CHAPTEK XI 



PARK TIMBER 



HOWEVER weak the majority of English estates may be 



as regards examples of economic forestry, there is little 



question about their ability to show picturesque park scenery, 



and the finest effects which the art of the landscape gardener 



can produce. Originally, no doubt, parks were formed and 



maintained for the purpose of fencing in the beasts of the 



chase, such as deer, and thus rendering it possible for the 



Norman baron or bishop to enjoy, on a small scale, the sport 



afforded by the more extensive forests of the king. They 



were also used as a kind of paddock for breeding and feeding 



the deer destined for the venison pasties so esteemed at the 



tables of the great, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle frequent 



mention is made of the " deer-fold " usually that of a 



bishop, as that of Peterboro'. A few parks are supposed to 



have existed in Saxon times, and amongst these have been 



maintained Eridge, Eastwell, Blenheim, and Knowsley. 



Enclosures for wild animals are frequently mentioned in 



Domesday, and although no precise description of them 



exists, the natural inference is that they were simply tracts 



of the waste or forest fenced round to keep in the larger 



game. But before the Conquest it is not probable that parks 



existed on a large scale, or in great numbers. The Saxon 



Thanes, fond as they were of sport, preferred to take it under 



natural conditions, and that conversion of the " f olc land " into 



" lords demesne " had not proceeded to any great extent under 



their rule. It is rather to the Normans and Plantagenets 



that we must attribute the chief extension of parks, and 



which laid the foundation for their general distribution over 



the face of England. That this is so, is proved by the 



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