An Assembly of Deer's Bones

209 [E. limosum, L., var.fluviatile,L., form with long stem out of one point on whorl, etc., Nayland-Stoke ;—with branchlets scattered on branches but rest as last, Bramford.] \E. palustre, L., fertile form with stumpy branches, Raydon ; —form of Var. polystachyon, Vill.; with two sessile cones, Shelley ;—Branchlets of branches with branchletties, Kettlebarston ;—branchlettied only, 2. Hadleigh, Hitcham, Semer, Kersey, Whatfield, Assington, Cornard Parva ; 5. Ringshall.]

POLYPODIACE.®. [.Polypodium vulgare, L., form, nearest Llanuairense Lowe, with midrib giving below apex two equal-sized series of pinnate lobes, thus making top dichotomously rarriose—Bildeston.] [.Phyllitis (Scolopendrium) Scolopendrium, New. (vulga Sym.), with no basal sinus and lobes, lamina wavy.—Semer.]

AN ASSEMBLY OF DEER'S BONES.

AN ASSEMBLY OF DEER'S BONES.

BY HARRY C. MURRELL.

nameless affluent of the Woodbridge river tbat rises upon the north-west boundary of Monks' Soham and flows down, through Kenton and Earls' Soham vilages, to join the Deben at Brandeston, passes below the former Park at Earls' Soham. Here beside the stream's bed, between my house known as Windwhistle and Walnut-tree cottages on the south side, was discovered in 1924 an assemblage of over a hundred bones in the course of raising glacial-gravel. Tentatively they have been classified as pertaining to three species of mammals, of which the first and most fully represented is the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus, Linn.) ; of it were two antlers, one eight inches in circumference at its base, the other with a tine 8| inches in length (Mr. Edwin Rope has another horn dredged some years ago from the River Aide at Iken) ; a jaw-bone retaining two teeth in situ ; no less than twenty-eight tibise ; and eleven other bones. The second is the smaller Roe Deer (Capreolus caprea, Bell) ; of it were also two antlers, one beautifully perfect and seven inches long by 3f in basal circumference ; one jawbone ; five teeth ; six tibiae ; three knee-bones ; one rib-bone ; one scapula and seven other bones. The third animal is apparently the Celtic Ox (Bos longifrons, Owen); of it are six horns, six teeth, and four other large bones.—None were fossilised ; and the sole objects of any interest dug with them were a couple of lumps of some peculiar pale-green rock which Mr. Elliott considers to be micaceous Sandstone brought in the Ice Ages from Derbyshire,a Single Belemnite(B elemnitellamucronata, Schi. and no more than two fragments of early, ill-baked red brick.

At first it was conceived that the segregation had been arrested at this point in the stream's course at a very early period by

THAT

AN ASSEMBLY OF DEER'S BONES. 210 some local natural dam impeding the water-flow ; yet, when the domestic or semi-feral State of the sole three kinds of animals preserved be considered and more especialy the lack of others which such a dam would have equally stopped, one can but believe their deposition to have taken place after the local Park was paled, during doubtless Norman times. Such a conclusion is maintained by the obvious fact that at leastfiveof the horns have been split down for the purpose of extracting the marrow and one has been apparently sawn, certainly not chopped, across in order to form a tool ; both Operations within the legitimate ränge of a regulär tineman.

The late Mr. George Rope of Blaxhall was so good as to say that " this seems to be an interesting find. It seems most probable that the antlers must be those of the Red and Roe Deer, these being the only species known for certain to be indigenous, and forest animals both ; the date at which Fallow Deer were introduced, if introduced at all, has never been ascertained as far as I know. Of course, there would be a considerable difference in size between antlers at the same stage of growth of the Red and Roe Deer ; but the one measuring 2J inches in diameter at the base could not be that of a Roe. If any are those of the Fallow Deer, the branches or points would show signs of becoming palmated or flattened towards the ends, whereas the antler of the Red Deer and Roe are nearly cylindrical throughout; antlers of small size, yet having two or three points, must be Roe Deer. It seems probable that the bovine Horns may have belonged to the Wild Cattle that formerly inhabited so much of our forest land, a remnant of which are still preserved at Chilingham, Chartley and other northern parks " (in lit. 23 Feb. 1924).

As to the Wild Cattle, Mr. Elliott adds " they are kept white artificially by killing all black or spotted calves; those in the Zoological Gardens have had absolutely black calves. Some writers, such as Masefield when writing on the Chartley herd (Field Nat. 41y, ii, p. 118), consider them descendants of ordinary cattle gone wild, which is not likely; others call them a special race, Bos Scoticus ; but the most generally accepted theory is that they are the degenerate descendants of the fine Auroch (Bos primigenius), which existed in Britain from the Pleistocene almost to historic times, certainly to the Bronze Age. Of course, the original stock would become modified by the restriction of their ränge and contact with man " (in lit. 15 Mar. 1924). Lord Tankervile claims his herd to be pure-bred since 1220 (The Field, 10 Oct. 1931).

Few mammalian remains in Suffolk are more frequent than those of Deer: both the above species were formerly common and bones have been found at Undley in Middenhall, of the latter kind also at Burnt Fen in Lakenheath, and of the former

AN ASSEMBLY OF DEER'S BONES.

211 in the River Orwell; Mr. Morley has found one antler at Mendham Priory; and Dr. J. E. Taylor records numerous from the main street of Ipswich at the time of its deep-draining some forty years ago. The Rolls of the old Justices in Eyre show that Norman forest laws covered such ' beasts of forest' as the hart, hind, hare, boar and wolf ; such ' beasts of chase' as buck, doe, roe, fox and marten; and such ' beasts and fowls of warren ' as hare, rabbit, pheasant and partridge. Any or all of these, excepting thefirstcategory, were nearly surely emparked here.

Earls' Soham Park, of which my house stands upon the latest portion, may have existed from Saxon times for all one can now teil; we believe it held by thefirstearl Bigot who came to Framlingham. But the earliest definite record seems to be in 1283, when rogues were arraigned for damaging earl Roger's " Park " here (Patent Rolls, 11 Edward i), as distinct from the one at Framlingham itself ; though in 1240 reference emerges to a resident Godfrey ' Parcarius ' or park-keeper, and certainly in 1307 the Ipswich inquisition of 2 January found that the last Bigot earl of Norfolk died seized of, inter alia, " a Park with deer " at this Soham (Iquis. post Mort.

35 Edward i). The Crown made a grant of the local Park and woods in 1310 (Cal. Patent Rolls, p. 275) ; and Farrer's 1923 ' Deer Parks in EAnglia ' enumerates several relating to the Framlingham demesnes in general, but omitting that of 21 March 1322 when the Crown confirmed " a grant for life

by Thomas de Brotherton earl of Norfolk, the King's uncle, to Geoffrey Quyncy of the office of constable of Framelyngham Castle as well as of the custody of the Parks of Framelyngham, Saham Barres and Keleshal, and of the foreign woods and warrens pertaining to the Castle and to the manors of Saham and Keleshal, with one robe yearly of the suit of the Earl's esquires, five shilings weekly for wages, and hay for two horses and half a bushel of oats every night (Cal. cit. 1893, p. 260).

Thus at Earls' Soham were wont to hunt the earls and later dukes of Norfolk in their Park, within which stood their dowery-house, now known as The Lodge, where the remains of a large moat still exist. In a grant of James i, the manor and Park are expressly described as part of the possessions of the recently deceased Thomas fourth duke (Green's Fram.

241). So late as 1713, of the Viscountess Hereford were held ' Soham Lodge ' by one Garnham and ' The Park '—my own house, since renamed—by the Scotchmore family (Cop. Ree. ii, 276); in July 1767 John Scotchmer was drowned in the moat while dragging out a large bow-net. Enough of the ancient timber remains to show how splendid was this Park in its prime, dating perhaps from thefifteenthCentury, wherein the presence of our sawn one seems to place these numerous bones.