer. Hence the im- 

 portance of buying your venison from a salesman 

 who has a reputation at stake and whose word may 

 be implicitly trusted. The ideal red deer for table 

 purposes is a young yeld or barren hind, in prime 

 condition from favourable pasturage. Not a few of 

 the forests are overstocked : in some the grazing 

 and the shelter of the ruminating ground are ex- 

 ceptionally good, while others, like the South Downs, 

 or the glens of western Scotland, have herbs and 

 grasses which give an unapproachable flavour to the 

 flesh. So, naturally, there is a still wider difference 

 between the fallow deer in enclosed parks. It stands 

 to reason that an animal fattened simply on rich 

 meadow grass, though he may run heavy and lay 

 on a superabundance of fat, must be inferior to his 

 cousins of the uplands, bred on the slopes of the 



