EPPING FOREST.
ITS ANIMALS.
"The heath-stalker, the strong-horned stag—seeks shelter
in the wood."—Song of Beowulf.
"The mole has made his run,
The hedgehog underneath the plantain bores,
The rabbit fondles his own harmless face,
The slow-worm creeps, and the thin weasel there
Follows the mouse, and all is open field."
Aylmer's Field.
We learn from an old writer that the beasts of the
chase " were commonlie the bucke [fallow], the
roe, the fox, and the marterne. But those of
venerie in old time were the hart [red deer], the
hare, the bore and woolfe; but as this held not
in the time of Canutus, so insteed of the woolfe
the beare is now crept in, which is a beast com-
monlie hunted in the east countries, and fed upon
as excellent venison, although with us I know not
anie that feed thereon or care for it at all."
Though some of the animals here mentioned have
disappeared from these realms, there is still pro-
lific wild life in these thickets which lends them
an additional attraction. We owe the preservation
of the Forest itself to the fact that it was formerly
kept for the free range of beasts of chase, and