ITS ANIMALS.
71
ing. We started at four o'clock. I well remember the
open plains bordering the Forest swarmed with deer.
I am sure there must have been hundreds in sight at one
time. This was in the year 1829." Another old in-
habitant tells me that he remembers seeing them oppo-
site Assembly Row, near Leytonstone. From encroach-
ments on the area of the Forest, the depredations of
poachers, and from the sporting rights of the Crown
having been allowed to fall into disuse, the number of
the deer diminished greatly from the beginning of the
century ; until, about the year 1860, there were said to
be under ten left alive. Fortunately, before it was too
late, attention was called to the subject, and owing to
the fostering care of the Rev. J. W. Maitland, and sub-
sequently of the conservators, this unique herd was pre-
served, and has rapidly increased.
I say "unique," as, though the same breed are
found in some parts of Scotland, I believe these to
be the only representatives in England of the ancient
deer. The herds of tame fallow-deer, which are pre-
served in so many parks throughout England, differ
completely from the Forest breed. The former are
chiefly descended from ancestors imported from Ger-
many, and, for the same reason that all domesticated
animals vary much more than the same species when
wild, namely, that peculiarities are preserved and trans-
mitted, we find in these herds every shade of colour
from white and dun to black. The Epping Forest deer,
on the contrary, show no such variations. They are all
of a uniform dark brown, which appears to be black,
except when one is in very close proximity. The mottles
and spots which are so conspicuous on lighter coloured
fallow-deer are invisible, except to a minute inspection
of the skin after death. They are inferior in size to the
park deer, and the horns are less branched, but whether
this is due, as some think, to in-and-in breeding, or to
the superior grazing enjoyed for many generations by
the latter, I am unable to say. Their natural shyness
is favoured by the density of the cover, which, from the
difficulty of penetrating it noiselessly, gives warning of an
approaching intruder. So well aware are they when
they are concealed, that they will often allow one to
pass within a few feet of their hiding-place without stir-
ring. For this reason they are not often seen, and I have
known many residents in the habit of traversing their
haunts, who have even doubted their existence. There
are always plenty within a mile radius of the Wake