Ch. I. SINCE THE NORMAN. CONQUEST. 5 



among the denizens of the forests of Gaul, but it may be doubted whether 

 they were indigenous to our northern latitudes, and I think the following 

 reasons, gleaned from different writers, point with tolerable certainty to an 

 opposite conclusion. 



There are many varieties of the fallow-deer, but for our present purpose 

 it will be sufficient to notice but two of them, the dark, and the spotted. 

 The first are generally supposed to have been introduced into England by 

 King James I. from Norway, ' where/ writes Bewick in his History of 

 Quadrupeds,' ' having observed their hardiness in bearing the cold of that 

 severe climate, he brought them into Scotland, and from thence transported 

 them into his chases of Enfield and Epping ; since that time they have 

 multiplied exceedingly in many parts of this kingdom, which is now become 

 famous for venison of superior fatness and flavour to that of any other 

 country in the world.' The spotted kind are supposed by Pennant, Bewick, 

 and others, whose accounts are founded on that of Buffon, to have been 

 brought from Bengal. But the Eastern origin of this species is now gen- 

 erally denied ;^ there appears to be no doubt that the Cervus daina or 

 common fallowrdeer is a native of Greece, and is still found there in a wild 

 state, as well as in the forests of Italy f Cuvier writes of the fallow-deer, 

 ' c'est devenue commune dans tous les pays d'Europe, mais elle paratt origi- 

 naire de Barberie,' and in a note states, that since he penned the foregoing 



' p. 143. ' These are the beasts which ye. shall eat : the 



"^ There seems good reason to believe that one ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the 



species of fallow-deer was known in Syria as roebuck, and \he/allow deer, and the wild goat, 



early as the time of Solomon. ' and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the cha- 



'And Solomon's provision for one day was mois.' — DMteronomy, xiv. 4, 5. 

 thirty measures of fine flour, and three score For the Dishon or pygarg, see Dr. Kitto's 



measures of meal ; Cyclopedia, under Antelope, and the same autho- 



' Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the rity under Ail or Ajal, for the Cervus Barbaras 

 pastures, and an hundred sheep, besides harts, or Barbary Stag, in size between our red and 

 and roebucks, aoA fallow deer, and fatted fowl.' fallow-deer. 

 I jcings iv. 22, 23. ' Thompson's Natural History of Ireland, vol. 



And long before the date of Solomon, in the vi. p. 32. 

 enumeration of what may, and what may not be 

 eaten, we have — 



