MAESH AND FOREST PERIODS. 15 



sundry little differences with, the monks and bur- 

 gesses there, he granted him license to hunt '^ in 

 the royal forest of Madeley," then a portion of that 

 of the Wrekin. In 1283 also, King Edward per- 

 mitted the Prior of Wenlock to have a park at 

 Madeley, to fence out a portion of the forest, and to 

 form a haia there for his deer. It has been said 

 that Walter, Bishop of Rochester, was so fond of 

 sport, that at the age of fourscore he made hunting 

 his sole employment. The Archdeacon of Richmond, 

 at his initiation to the Priory of Bridlington, is re- 

 ported to have been attended by ninety-seven horses, 

 twenty- one dogs, and three hawks. Walter de 

 Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, bequeathed by wiU his 

 pack of hounds to the king ; but the Abbot of Tavi- 

 stock, who had also a pack, was commanded by his 

 bishop about the same time to break it np. A 

 famous hunter was the Abbot of Leicester, whose 

 skill in the sport of hare hunting was so great, that 

 we are told the king himself, his son Edward, and 

 certain noblemen, paid him an annual pension that 

 they might hunt with him. Bishop Latimer said : 

 ^' In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach 

 me to shoot as to learn me any other thing, and so 

 I think other men did their children. He taught 



