Red Deer 
2 3 
everything that other men had set up, they destroyed great numbers of the parks, breaking 
down the fences and allowing the deer to escape. The restoration of Charles II. may 
therefore be given as the date when most of our existing parks were formed. And what a 
glorious heritage they are ! To-day the Englishman is as proud of his parks as the Scotchman 
of his wild moorlands and rugged mountains ; and well he may be, for in point of sylvan 
beauty there is nothing in the world to compare with them. In our fertile soil and congenial 
climate, oaks, beeches, elms, and firs (now indigenous) attain the highest degree of perfection, 
and these, in combination with arboreal gems from other lands, cunningly interspersed or 
grouped together, are at once a triumph of the gardener’s art and a sight that even a 
tax-collector could hardly look upon without emotion. Look, for instance, at the 
magnificent parks of Savernake, Windsor, Chillingham, Lyme, and Melbury. Old England, 
I repeat, may well be proud of these and the ancestral homes they adorn ; and yet in some 
respects they are, to my thinking, eclipsed by the noble domains of Powerscourt (County 
Wicklow) and Drummond Castle (Perthshire). These two parks are well worth going 
any distance to see, even if perforce accompanied by an army of gaping tourists. The 
waterfall in Powerscourt deer park is not only the highest but the loveliest in our islands. 
There, if anywhere, is the haunt of the fairies, for the whole place is under the spell of this 
enchanting stream. At Drummond Castle, too, — Lord Ancaster’s seat, near Crieff — is 
another delightful combination of the wild and the tame. Glorious stretches of forest and 
grass land, intersected by streams and lakes, here show up as some fertile garden in the midst 
of the old forests and hills of Caledonia, which rise up and surround it on all sides. The 
foreground, middle distance, and where the hill-tops are lost in clouds are all strikingly 
beautiful from their force of contrast, which is, after all, what gives the greatest pleasure to 
the eye. Given, too, a day when the sun struggles forth amongst the showers that chase 
each other over the landscape, like smiles and tears on a woman’s face, and you have before 
you a picture of earthly grandeur and ineffable sweetness, such as cannot fail to make glad 
the heart of man. 
Although it may seem unnecessary to say much of park deer as a distinctive subject, 
since they are simply wild deer under restraint, yet this at least must be noticed — that but 
for the near view, which can only be obtained in our parks, many little traits and peculiarities 
of the animal, highly interesting to naturalists, would never be known. I say this with 
great confidence as the result of my own experience during the last few years, when most 
of my time has been given to the study of deer under all conditions of life. 
And here I must express my obligations to my friend, Mr. Charles Lucas of Warnham 
Court, who, with a kindness I can never forget, allowed me free access to his park, besides 
helping me in many other ways. The Warnham deer are second to none in this country 
in the matter of body and horn. Their origin, however, is quite recent, and even after the 
introduction of the Stoke deer, by which the herd was strengthened some years ago, they 
were in nowise remarkable until the late Mr. F. M. Lucas (the well-known left-handed bat, 
and a thorough all-round sportsman) took them in hand and began a series of experiments 
with a view to improving the pasture — about 250 acres in extent. Every alternate year he 
dressed the land with bone-dust, the effect of which soon made itself felt. The nutrimental 
qualities of the grass seemed to be improved 70 per cent, yielding exactly what was wanted 
