Sevenoaks:There was a time when hippos lounged in the swamps around London. A time when going for a stroll risked an encounter with mammoths or sabre-toothed tigers. But what the Ice Age didn’t kill, we humans did. Now, the biggest native animals in Britain are deer.

Oh deer

Sizing me up

My brother and I armed ourselves with a bag of carrots and went deep into the wilderness of Knole Park, a medieval hunting ground that is, essentially a landscaped recreation ground for the rather grand 15th-century Archbishop’s Palace located there. That’s as wild as it gets in 21st-century Britain.

Tempted by carrots

Yummy

Employing the same intrepid skills learned while tracking tigers in Nepal, we braved the ferns and grasses to find a few herds of shy deer.

White hart

We tempted them over with sweet carrots.

Not too proud

Still a wonderful encounter.