CHAELES I. AND THE NEW PARK, RICHMOND. 145 



Percy of Alnwick — and the King were up simultaneously 

 when the stag was pulled down. Percy drew his coteau-de- 

 chase to grarlloch the stag. His glove being wet, caused his 

 hand to slip down to the blade, which cut two of his fingers 

 so severely, that the surgeon by whom the wounds were 

 dressed feared " he would hardly ever recover the use of those 

 two fingers." 



Charles I. was a fine horseman. His knowledge of the 

 manrge is testified by the Duke of Newcastle in his great 

 work on the art and mystery of equitation, so far as perfect 

 horsemanship was understood in those (the last) days of the 

 Cavaliers. His equestrian portrait by Van Dyck is all dignity 

 and grace. Indeed, he was the personification of culture and 

 refinement, and of every attribute indigenous of the "real 

 gentleman " of that era. He was devotedly attached to 

 hunting and field sports, in which he could hold his pride 

 of place against all comers. Like other mighty monarchs, he 

 took his hounds with him in his military expeditions {Gal. 

 Belvoir MS., vol. i., p. 520) ; but as these expeditions ended 

 in disaster and ruin, the less we say of them the better. 

 During the brief period dating from the League of the Covenant 

 to the assembling of the Long Parliament, when the nation 

 was comparatively free of acute agitation, Charles L formed 

 the New Park, at Richmond, with the intention to make it 

 the headquarters of the Royal Hunt, and stocked it with herds 

 of red and fallow deer, which were derived chiefly from 

 Windsor and Epping Forests. . It appears, however, the 

 enclosure of the New Park could not be accomplished without 

 the consent of those parishes which had a right of common 

 on the wastes, and the owners of estates intermingled with 

 them ; consequently the King was obliged to purchase their 

 rights to 265 acres belonging to the Manor of Petersham, and 

 483 acres in that of Ham, for 400^. Exclusive of these, 

 Richmond New Park consisted of 650 acres in Mortlake, 

 230 acres in Putney, about 200 acres in Richmond and 

 Kingston, in all about 2,253 acres. But this intention of 

 Charles I. was not carried out to the contemplated extent, 



10 



