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CURIOUS CEREMONY OF DRIVING DEER THROUGH THE WATER (FORMERLY
PRACTISED) IN LYME PARK, CHESHIRE.
(_For The Mirror_.)
Ormerod, in his splendid _History of Cheshire_, says, "The park of
Lyme, which is very extensive, is celebrated for the fine flavour of
its venison, and contains a herd of wild cattle, the remains of a
breed which has been kept here from time immemorial, and is supposed
indigenous. In the last century a custom was observed here of driving
the deer round the park about Midsummer, or rather earlier, collecting
them in a body before the house, and then swimming them through a pool
of water, with which the exhibition terminated." There is a large
print of it by Vivares, after a painting by T. Smith, representing
Lyme Park during the performance of the annual ceremony, with the
great Vale of Cheshire and Lancashire, as far as the Rivington Hills
in the distance, and in the foreground the great body of the deer
passing through the pool, the last just entering it, and the old stags
emerging on the opposite bank, two of which are contending with their
fore-feet, the horns at that season being too tender to combat with.
This "art of driving the deer" like a herd of ordinary cattle, is
stated on a monument, at Disley, to have been first perfected by
Joseph Watson, who died in 1753, at the age of 104, "having been
park-keeper at Lyme more than sixty-four years." The custom, however,
appears not to have been peculiar to Lyme, as Dr. Whitaker describes,
in his _Account of Townley_, (the seat of a collateral line of Legh,)
"near the summit of the park, and where it declines to the south, the
remains of a large pool, through which tradition reports that the deer
were driven by their keepers in the manner still practised in the park
at Lyme."[8]
Lyme Park is situated near the road from Manchester to London, through
Buxton, adjacent to the picturesque village of Disley.
Lyme Hall is the seat of the principal of the ancient family of Leghs.
Perkins _à Legh_, a Norman, who was buried in Macclesfield Church,
rendered considerable services in the battle of Cressy, for which he
was presented with the estate and lordship of Lyme. The building is,
in part, of the date of Elizabeth; and the other a regular structure,
from a design of Leoni.