A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



importance, 7 and though a small fringe of 

 country on its northern border is still occa- 

 sionally hunted from adjacent counties, 

 Middlesex no longer possesses any hunt of its 

 own. It was, however, not till the middle of 

 the last century that these inevitable results 

 of the growth of London began to make 

 themselves seriously felt ; and, owing probably 

 to the fact that Middlesex has never possessed 

 any towns of importance, its woodlands, 

 commons, and pastures continued for many 

 centuries prior to that date to afford to its 

 inhabitants ample facilities for sport. 



It is stated by Fitz Stephen, a monk of 

 Canterbury, who in the reign of Henry II 

 wrote a description of London and its 

 environs, 8 that ' many citizens do take delight 

 in birds, as sparrow-hawks, gos-hawks, &c., 

 and in dogs to sport in the woody coverts, for 

 they were privileged to hunt in Middlesex, in 

 Hertfordshire, in all the Chilterns, and in 

 Kent as low down as Crag Water' ; and also 

 that beyond the open meadows and pasture 

 lands on the north side of the city was a 

 great forest ' in whose woody coverts lurked 

 the stag, the hind, the wild boar, and the 

 bull.' 9 These animals were hunted with 

 hounds on horseback or stalked on foot, and 

 shot with the bow, but the term ' hunting ' 

 also included coursing with greyhounds and 

 hawking. 10 



The citizens of London appear to have 

 possessed this privilege from the earliest times, 

 for, in a charter obtained from him early in 

 the twelfth century, Henry I grants ' to my 

 citizens of London to hold Middlesex to farm 

 for three hundred pounds upon accompt to 

 them and their heirs,' and that they ' may 

 have their chases to hunt as well and truly as 

 their ancestors have had, that is to say in 

 Chiltre, in Middlesex, and in Surrey.' n This 

 charter was confirmed by that of Henry II, 

 granted probably some twenty years 12 later ; 

 by the first charter of Richard I, dated 23 

 April 1 194 ; 13 the first charter of King John, 



7 The number of persons employed as game- 

 keepers in the census of 1901 was 60. 



8 Stephanidei, Descriptio nobili formae civitatis 

 Londinii, first published in Stow's Survey of London 

 (q.v.) (ed. Strype), ii, App. I, 9. 



' Ibid. 9, n, 12, 15. 



10 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), Introd.; 

 Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, 104, 192 ; Cecil, 

 Records of the Chase, 8, 12, 15. 



11 Birch, Historical Charters and Constitutional 

 Documents of the City of Lor. Jon. The date of this 

 charter is uncertain, but is placed by the author 

 between noo and 1129. 



" Ibid. Between 1138 and 1162. 

 " Ibid. 8. 



dated 1 7 June 1199;" and by the fourth 

 charter of Henry III, dated 16 May 1227, 

 which expressly states that ' we do grant them 

 that they may have hunting wheresoever they 

 had in the time of King Henry our grand- 

 father and King Henry our great-grand- 

 father.' " In the same year Henry III still 

 further augmented these rights of hunting by 

 a charter of 1 8 August granting ' to all men 

 in the county of Middlesex that the Warren 

 of Stanes shall be no more a warren 

 [dewarrenata], and shall be disafforested ' 16 

 a concession which, while throwing open the 

 warren for purposes of agriculture to such as 

 were disposed to 'cultivate their lands and 

 assart their woods therein,' provided a new 

 hunting ground for the public, who had the 

 right of hunting animals ferae naturae in all 

 uninclosed lands except those subject to the 

 forest laws or to some restriction upon hunt- 

 ing arising from a royal grant. 17 



There is no evidence with respect to the 

 extent of the Warren of Staines, but as a 

 grant of 1 1 Henry III to the prior and 

 brethren of St. John of Jerusalem, apparently 

 made just before it was disafforested, 18 shows 

 that it included the manor of Hampton, and 

 as Hampton itself then formed part of Houns- 

 low Heath, 19 it must have comprised the 

 greater portion of the south-western extremity 

 of Middlesex. 



Though styled a ' warren * it differed from 

 ordinary warrens in being subject to the forest 

 laws a fact which would seem to imply that 

 it must have contained 'beasts of forest' the 

 red and the fallow deer, the roe, and the wild 

 boar in addition to ' beasts and fowls of 

 warren ' the hare, the coney, the fox, the 

 pheasant, and the partridge and that it must 

 practically therefore have been a forest. 20 The 



"Ibid. 12. 



15 Historical Charters of the City of London ; cf. 

 Cal. Chart. R. i, 24. 



16 Cal. Chart. R. i, 56, and cf. ii, 477. 



17 Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.), 

 cxxiii. 



18 Cal. Chart. R. i, 30. The charter granted 

 the order leave ' to keep their dogs unlawed in 

 their House in Hamtonet in the King's Warren 

 of Stanes,' for guarding the house ' in which the 

 Sisters of the said Order do dwell,' and also for 

 guarding their sheep-folds. 



19 Ernest Law, The History of Hampton Court 

 Palace (2nd ed. 1890), i, 415. 



10 Select Pleas of the Forest, x, cxiv, cxxviii, cjocix. 

 Cf. John Manwood, Treatise of the Lataes of the 

 Forest, 1615, where the author makes a distinc- 

 tion between ' beasts of forest ' and 'beasts of chace ' 

 which, however, in Mr. Turner's opinion is not 

 good in law (see Select Pleas of the Forest, cxiv). 

 The roe ceased to be a beast of forest in the 



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