A HISTORY OF SURREY 



gentlemen's livings and others are verie well knowen, so as if any defaulte 

 should be it is streight waie subject to controlment.' Clearly, timber 

 and iron guns from the Weald were brought through Surrey for the 

 Admiralty and Master of the Ordnance, and the inhabitants were 

 uncomfortably close to the eye of the Exchequer. 



But the grievance of royal purveyance was a legitimate cause of 

 complaint, and the royal example of enclosure of parks for pleasure 

 was likely to be readily followed in a county so near the usual neighbour- 

 hood of the court. 



The Act for the increase of horses compelled private owners of 

 parks of more than a mile in circumference to keep brood mares in 

 them. There were in Surrey, under Elizabeth, the following parks of 

 this size belonging to the Crown and to private owners : Oatlands, 

 Guildford, Woking, Byfleet, Witley, Bagshot, Mortlake, Esher. All 

 these belonged to the Crown. There were two at Nonsuch belonging 

 to the Crown under Henry VIII., and again at the end of Elizabeth's 

 reign. Two at Farnham belonging to the Bishop of Winchester. 

 Others, belonging to private owners, were at Henley, two at Pirford, 

 one at Betchworth, Hartswood-in-Buckland, Reigate, Blechingley, 

 Sterborough, Beddington, Sutton, Clandon. There were two small 

 parks at Richmond, united and enlarged by Charles I. Loseley, Has- 

 combe, Vachery, Baynards, Burstow, Crowhurst, Hackstal and South 

 Park (north and south of Godstone respectively), Chobham, Stoke 

 d'Abernon, Wimbledon and others also existed. 1 Some were made, 

 some enlarged about this time. Over the whole of the old bailiwick of 

 Windsor Forest the Crown rights in deer were rigorously enforced, as 

 the Loseley papers abundantly testify. Lord Montague the bailiff is in 

 constant correspondence with the sheriffs and deputy lieutenants con- 

 cerning deer stealing, taking of hawks' nests and other offences there. 

 It is noticeable that not one of the parks named above is on the naturally 

 waste ground of Surrey, about Leith Hill, Holmbury, Blackheath or Hind- 

 head. They are thick on the Bagshot Sand wastes, but otherwise they 

 are nearly all upon what should have been the better agricultural land. 



The enclosure of these parks and the annoyance of the deer in the 

 Surrey purlieu of Windsor Forest no doubt caused a feeling of irritation 

 among the husbandmen. A letter is preserved from Lord Montague 2 

 of Elizabeth's reign touching certain disorders in the forest, and certain 

 strange demands for the restitution of the forest by the Crown. The 

 old dispute of the thirteenth century was not dead, and the Crown was 



1 Speed's map, temp. James I., shows 36. 



8 Loseley MSS. July 29, 1565, x. 26. This very large collection of papers, relating mostly to the 

 sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, is preserved at Loseley near Guildford. The bulk of it consists 

 of the official and private correspondence of three generations of the More family, Sir Christopher, Sir 

 William and Sir George, ob. 1 549, 1 600 and 1 63 z respectively, and of Sir Thomas Cawarden, ob. 1559. 

 It has never been exhaustively edited, and the catalogue done for the Historical MSS. Commission is 

 imperfect and in places erroneous. A certain number of the letters, etc., are collected into volumes. 

 These are referred to below in Roman figures for the volumes, Arabic figures for the number of the 

 document in the volume. A great many papers however are lying loose, and can only be referred to by 

 dates. 



368 



