54
THE DEER OF EPPING FOREST.
There were formerly fourteen "walks," or as we should now call
them, "beats" in Epping Forest, as follows—Waltham Forest, Chapel
Hainault, West Hainault, Woodford, Walthamstowe, Leighton,
Loughton, Chigwell, Lambown, Highwood, Epping, Waltham Abbey,
New Lodge, and Chingford. To each of these beats a Chief
Forester was appointed with a keeper under him. This enables us
to understand Shakespeare's allusion in the "Merry Wives of
Windsor," where Falstaff, describing how he would be cut up and
divided like a "brib'd buck" (that is "a stolen deer"), gives one
portion to "the fellow of this walk" (that is the keeper) as his fee.
In the early part of the last century the deer of Epping had very
much decreased in number, owing partly to the demands or claims
made for "fee deer," partly to the depredations of a gang of
poachers known as the "Waltham blacks,"17 who surreptitiously
carried off numbers ; and it appears by the Court Rolls of that date
that an order was made to the effect that the stock of red and
fallow deer being so low that they were likely to be extirpated, no
more were to be taken for three years.
With regard to records nearer our own time, I have been favoured
with a sight of some interesting documents relating to the deer in
Epping Forest, in the possession of the Rev. J. W. Maitland, of
Loughton. Amongst these the following may be specially mentioned :
(1) An appointment of John Maitland in 1812 to the office of "Chief Forester
of West Hainault Walk, in the Forest of Waltham, otherwise called the Forest of
Essex," with power to appoint an under-keeper "to attend upon his Majesty's
vert and venison." Hainault was not disafforested until 1851.
(2) A notice dated 1809 from the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, Chief Justice
in Eyre, intimating that it was forbidden to hunt the fox or hare in the forest
with any pack of hounds or beagles ; or to hawk any pheasants or partridges ; or
to fish, or fowl, or to kill any manner of beast or fowl of forest, chase, park or
warren, without application first made to him for that purpose.
(3) A license dated 1802 to hunt and shoot in the forest, red and fallow deer only
excepted, provided that he use the liberty with that moderation which is fitting.
(4) A warrant for killing deer under the hand of the said Right Hon. Thomas
Grenville in the words following : "On sight hereof you are to kill and deliver to
the bearer for the use of the Hon. Miss Grimston, one fat doe of this season, for
which this shall be your sufficient warrant. And herein you are not to fail.
" Given under my hand this 13th clay of November, 1823.
"Thomas Grenville."
To come now to the deer themselves, of which there are three
species. "The stag" (says Holinshed,18 that is, the red deer) "is
accounted for the most noble game; the fallow deere is the next;
then the roe, whereof wee have indifferent store."
17 See White's "Selborne." Letters VI. & VII., to Pennant. 13 Chronicles, i., p. 380.