XIV. 

 HERTFORDSHIRE DEER-PARKS. 



By James Edmuj^d Harting, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Bead at Watford, 2mh December, 1881. 



Although the researches and inquiries carried on by any Natural 

 History Society need not necessarily be restricted to objects within 

 the county or district in which the Society has been formed, it is 

 only natural to suppose that these should occupy the chief share 

 of attention, since they possess a greater interest for members of 

 the Society than topics having no special relation to the county. 

 From this point of view it occurred to me that some account of 

 Hertfordshire Deer-Parks — past and present — might be an accept- 

 able contribution to our ' Transactions.' 



In selecting this subject, however, I unfortunately under-esti- 

 mated the length of the task I thus set myself, and, notwithstanding 

 the diligent inquiries I have been making for some time past, I am 

 forced to the unsatisfactoiy conclusion that considerably more time 

 and labour must be expended than I have been able to bestow upon 

 the subject before the Society can be in possession of anything like 

 a complete account of Hertfordshire Deer-Parks. So intimately 

 are these parks associated with all that goes to form a county 

 history, that as well might I have undertaken a revision of the 

 folios of Chauncy, Clutterbuck, or Cussans, as attempt, at so short 

 a notice, a full exposition of the subject in question. 



The remarks, then, which I have to offer, so far from being 

 exhaustive, can only be regarded as forming the skeleton, as it 

 were, of a more comprehensive essay, which the energy of some 

 active member of this Society with more leisure and greater re- 

 sources at his disposal than I can hope to possess, may some day 

 bring to light. 



With this apology for the incompleteness of my task, I will 

 proceed to state such information as I have been able to collect. 



In its literal sense the word "Park," from the French parquer 

 (to pen cattle), signifies an inclosnre. 



Manwood, in his treatise on 'Forest Laws,' states that a Park 

 only differs from a Chace in being inclosed. A chace he defines as 

 "a franchise next in degree unto a forest, being an open place for 

 the keeping of game, and in that respect something resembling 

 it, yet with this difference that a chace hath neither the same kinds 

 of game on it, nor any particular laws belonging to the same, 

 proper to a chace only." The beasts of forest are, or were, the 

 hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf ; while the beasts of chace are the 

 buck, doe, fox, marten, and roe. In like manner all offenders in a 

 park, as in a chace, are punishable by the common law of the realm 

 and not by the forest-laws. 



A park, then, is an inclosed chace, and may vary in extent from 

 a few acres to a couple of thousand or more. It has three essentials, 



VOL. II. — PART III. 7 



