CHAPTER I 

 THE RED DEER'S HOME 



THE history of the wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) is 

 closely interwoven with our national life ; nor can we 

 doubt that in former days the exercise of hunting 

 served to develop the best qualities of physical excel- 

 lence in much the same way in which athletic sports 

 at present influence the rising generation of Eng- 

 lishmen. Many Acts of Parliament were passed 

 in both England and Scotland, intended to restrict 

 the pleasures of the chase, and to reserve them for 

 the most powerful. But the red deer inhabited our 

 islands long before the historic period. Its range 

 then as now included most of temperate Europe ; but 

 the stags which ' belled ' over our moors and mosses 

 in those distant days carried much finer antlers than 

 their modern descendants. The sands of Morecambe 

 Bay have a reputation at the present time for the large 

 symmetrical horns which are from time to time washed 



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