By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 35 



to the occupiers of cages in the Zoological Gardens,, but the old forest 

 law only meant animals not domestic, "fern nalurcc." The very 

 word " deer " is nothing else than the Greek word, 6-rjq (tkeer) a wild 

 animal : and, curiously enough, it is to that classical country we 

 owe not ou\y the name but the thing. The spotted fallow-deer, at 

 any rate, conies from Greece, and is said to be found there now in a 

 wild state. 



The " King's beasts," par excellence, were stags : and it was at 

 any man's peril that he meddled with them. A stag six years 

 old was called a hart. If he had been honoured by having been 

 hunted by King or Queen, he was thenceforth known among his 

 colleagues as a " Hart Royal." If he had escaped altogether out of 

 his proper forest, public warning was given in the neighbouring 

 towns and villages, and he became known as a ^ Har.t^Eoyal pro- 

 claimed." £>86S» * 



The forest including within its limits (as has been already men- 

 tioned) parks and warrens belonging to private owners, there were 

 in the palings of such parks, gaps or openings, where the fence was 

 purposely made lower than usual, in order to let the King's beasts 

 jump in and out, to and fro, at pleasure. One of the tricks played 

 to the King's officers was to lower the ground inside the gap, by 

 making a deep trench or pit-fall, so that when a stag had jumped 

 into the enclosed park he could not jump out again. The animals 

 were further tempted to enter at such places by a bait of apple 

 pomace, i.e., the residue of apples that have been crushed for cyder, 

 a dainty of which they are particularly fond, and which they can 

 scent from a great distance. These gaps were called Deer-Leaps, 

 in Latin (< saHatoria." Sometimes proprietors were allowed, by 

 special grant from the Crown, to have these traps on the border of 

 a King's forest, but they were often set by deer-stealers, without 

 right. Offenders were first summoned to the warden's court, or 

 swain-mote, where complaints were lodged against them, whence 

 they were transferred to the higher tribunal of the Chief J ustice of 

 the Forest. 



Nothing was allowed to be done likely to interfere with the peace 

 and rest of the King's beasts, especially during what was called the 



D 2 



