THE RED DEER 
rent the ground, shot about three or four stags and no hinds, so that 
the deer from our forests went there and remained permanently.” 
In 1896 the Martindale herd numbered 250 head. Prior to 1893-1894 
it rose to 300, but during that severe winter about fifty died. Mr Hasell 
used to shoot about six or seven stags every year, with weights running 
up to eighteen and even twenty-two stone. The antlers are not remarkable, 
being hardly finer than in an average Scottish forest. A few years ago six 
calves from a Highland forest were introduced into Martindale, and have 
mixed with the original herd with good results. 
At one time there were several other deer preserves near the Scottish 
borders, the most famous of which was Inglewood. This forest belonged 
to the Crown, and stretched along the Eden Valley as far as the marshes 
of the Solway. Edward HI found it difficult to protect his deer owing 
to the incursions of the Scottish noblemen, who liked nothing better 
than to raid their neighbours’ deer and cattle. Inglewood was once the 
scene of a great hunt when Edward Baliol (1333) was staying in West- 
morland as the guest of Lord Robert Clifford. A stag was roused in Whin- 
fell Park, and was pursued by a single hound in a northerly direction. 
They crossed the Esk and a smaller tributary of the Sark, and reached 
Red Kirk, in Dumfriesshire. Here the stag turned back again and ran 
along the wooded banks of the Eden as far as Brougham Castle, where 
it jumped the park palings and died within the enclosure. The gallant 
hound, which had followed, also tried to leap the fence, but fell back and 
died. For many years the antlers of this stag were hung on the trunk of 
an oak tree close to the spot where the stag met its death. The oak was 
known as the ‘‘Hartshorn Tree,” and the horns remained upon it until 1648. 
Inglewood Forest remained in possession of the Crown until William II 
granted the manor to the Duke of Portland, who sold it to the Duke of 
Devonshire in 1737. 
The Exmoor herd has never received any infusion of foreign blood, so 
that it can boast a purer descent than the deer in the majority of Scottish 
forests. 
On the high moors and shaggy woodlands that cover the beautiful 
valleys of North Devon and West Somerset, the wild deer roam to-day as 
free as in the days of King Alfred. For hundreds of years they have been 
hunted, although it was not until the early part of the reign of Queen 
Victoria that the sport became a popular one. To-day the early meets at 
Cloutsham more resemble some fashionable picnic, in which champagne 
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