

J. E. UARTING HEETFOEDSHIEE DEER-PAEKS. 99 



land for agricultural purposes increased, many a park was obliterated. 

 The deer 'were killed, the pales removed, the timber felled, and the 

 ground ploughed up, until all traces of the former inclosure were 

 destroyed. In this way many an ancient park has been swept 

 away whose former existence is now only known to us from the 

 ancient records of its original formation and temporary maintenance. 

 Indeed wo may loi)k in vain on a modern map of the County of 

 Hertford for an indication of many parks which appear upon maps 

 prepared from surveys made no longer ago than the reign of 

 Elizabeth. 



It would seem that the number of deer-parks in England has for 

 some time been gradually decreasing. If we may rely upon the 

 statistics published by the Rev. W. B. Daniel in 1807, and Mr. 

 Evelyn Philip Shirley in 1867, the number of parks now existing 

 is less than half what it w;is at the commencement of the present 

 century. Mr. Daniel, at p. 252 of the first volume of his ' Rural 

 Sports,' observes: "There are in England 69 forests, 13 chases, 

 and upwards of 750 parks." Mr. Shirley remarks: "It appears 

 as the result of the inquiries which I have made that there are at 

 present (1867) 334 parks still stocked with deer in the different 

 counties of England ; among that number red-deer are kept in 

 about 31 parks." '^' He adds: "With regard to the antiquity and 

 size of these aristocratic inclosures in the present day, I have 

 collected many particulars, by which it appears that there are 

 parks whose origin is lost in the obscurity of early Norman times 

 down to the date of the inclosure of yesterday, and that their 

 extent varies from the stately area of more than 2000 acres to the 

 little paddock of a few roods." f 



It has often been stated in print, and is perhaps generally be- 

 lieved, that the first park made in England was that of Woodstock 

 in Oxfordshii'e, which was formed by Henry the First, and was 

 surrounded by a stone wall seven miles in circumference. This 

 impression, however, is erroneous, for thirty-one parks are men- 

 tioned in Domesday. 



" It is perhaps impossible," says Mr. Shirley, "to ascertain with 

 accuracy the oldest existing deer-park in England ; but if Lord 

 Abergavenny's park at Eridge, in Sussex, may be identified with 

 the Reredfelle of Domesday, there can be no doubt that it may lay 

 claim to this unique distinction, there being no other park which 

 appears in the category of existing inclosures stocked with deer." 



Of the thirty-one deer- parks mentioned in Domesday, three were 

 in Hertfordshire : St. Albans, which was appurtenant to the Abbey, 

 and is described as parens hestianim sylvaticarum ; Waee, which is 

 described as containing wood to feed 400 hogs, and a park of deer, 



* Preface to liis ' Account of En^-lish Deer Parks,' p. ix. 



t About the beginning of the eighteenth century a fashion was introduced of 

 making small paddocks for deer, generally near the house, where the land was 

 mostly rich and good, whereas in former times the parks were almost always at a 

 distance from the residences of the proprietors, and often of great extent over 

 the worst and wildest lands of the manor. 



