Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 83
summer, however, there appeared in Nature* a letter on the
subject from the head keeper at Bradgate Park, near
Leicester, which is very explicit. He says : "There is not
the slightest doubt of their eating each other's horns. I have
myself seen several cases where both brow antlers and the
top points have been gnawed off. I have also seen Scotch
heads that have been quite spoiled by the tines having
been gnawed, which must have been done after the horn
had become hard, and whilst the animal was living."
Before concluding my notice of the red-deer, I may
mention a curious circumstance in connection with it.
Lyme Park, Cheshire, was celebrated for its fine venison, and
formerly the custom prevailed there of collecting the red-
deer once a-year—about midsummer or rather earlier—in
a herd before the house, and then swimming them through
a pool of water, with which the spectacle terminated.
This custom of driving deer like ordinary cattle is said to
have been perfected by an old park-keeper, Joseph "Watson,
who died in 1753, aged 104, after having filled that office
for sixty-four years. He was believed to have been in his
102nd year when he hunted a buck in a chase of six hours'
duration, and is said to have successfully driven twelve
brace of stags from Lyme to Windsor Forest.
This reminds me of an anecdote told by Playford in his
"Introduction to Music," to the effect that he once met,
on the road near Royston, a herd of about twenty deer
following a bagpipe and violin; that while the music
played they went forward, and when it ceased they stood
still; and that in this manner they were brought out of
Yorkshire to Hampton Court.
The fallow-deer is so commonly kept in English parks
and forests, that its appearance must be familiar to all;
and as I have already pointed out the character of its
horns as compared with those of the red-deer, I need not
pause here to give any further description of it.
It is believed to be not indigenous to this country, and
the general opinion is that it was introduced by the
Romans. The statement in Bell's "British Quadrupeds,"
* Nature, 8th July, 1880.