The Mammals of Great 176 Britain and Ireland
out of season, though it be a truth that his venison is not equal to that of either the
red or fallow Deer, but he will serve to show how my dogs run.' This is not a
correct estimate of the condition of the animal. Colquhoun tells us that he shot
several Roe deer ‘ as fat as good mutton,’ btitt this X think is a slight exaggeration, as
I have never seen the fattest Roe covered with fat on the buttocks as red and fallow
Deer and sheep often are when in high condition. I have seen hundreds of Roe
killed when in ‘ pride of grease' in December and January, and in a district, too,
where Roe are far superior to those of Gienfalloch, Colquhoun’s shooting ground,
and have often seen them loaded with fa t about the kidneys and inner parts, but
never with more than a little fat about the backbone and the top of the buttocks.
In Germany a good Roe will fetch eightpence a pound, but in Scotland it is
not worth more than twopence a pound.
Hunting and Shooting.— Until the time of Henry VIII., and possibly Elizabeth,
the Roe was hunted with horse and hound in a manner similar to that now employed
in France, where the chase is brought to a fine art. With the disappearance, of the
Deer the practice of hunting them vanished, and was not again brought into use
until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Mr. Pleydell started his pack
in Dorsetshire in 1815. For sixteen years he hunted Roe, and was followed by
Mr. Yeatman of Stockhouse, Mr. James Harding of Misterton, Mr. Drax, and the
Radcliffes of Hyde, who hunted the country for thirty years.1 These regular packs
ceased hunting some time in the sixties, since when the Deer have generally been
coursed down or shot. A few years ago the late Lord Iickester started a few couples
of hounds at Melbury, and his s00 probably keeps them on. With these hounds
and the Master I spent a most enjoyable day in the Blackmoor Vale combes in
very loth to leave a wood, and keep circling
t last are forced to take to the open. They try
other Deer, and will resort to all the tricks of
r and occupying the recently vacated bed; but
the cover and go off at a rattling pace, often
te miles. On the Downs they generally run up
and then stand at bay in the next ‘ coombe.’
a season by the old packs, but Lord Ilchester
Tkt Roedeer bn • r-stfRe,’ are long accounts of good runs with these hounds taken from
of 1834 and froto he Journals of Mr. Henry Symonds of Goswell, Mr. Pleydell of
of Hyde.
STUDIES GF ROE DEER.