MAMMALIA 7 1 



jovial family gathering, and of course, if venison was in season, 

 venison must garnish the table : 



'[1659] Aug. 9. Paid unto my brother William, which hee 

 had given and spent when hee gott us some venison against the 

 christening, £00, 03s. 00d.' 



Alas, that a touch of truest pathos should attach to one of 

 the last items entered in the Naworth Accounts of 1640! — 

 ' August 23. To the keeper at Graystocke for killinge a doe 

 against my Lord's burial, v s.' A grand, soldierly spirit had 

 gone home. 



It is not my intention to enlarge upon the present dis- 

 tribution of park Deer in Lakeland. To do so might seem 

 ungenerous to Mr. J. Whitaker, who has informed me privately 

 of his intention, announced also in print, of furnishing a 

 complete return of all the Fallow Deer at present confined in 

 English parks. But, without forestalling Mr. Whitaker, I may 

 venture to remark that Fallow Deer exist at Naworth, Crofton, 

 High Moor, Ravenglass, Armathwaite near Cockermouth; at 

 Greystoke, Gowbarrow, and Edenhall in Cumberland ; at Dallam 

 Tower, Levens, Rigmaden, and Lowther in Westmorland ; at 

 Holker in North Lancashire. The Earl of Lonsdale has a very 

 fine herd of Red Deer in Lowther Park, which has recently been 

 extended for the use of these animals, and affords them a 

 magnificent range of the forest kind ; very unlike that of the 

 Gowbarrow Deer. The brightest and most beautiful Fallow 

 Deer that I have seen in Lakeland are kept at Holker. Levens 

 has the peculiar merit of having long preserved the dark form 

 of Fallow Deer without change of blood. The does of this herd, 

 on some rare occasions, have dropped milk-white fawns. I saw 

 one there. The Fallow Deer at Edenhall have just received a 

 change of blood by the addition to their numbers of one or two 

 bucks from Dallam Tower. This herd at present numbers 

 between 170 and 180 head. There are usually a few white 

 bucks and does, but not of the milk-white type dropped at 

 Levens. Curiously enough, a small herd of Fallow Deer were 

 formerly kept by the Hasell family in Martindale — not of course 

 on the fells, but in the bottom of the valley. This herd 

 dwindled away gradually, and is believed to have become 



