FORMER EXISTENCE OF THE ROE-DEER IN ENGLAND. 143- 
certain. In Percy’s Beliques of Ancient English Poetry, in a 
footnote to the passage in the ‘ Battle of Otterbonrne 9 above 
quoted, it is stated that Boebucks were to be found upon the 
wastes not far from Hexham in the reign of George I., and 
that Mr. Whitfield of Whitfield is said to have destroyed the 
last of them. This is probably the instance referred to by 
Scott in his British Field Sqjorts, who states (p. 381) ‘ that the 
last of its race in England was, it seems, killed in Northum- 
berland about seventy years ago ; 1 but, if so, his book having 
been published in 1818, he would have been nearer the mark 
had he said ‘ ninety 9 or even 4 a hundred years ago.’ 
An exceptional instance, however, of the capture of a wild 
Boe in Northumberland, occurred early in the present century, 
and is thus recorded by Bewick in his History of Quadrupeds 
(ed. 1807, p. 148) : — ‘ Some years ago one of these animals, 
after being hunted out of Scotland, through Cumberland, and 
various parts of the North of England, took refuge in the 
woody recesses bordering upon the banks of the Tyne between 
Prudhoe Castle and Wylam. It was repeatedly seen and 
hunted, but no dogs were equal to its speed; it frequently 
crossed the river, and either by swiftness or artifice eluded all 
its pursuers. It happened during the rigour of a severe 
winter, that being pursued, it crossed the river upon the ice 
with some difficulty, and being much strained was taken alive. 
It was kept for some weeks in the house, and was then again 
turned out, but all its cunning and activity were gone; it 
seemed to have forgotten the places of its former retreat, and 
after running some time, it laid down in the midst of a brook, 
where it was killed by the dogs.’ 
The late Prof. Garrod, in his recently published account of 
the J Ruminantia in Cassell’s Natural History , vol. iii. p. 63, 
states that the Boebuck ‘ still survives in the woods of West- 
moreland and Cumberland/ but gives no authority for this 
statement, nor any further particulars. 
The species had probably been extinct in England for some 
years, when Lord Dorchester, in 1800, turned some out in the 
woods at Milton Abbey, Dorsetshire, from whence their de- 
scendants dispersed in a very short space of time, especially 
in a south-westerly direction. They were frequently hunted, 
and afforded excellent sport. About 1829, when the Master 
of the Hounds, Mr. Pleydell, gave up his pack, after hunting 
Boe-deer exclusively for sixteen years, he permitted Mr. Drax, 
of Charboro Park, to capture several of these deer and turn 
them out in the Charboro Woods. From this second centre 
they increased in numbers, and wandered far and wide, — from 
Moreton to Warmwell in the valley of the Frome, and from 
Hyde to Houghton in that of the Puddle. Their extreme 
