48 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



hit him fair behind the shoulder, killing him on the spot. 

 Being a remarkably fine, fat buck, it was duly sent to the 

 king, who thereupon wrote to the sender to ask which of 

 his subjects loved him so well as to kill his venison so 

 artistically. Turnor showed the letter to Lord Vernon, 

 who returned it, with the pithy remark, " When next you 

 shoot a deer like that, Turnor, keep one half yourself and 

 send me the other." His lordship might well relish Forest 

 venison, for it was very superior to that of Sudbury. At 

 one time the Leedhams at Hoar Cross always had a buck 

 sent them by Lord Bagot, and Charles used to say Bagot s 

 Park or Chartley venison beat that of Sudbury hollow. 

 The latter, he said, was like boiled veal. Lord Vernon 

 often wanted to exchange a buck with Lord Bagot, to get 

 a change of blood, and the latter was all for giving one, 

 but no exchange would he make. 



The exact date at which Bagot's Park was granted to 

 the Bagots is lost in the mist of ages, and the grant must 

 therefore be of great antiquity. Without a doubt it is 

 the oldest enclosed deer-park in Staffordshire. Several of 

 these were granted by the Lords of Tutbury Castle, 

 amongst them being Castle Hayes, Stockley, Hanbury, 

 Agardsley, and Barton. Until the Great Rebellion the 

 fee-simple of these vested in the crown, but Bagot's Park, 

 Bromley, Hoar Cross, Hamstall Ridware, and Wichnor^ 

 seem to have been granted absolutely to private individuals 

 at divers times. Besides about four hundred fallow deer 

 of the old black and dun Forest sort, the thousand acres 

 of Bagot's Park holds about fifty red deer and a Hock of 

 white goats with black horns, heads, and shoulders, said 

 to have been given to the Bagot of the day by Richard H. 

 There are very similar ones to be seen in Normandy still, 

 and they may have been imported thence. The white 

 cattle of Chartley, akin to those of Chillingham, boast a 

 still longer descent ; for, though they were driven in from 

 the Forest in the reign of Henry HL, when Chartley was 

 enclosed by the Ferrers, they are said to go back to the 

 domestic cattle introduced by the Romans. 



