ITS ANIMALS
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, like those
from Southern Europe, 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 stirring. For this reason they are not
always 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 Arms, and the tracks of some of the
larger bucks can generally be found in soft places
within a short distance of Chingford Station. South of
that point they do not now go. The visitor who wishes
to get a glimpse of them may generally succeed in doing
so, especially when the trees are leafless, by traversing
the Forest noiselessly, at dusk, and up wind, in the
neighbourhood of Loughton Camp, Monk Wood, St.
Thomas's Quarters, Honey Lane, or the Theydon Thicket.
It may be said that in olden times the Forest was pre-
served for the sake of the deer, for the king to take his
pleasure in hunting, and that without them it would
probably have ceased to exist centuries ago. As I have
explained elsewhere, the Forest laws, which were of un-
exampled severity, were mainly directed to this end.
Although the deer were thus reserved for the king, there
were some exceptions, and fee deer were allowed to
certain persons, as the following very interesting frag-
ment of an ancient Royal Roll, preserved in the British
Museum, shows. The date is uncertain, but it is at any
rate anterior to the dissolution of the Monasteries. The
first paragraph is rendered unintelligible by mutilation:—
" Item. That the Lieu tenant, Rydyng forester,
ye Ranger of the same Forest, certyfy at ... .
particulerly in a byll, the certentie of the deer kyllyd
and servyd by every of them with the . . . to them
directyd and gyvyn.
" It. The Clerke of Swanymote every yere within
xii days next after the fest of Saynt Michell, and within
convenyent tyme after to make relacion to the kyng's
hyghnes of the certentie of the deer kyllyd in the same
forest in the sayd yere and byfore him presentyd as ys
aforsayd.
" It. Yf any deer be kyllyd by chaunce and recovered
so that the ffleshe be of any goodnes, then the keper in
whose walke any such deer be recovered dilyver and
bryng the same to the Lieu tenant, in his absens, to the