FORMER EXISTENCE OF THE ROE-DEER IN ENGLAND. 145 
I 
wall fourteen miles in length, affords them unusual security and 
yet abundant liberty. 
In Scotland, the Roe-deer was once much more common 
than it is at present, although it is still plentiful in some parts 
of the country, and has even increased of late years. 
It is believed that the increase of plantations in the south 
of Scotland has been the means of spreading it much further in 
that direction than it used formerly to he found. 
In Ireland the Roe-deer is unknown, and since no remains 
of it have been discovered, it seems probable that it was never 
indigenous to that country, although some have asserted other- 
wise, on the authority of Bede. John of Trevisa, however, in 
his translation of Higden’s Polychronicon , observes : ‘Beda seith 
that there is grete hunty nge of Roobukkes (caprorum is the 
word used by Higden), and it is i-knowe that Roobukkes beeth 
noon there. It is no wonder of Beda, for Beda knew nevere 
that ilond with his eyes ; hot som tale tellere told hym suche 
tales.’ * On the other hand, if the testimony of Ossian be 
admitted, it would seem that the Roe was not uncommon 
formerly in Ireland. There are many very striking passages 
in which that poet adverts to the hunting the Roe- deer there. 
He thus pictures the animal’s haunts : — ‘ Lumon of foaming 
streams .... the dun Roe is seen from thy furze ; the deer 
lifts his branchy head, for he sees at times the hound on the 
half-covered heath.’ Temora , book vii. Again : — 4 The king 
rejoiced as a hunter in his own green vale, when after the 
storm is rolled away, he sees the gleaming sides of the rocks. 
The green thorn shakes its head in their face ; from their top 
look forward the Roes.’ Temora , book viii. 
Strange to say, also, the Roebuck is mentioned as a 
native of Kerry in an Irish MS. poem of the ninth century, 
which is thus referred to by the late Sir W. Wilde : f 
‘ In the collection of Irish MSS. preserved in the Library of 
the University of Dublin, is a very curious zoological and 
topographical poem, the original of which is believed to be as 
old as the ninth century ; it is certainly one of the most re- 
markable productions of its kind known in any language in 
Europe of the same date. The history of this poem is as 
follows : — Finn Mac Cumhaill was made prisoner by Cormac 
Mac Art, monarch of Erin, who, however, consented to liberate 
him when a ransom of two of every wild animal in Ireland — a 
male and female — were brought before him on the green of 
Tara. Cailte Mac Ronain, the foster-brother and favourite of the 
* See also The Book of Hoivth, Brewer and Bullen, Calendar Carew MSS. 
t Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. vol. vii. p. 182. 
NEW SERIES, VOL. V. NO. XVIII. 
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