Stags’ Heads 119 
horns, though great of beam, are seldom of that good span which most will agree adds so 
much dignity to a head. Nowadays, through their isolation and consequent deterioration, 
the few wild English deer that are left have no better beam than those of the Highlands. 
They rarely carry more than 12 points and are seldom of very good shape; in fact, the heads 
of the Devon and Somerset stags do not present any of those marked characteristics shown 
by Scotch and Irish deer, though the quality of the horn, as in all wild deer, is both rough 
and good. 
Castle Hill, Baronsdown, Holnicote, and Worth all have fine collections of old southern 
English heads; and Collyns gives a sketch of a remarkable wild stag’s head (see p. 111) 
which was long known as the “ Badgeworthy deer,” and was killed on 8th September 1786. 
It carried 21 points. The modern Westmoreland heads are in no way remarkable, and with 
regard to the New Forest red deer Mr. Gerald Lascelles writes — 
The red deer heads that are in this house (Queen’s House, Lyndhurst) are only the cast-offs of a 
finer collection which was taken away in 1849, and they are of no size and not fair specimens of what the 
stags of the forest may have originally been, but I believe they were never of great size. I have no good 
head of a stag killed in modern times. If such a thing there be (and I do not recollect one), Mr. Lovell 
may have it ; but the modern red deer are not legitimately forest deer at all , but spurious altogether , and 
should not be reckoned in speaking of forest deer proper. 
Irish Red Deer Heads . — Till recently deer were found in a wild state in the less 
inhabited parts of Connaught, Connemara, and northern Cork. Now, as is well known, 
they owe their preservation to the Herberts of Muckross and the Earls of Kenmare. In the 
two forests by the lovely lakes of Killarney the red deer are finer both in body and head 
than those of any Scotch forest. Lord Castletown kindly sends me a fine series of photo¬ 
graphs of heads killed in Killarney by Lord Castlerosse. The tendency of most adult Irish 
heads seems to be to run to 14 points, rarely making the cup, but the top dividing into two 
branches, on each of which are two strong points. The average length of five good heads 
from Killarney is 32 inches, and royals and 14-pointers are, on an average, much more 
numerous than in Scotland. 
Mr. Ralph Sneyd, who had Muckross from 1893 till 1895, is good enough to send me 
particulars of a remarkable stag which he killed in that forest in 1894. The deer weighed 
29 stone 10 lbs. clean, and had a remarkably fine head of 14 points. I give an illustration of 
it, together with a typical Killarney head, on pp. 112, 113. 
Lord Powerscourt tells me that the best head and heaviest weight of any stag killed at 
Muckross were those of a beast shot by the late Mr. Herbert. It is said to have scaled 30 
stone clean, but a recent tenant of the forest tells me that the weight of this animal is fixed 
by hearsay, and that till within a few years ago no particular care was taken to insure 
accuracy in weight. Another stag is said to have even reached nearly 33 stone in this 
forest. There are two very fine Muckross heads at White’s Club, St. James’ Street. 
6. WILD SCOTCH STAGS’ HEADS 
It is the fashion in these days, when sport of nearly every description is so much over¬ 
done, for every one to express an opinion, whether worth listening to or not, in order to keep 
