FORESTRY 



secured further lands in the same district, exchanging the manor of Tyburn 

 for other property with Thomas Hobson. The district of Marylebone or 

 Tyburn used to be well-wooded, and included a considerable park. 9 " 



Queen Mary in 1554 gave orders for the five or six hundred acres 

 which formed Marylebone Park to be disparked ; but this order must 

 have been revoked or disregarded, for it was certainly used as a hunting 

 ground by Queen Elizabeth. 9 * In 1582 an entry in the accounts of the 

 Board of Works records a payment ' for making of two new standings in 

 Marybone and Hyde Park for the Queens Majesty and the noblemen of 

 France to see the hunting.' n This was on the occasion of the visit to 

 England of the duke of Anjou, Elizabeth's suitor, with a considerable train 

 of the French nobility. During the winter of 1600-1 Marylebone Park 

 provided good sport for the ambassador from Russia and other Musco- 

 vites ; they rode to ''Marybone Park ' and there hunted at their pleasure. 98 



When James I, in 1611, granted the manor of Marylebone to 

 Mr. Forset the park was reserved. It continued in the possession of the 

 crown until 1646, when it was granted to Sir George Strode and John 

 Wandsford as security for a debt of 2,318 i is. yd. incurred in providing 

 ammunition and other military stores for the Royalists. It was sold by 

 the Commonwealth for 13,215, including 130 for the deer (of which 

 there were 124 of all sorts) and 1,779 ^ or ti m ber, exclusive of 2,976 

 trees which were reserved for the navy. The park must therefore have 

 been magnificently wooded in its prime. At the Restoration Strode and 

 Wansford were reinstated and held the park until the debt was paid. No 

 attempt, however, was made to form it again into a single park, or to 

 restock it with deer. Various crown leases fell in during the Regency, 

 and the old lands of Marylebone Park began to be laid out in 1 8 1 2 on 

 an elaborate scale by Mr. Nash, and have henceforth been known by the 

 name of Regent's Park." Regent's Park, with Primrose Hill, covers an 

 area of 274^ acres. 



At the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII founded the brief- 

 lived bishopric of Westminster, assigning the county of Middlesex to it 

 for a diocese, and bestowing on it a part of the lands of the dissolved 

 abbey, of which the manor and advowson of Hampstead formed part. 

 At this time there is evidence that a considerable part of the woods 

 of Hampstead as well as of Highgate and Hornsey were in full vigour, 

 and harboured game other than deer. A proclamation was issued by 

 Henry VIII shortly before his death, that 



noe person interrupt the King's game of hare, partridge, pheasant and heron 

 preserved in and about his house at his palace of Westminster for his own disport 

 and pastime ; that is to saye, from his said palace of Westminster to St. Gyles in the 

 Fields, and from thence to Islington to or Lady of the Oke, to Highgate, to Hornsey 

 Parke, to Hamsted Heath, and from thence to his said palace of Westminster to be 

 preserved and kept for his owne disport, pleasure and recreation. 98 



" Nichols, Queen ERx. Progresses M Arch, xviii, 180. * Ashton, HjJt Park, 10. 



96 Ibid. w Clinch, Marylebone and St. Pancrai (i 890), 5, 6, 48, 50. 



*" White, Hampsteari and iti jtiiociatioin, 24. 



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