Ch. XL MANAGEMENT. 



243 



the bald-faced, originally from Bosworth Park, in Leicestershire ; there are, 

 besides, the dun, divided into the golden dun and the sooty dun, smaller 

 and less common than some of the others, and generally the fattest. ' All 

 these,' says Lord Winchilsea, ' we reckon good if the velvet of their horns 

 be black, but dislike any whose horns throw up a white and coarse velvet.' 

 The complaints to which deer are subject are various ; the most common 

 appears to be foot-rot, caught sometimes from sheep, but not difficult of 

 cure if the true remedy be taken, the perfect drainage of the land ; • the 

 same remedy, without doubt, may be applied with the greatest advantage 

 to parks where the deer suffer from liver complaints. At Earlstoke Park, in 

 Wiltshire, the seat of Mr. Watson Taylor, the deer were affected by both 

 these complaints, but since the drainage of the park, they have entirely 

 disappeared. The rot, which is only an aggravated form of diseased liver, 

 is also caused by want of drainage, and points to the same remedy ; about 

 thirty years ago, the deer at Ashburnham, in Sussex, were attacked with 

 this complaint, and cured by being supplied with branches of fir, which 

 they eagerly devoured, preferring Scotch fir to spruce fir or any other ; the 

 disease was removed immediately, and has never returned, the deer being 

 now always supplied with an abundance of fir, especially in the spring and 

 autumn. In this case, no doubt, the turpentine, which is known as a 

 powerful ingredient in the medicine sold as a specific for the rot in sheep, 

 was the cause of the cure.^ At the Bishop of Winchester's park, at Farn- 

 ham, in Surrey, the deer occasionally have the rot, rickback, and goitrous 

 necks, after snow, and here it is to be observed there has been no change 

 of blood for thirty years. 



Rickbacked deer are too generally found in many parks ; this complaint 

 is supposed to proceed from weakness, brought on both by breeding in and 

 in, too much, and also by insufficient food ; those deer which are affected 

 should be immediately destroyed, the breed crossed, and a more plentiful 



■ Foot-rot is also cured by placing quicklime deer, 

 in the most accustomed paths and passes of the ' Information of the Earl of Ashburnham. 



