40 British Deer and their Horns 
Macpherson’s Fauna of Lakeland. Here their favourite resort is Rampsgill in Martindale 
Forest. Forty years ago these deer were estimated at 300, and they were annually stalked by 
Mr. Hasell of Dale Main Hall, but since that time they have rapidly decreased in number. 
According to the Hon. G. Lascelles, some fifteen or twenty head of the original wild red 
deer still remain in the New Forest, Hampshire, and till a comparatively recent date they 
were found also in Woolmer Forest and in Cornwall. In Ireland, too, there are still the two 
fine forests of Muckross and Killarney, in which these deer have free range. 
As to Scotland, it seems to be thought by many that the deer forests there are of but 
recent origin, and not infrequently we find them sarcastically referred to as the offspring of 
YEARLING HINDS, ARDVERIKIE 
a pernicious alliance between the nouveaux riches of England and the impecunious Highland 
lairds. But this observation is rather smart than true. It is true only to this extent—that, 
owing to the wealth of English sportsmen and their passion for deer-stalking, the demand 
for forests in Scotland far exceeds the supply, and hence large tracts of land quite unsuitable 
for the purpose have been afforested, and though yielding but poor sport, command big 
figures in the market. But by comparison with the grand old forests of our Northern 
neighbours these latter-day creations are simply nowhere. In the olden time the heads of 
Scottish clans were just as good sportsmen and as fond of the chase as the English nobles, 
and we have but to look into the early ballads and romances of the sixteenth century to see 
how much thought was given to the preservation and pursuit of wild deer in the north of 
Scotland. At this period Athole, Mar, and Glenartney were as famous for their deer forests 
as they are to-day; and in 1549 Munro, High Dean of the Isles, wrote, from personal 
observation, of the deer which frequented the Western Isles. Jura he refers to as a “ fyne 
forrest for deire,” and Islay as “ fertil, fruitful, and full of natural grassing, with maney grate 
