OF SELBOHNE. 17 
is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward the beginning of this 
century amounted to about five hundred head, and made a ftately ap- 
pearance. There is an old keeper, now ahve, named Adams, whole 
great grandfather (mentioned in a peram.bulation taken in 1635) 
grandfather, father and fclf, enjoyed the head kecperfliip of IFol- 
■nier forejl in fucceiiion for more than an hundred years. This 
perfon affures me, that his father has often told him, that Queen 
Anne, as flie was journeying on the Portfmoutb road, did not think 
the forefl of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. For fhc came out 
of the great road at Lippcck, which is juft by, and, repofing herfelf 
on a bank fmoothed for that purpofe, lying about half a mile to the 
eaft of Wohner-pond, and ftill called ^.een s-hank, fiw with great 
complacency and fatisfaftion the whole herd of red deer brought 
by the keepers along the vale before her, confining then of about 
five hundred head. A fight this wordiy the attention of the 
greateft fovereign ! But he farther adds that, by means of the IVal- 
tham blacks, or, to ufe his own exprcffion, as foon as they began 
blacking, they were reduced to about fifty head, and fo con- 
tinued decreafing till the time of the late Duke of Cuiukrland. 
It is now more than thirty years ago that his highncfs fent down 
an huntfman, and fix yeomen-prickers, in fcarlet jackets laced with 
gold, attended by the flag-hounds ; ordering them to take every 
deer in this forefl alive, and to convey them in carts to Iflndfoi\ 
In the courfe of the fiimm.er they caught every flag, fome of which 
Ihewed extraordinary diverfion : but, in the following winter, when 
the hinds were alfo carried off, fuch fine chafes were exhibited as 
ferved the country people for matter of talk and wonder for years 
afterwards. I faw myfelf one of the yeomen-prickers fingle out a 
flag from the herd, and mufl; confefs that it was the moft curious 
feat of adlivity I ever beheld^ fuperior to any thing in JMr, Apeys 
D riding- 
