THE RED DEER 
were not the sports beloved of the gallant Frenchmen. They loved the 
horse and hawk and hound and, most of all, “ the tall deer,” whom 
William is said to have loved as a father. Fine horses were introduced 
in abundance, so that the Conqueror and his Norman nobles could easily 
indulge to their hearts’ content the pleasures of the chase in all the southern 
English forests which now became one vast preserve. 
FitzStephen, the monk, one of the first authoritative writers on English 
history (1174), tells us of the forest surrounding London, and the variety 
of game there, amongst which he includes the red deer. These great woods 
were, as we have said, at first only intersected by clearings made by the 
natives for agricultural purposes; the forest itself practically existed from 
Kent to Cornwall, and from Essex to Caithness, with only a few open wolds 
and moorlands intervening. As the Normans extended their rule more 
and more hunting grounds became available, but so, too, the open spaces 
increased in extent and, with them, the local population, still keen lovers 
of the chase. In course of time it was found that since every one who could 
use a bow and keep dogs became addicted to the chase, the game, especially 
the red deer, rapidly decreased in the neighbourhood of the great centres. 
It therefore became necessary for the barons, if they were to enjoy all 
their privileges, to enforce strict laws for the regulation of hunting, and 
to make the capture of deer, except by authorized persons, a capital offence. 
Wherefore the forest laws, as explained by Manwood, came into force, 
and in that interesting treatise is set forth all the laws, privileges and 
enactments of the chase, as well as punishments, which were enforced 
against all persons disobeying them. To make their sport more certain, 
too, the Norman barons, finding that game was becoming scarce, intro- 
duced the system of driving deer into parks and haiae, or hays (small 
enclosures). The right to form these was looked upon as special favour, 
and only granted to those who had in some way deserved the royal esteem. 
From the days of Canute the privilege of hunting deer in the forests be- 
longed to the king, but certain freeholders of land were granted the right 
of hunting in their own domains. In Domesday Book we read that thirty - 
one parks, and more than seventy hays, are mentioned as existing 
at the time, and of these only one remains to-day, namely Eridge Park 
(Reredfelle), in Sussex, the property of Lord Abergavenny. In certain books 
it has been stated that Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, is the oldest English 
park, but that is not the case, for it dates only from the time of Henry I. 
From the period of the Normans, until the middle of the seventeenth 
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