70 EPPING FOREST.
the cub grew up he turned out to be an undoubted
coayote or prairie wolf. It was conjectured that their
parents must have been turned out for fox cubs,
and although the gentleman to whom their intro-
duction was attributed has assured me that what
he enlarged were undoubtedly Spanish foxes, it is
quite possible that some one else may have turned
out coayotes, and that they have lived and bred
unsuspectedly for some years in the Forest. The
story is, however, not sufficiently confirmed for me
to include wolves among the Forest animals.
The Fallow-Deer are the most conspicuous and distinctive
of the wild animals inhabiting the Forest. They have
wandered there for many centuries, but are believed not
to be indigenous, but to have been introduced by the
Romans. No fossil remains are found, although those
of roe and red deer are frequently dug up. The deer,
both red and fallow, as I have explained elsewhere, were
formerly rigidly preserved for the use of the King, but
some favoured individuals were allowed to hunt. For
instance, Henry III. enacted, " Whatever archbishop,
bishop, earl, or baron shall be passing through our
forests, it shall be lawful for them to take one or two
deer, by view of the forester, if he shall be present; if
not, he shall cause a horn to be sounded lest it should
seem a theft." Presents of venison were also frequently
made in the following form:—"On sight hereof you
are to kill and deliver to the bearer for the use of---------
one fat doe of this season, for which this shall be your
sufficient warrant, and herein you are not to fail." At the
beginning of the last century so many demands had been
made upon the herd in this way, and by marauders
locally known as "Waltham Blacks," that we find in
the Court Rolls an order that '' the stock of red and
fallow being so low that they are likely to be extirpated,
no more are to be taken for three years." After this they
again increased, and our grandfathers describe them as
being visible in large herds between Woodford and
Epping by the passengers in the numerous coaches
which passed that way, bound for the eastern counties.
An old inhabitant writes : " When a boy my father took
me for a treat to London. It was a fine summer morn-