100 J. E. HAETING HEKTFOKDSHIEE DEEE-PAEKS. 



together with a vineyard lately planted, belonging to Hngh de 

 Grrentemaisnil ; and Benington (anciently Belintone), which con- 

 tained " ATood to feed a hundred hogs, and a park of deer," the 

 property of Peter de Valongies. 



The mention of St. Albans in connexion with deer recalls the 

 fact that it was here, in 1486, that the celebrated Book of St. 

 Albans was printed, treating of Hunting, Hawking, and Coat- 

 armour. It contains a good deal about deer from the sportsman's 

 point of view, and is generally believed to have been written by 

 Dame Juliana Barnes, or Berners, the prioress of a Benedictine 

 Convent at Sopwell,* near St. Albans, deriving its name from 

 the place where it was printed by a schoolmaster whose name has 

 not come down to us. 



From a careful examination of this curious work, and a perusal 

 of all that has been published concerning the reputed author of it, 

 I am convinced that it is not an original composition, but a trans- 

 lation and compilation from Latin and French manuscripts of an 

 older date, and that most of the statements put forth in biographical 

 notices of the lady have no foundation in fact. To enter here upon 

 all the "pros" and "cons" would cause too great a digression. 

 On some future occasion, perhaps, I may be able to offer some 

 remarks on a subject which I venture to think possesses a special 

 interest for members of a Society carrying on researches in the very 

 county in which the book was produced and the reputed authoress 

 lived. 



To return to the parks mentioned in Domesday. Besides St. 

 Albans and Ware there was Benington, already named, or, as it was 

 formerly called, Belintone. This park, which appears on Saxton's 

 map of 1577 (N.C.),! after very many changes of ownership, became 

 the property, in James the First's time, of Robert Devereux, third 

 Earl of Essex, who sold it in 1614 to Sir Charles Caesar, in whose 

 family it remained until 1744, when it was sold to the trustees of 

 the will of Sir John Chesshyre, Knt.J 



The parks which have been formed in Hertfordshire since the 

 preparation of the great Domesday Book may be divided into two 

 classes : those which have been long since " disparked," and those 



* The Priory of Sopwell, which, upon the Dissohition, Henry the Eighth 

 granted to Sir Richard Lee, came to his eldest daughter (he had no sons) Anne 

 Lee, who married Edward Sadleir, the second son of Sir Ealph SacUeir of 

 Standon. It remained in possession of the family of Sadleir until 1662, when, 

 on the marriage of Ellen Sadleir (daughter of Robert Sadleir) with Thomas 

 Saunders, of Beechwood, it passed to the Saimders family, by whom it was 

 subsequently sold to Sir Harbottle Grimston, Master of the Rolls in the reign 

 of Charles the Second, from whom it has descended to James Walter, Viscount 

 Grimston. 



t That is, "north central." The position of parks shown on Saxton's map is 

 indicated throughout this paper by letters, to facilitate reference ; and it has 

 been thought desirable also to quote volume and page in every case where some 

 account of the park is furnished in the works of our County historians. The dates 

 of these respective works are Chauncy 1700, Salmon 1728, Clutterbuck 1815- 

 1827. andCussans 1870-81. 



X Clutterbuck, 'Hist. Herts,' vol. ii, p. 285. 



