Fallow Deer Horns 
itself through the vessels, whilst in others the horn dries up and cleans in the same way 
as any other buck’s. 
Many of our oldest and most interesting customs have gone from us, but here is a 
relic of days gone by, when our forefathers galloped through the forest and chased the 
stags and fallow bucks with horse and hound. The excellent photograph of the horn 
dance, which Mr. A. Edwards of Uttoxeter kindly sends me, gives one some idea of a 
FALLOW BUCK’S HEAD WITH THREE HORNS 1 
In the possession of Sir Robert Harvey, Bart., Langley Park, Slough. 
strange old custom still carried on every September at Abbots-Bromley, a village on the 
borders of Needwood Forest in Staffordshire. What one cannot understand is how the 
heads of reindeer came to be substituted for those of stags or fallow bucks, and I can get 
no local information on the subject. From the old histories it is certain that stags’ and 
fallow bucks’ heads were what were carried by the dancers, and there is nothing to show 
when or why reindeer’s heads were substituted. The following account of the horn or 
“ hobby-horse ” dance is taken from the History of Staffordshire , by William White :— 
“A remarkable custom called the ‘hobby-horse dance’ was practised here yearly till 
1 Another head almost exactly similar to this one is in the ranger’s lodge, Richmond Park. 
