102 J. E. HAETING — HEETFOEDSHIRE DEEK-PAEKS. 



of Essex, covers about 670 acres, watered by the river Gade, and 

 adorned with fine fir-trees and immense beeches. It belonged ia 

 Henry the Eighth's reign to Richard Moryson, Esq, (a descendant 

 of a Yorkshire family), afterwards knighted, to whom it was 

 conveyed by royal letters patent, and who was in much favour 

 with the King by reason of his learning and great administrative 

 powers as ambassador. He began " a fair and large house in this 

 place, situated upon a dry hill, not far from a pleasant river, in a 

 fair park," but died before it was completed in 1556.* By his 

 marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Charles 

 Morrison, Cassiobury became the property of Lord Capell, whose 

 eldest son Arthur, upon the restoration of King Charles the 

 Second, was advanced to the titles of Viscount Maldon and 

 Earl of Essex by patent dated 20th April, 1661. The herd of 

 fallow-deer still maintained in this park was formerly much larger 

 than at present, numbering perhaps 700 or 800 head. It now 

 consists of between 300 and 400 only. This great decrease is in 

 some measure due to an epidemic which broke out on more than 

 one occasion, and in the present year has carried off no less than 

 about 300 deer. 



3. Grove Park,! adjoining Cassiobury, the property of the Earl 

 of Clarendon, contains between 200 and 300 acres, and about 

 100 head of fallow-deer. The bucks average 10|- stones, the does 

 8^ stones (8lbs. to the stone). The horns of the bucks are broadly 

 palmated, although the park has never been re-stocked. Saxton 

 does not indicate the existence of any park here in 1577. It was 

 the ancient seat of the Heydons, from whose family it was alienated 

 to the ancestors of Sir Denis Hampton, who sold it to Sir Robert 

 Ashton, for many years the eldest bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and 

 from whose family it passed by marriage to the family of Sir John 

 Buck, and subsequently by sale first to Lord Donneraile, and after- 

 wards, in 1753, to the Hon. Thomas Villiers, who was created Earl 

 of Clarendon in 1776. There are some fine trees in this park, and 

 a great variety, walnut, ash, elm, beech, chestnut, and lime, being 

 all well represented. 



4. KifEBWORTH,^ the property of the Earl of Lytton, is described 

 by Chauncy as " a large pile of brick with a fair quadrangle in the 

 middle of it, upon a dry hill in a fair park § stocked with the best 

 deer in the county." This building was partly pulled down in 



' the year 1811, and a handsome Gothic mansion erected nearly upon 

 the site of the buildings removed, and finished in 1816. The 

 park, of 280 acres, has some splendid avenues of lime and chestnut, 

 and one remarkable hornbeam. The herd of fallow-deer at present 

 numbers 140 head, the bucks, with broadly palmated antlers, 



* No park is shown on Saxton's map of 1577. 



t Chauncy, p. 484 ; Salmon, p. 106 ; Clutterbuck, vol. i, p. 250 ; Cussans, 

 ' Cassio,' p. 169. 



I Chauncy, p. 356; Salmon, p. 199; Clutterbuck, vol. ii, p. 373; Cussans, 

 'Broadwater,' p. 111. 



§ Xo park is shown on Saxton's map of 1577. 



