THE STORY OF A RED DEER

THE
STORY OF A RED DEER

BY THE
Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1897

Richard Clay and Sons, Limited
LONDON AND BUNGAY.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

To

MR. HUGH FORTESCUE,

Honoured Sir,

When in the spring of this present year you asked of me that I shouldwrite you a book, I was at the first not a little troubled; for ofmaking of many books there is no end, and of making of good books butsmall beginning; and albeit there be many heroes of our noble countyof Devon, whose lives, if worthily written, might exceed in value allother books (saving always those that are beyond price) that might beplaced in the hands of the youth thereof for instruction and example,yet for such a task I deemed myself all too poorly fitted; for if menwould write books to be read of the young, they must write them, notafter particular study, but from the fulness and the overflowing oftheir knowledge of such things as they have dwelt withal and felt andloved beyond all others.

So at the last I bethought me that ther