which, though now wild as the hawk, are well known to have been once
tame.

There were deer, red and fallow, in numerous parks and chases of very
old time, and these, having got loose, and having such immense tracts to
roam over unmolested, went on increasing till now they are beyond
computation, and I have myself seen a thousand head together. Within
these forty years, as I learn, the roe-deer, too, have come down from
the extreme north, so that there are now three sorts in the woods.
Before them the pine-marten came from the same direction, and, though
they are not yet common, it is believed they are increasing. For the
first few years after the change took place there seemed a danger lest
the foreign wild beasts that had been confined as curiosities in
menageries should multiply and remain in the woods. But this did not
happen.

Some few lions, tigers, bears, and other animals did indeed escape,
together with many less furious creatures, and it is related that they
roamed about the fields for a long time. They were seldom met with,
having such an extent of country to wander over, and after a while
entirely disappeared. If any progeny were born, the winter frosts must
have destroyed it, and the same fate awaited the monstrous serpents
which had been collected for exhibition. Only one such animal now exists
which is known to owe its origin to those which escaped from the dens of
the ancients. It is the beaver, whose dams are now occasionally found
upon the streams by those who traverse the woods. Some of the aquatic
birds, too, which frequent the lakes, are thought to have been
originally derived from those which were formerly kept as curiosities.

In the castle yard at Longtover may still be seen the bones of an