AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK. _ 299 
have necessitated the constant use of a bow from child- 
hood, so that it became second nature. But almost any 
man who has strength to set a cross-bow, with moderate 
practice, and any idea at all of shooting, could become 
a fairly good shot with it. From the cross-bow to a gun 
was a comparatively easy step, and it was the knowledge 
of the power of the one that led to the quick introduction 
of the other. For gunpowder was hardly discovered 
before hand-guns were thought of, and no discovery 
ever spread so swiftly. Then the arquebuse swept away 
the old English chase. 
These deer exist by permission. They are pro- 
tected with jealous care; or rather they have been 
protected so long that by custom they have grown semi- 
consecrated, and it is rare for anyone to think of touch- 
ing them. The fawns wander, and a man, if he choose, 
might often knock one over with his axe as he comes 
home from his work. The deer browse up to the very 
skirts of the farmhouse below, sometimes even enter 
' the rick-yard, and once now and then, if a gate be left 
open, walk in and eat the pease in the garden. The 
bucks are still a little wilder, a little more nervous for 
their liberty, but there is no difficulty in stalking them 
to within forty or fifty yards. They have either lost 
their original delicacy of scent, or else do not respond 
to it,as the approach of a man does not alarm them, 
else it would be necessary to study the wind; but you 
may get thus near them without any thought of the 
breeze—no nearer; then, bounding twice or thrice, 
lifting himself each time as high as the fern, the buck 
turns half towards you to see whether his retreat should 
or should not be continued. 
The fawns have come out from the beeches, because 
there is more grass on the slope and in the hollow, 
