Left to themselves, the deer anyway belie their image. One night I was awakened by an unusually large amount of noise. A young doe resisted the stag's advances - and paid for with her life. It is difficult to separate in my mind the pleasure that I received from those graceful animals that were my neighbours, and the delicious dinners that they provided in Hall'. Lawrence had once plotted to rustle some deer, and shut them in All Souls to liven up that austere community.
Deer can be more subtle.
That never was a great play. In about 1937 one of the stags got its antlers tangled in some wire netting and was lying on the ground unable to move. The head gardener Mr Miles and the under gardener, Tom, asked Harry and his mate to help them to free it. Tom, a plump man in a grey suit and bowler hat, sat astride the beast to stop it struggling while the others cut the wire from its antlers. When this was done, to everyone's surprise the stag immediately jumped to its feet while Tom was still on its back hanging on to the base of the antlers.