SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



' great forest ' to the north of London men- 

 tioned in the description of the City by Fitz 

 Stephen, alluded to above, probably extended 

 as far as the royal forests of Essex on the 

 east, and the woodlands of Herts and Bucks 

 on the north and west ; but it was not in 

 the thirteenth century a forest in the strict 

 legal sense of the term, which denoted a 

 definite tract of land within which a par- 

 ticular body of law was enforced, having for 

 its object the perservation of certain animals 

 ferae naturae? 1 Though certain portions of 

 these lands were from time to time aliened to 

 subjects by various sovereigns, most of them 

 were the property of the Crown, and it is 

 stated by the learned editor of the Select 

 Pleas of the Forest that, with the exception 

 of the Warren of Staines, ' there was certainly 

 no forest in Middlesex in the thirteenth, and 

 probably none in the twelfth century.' M 



There were numerous manors in Middle- 

 sex 23 there were as many as six manors in 

 the parish of Edmonton "* and the same num- 

 ber in that of Enfield M which during this 

 period must have been well stocked with game. 

 The lords of several of these manors enjoyed 

 the right of free warren, the grant of which 

 prohibited any person from entering the lands 

 of the grantee, or hunting or taking any beasts 

 or fowls of warren, ' without his licence or 

 will,' though it did not entitle him to prevent 

 other people from entering his warren in pur- 

 suit of deer. 88 It is curious to find among 

 grants of this description the right conveyed 

 by which was not appurtenant to the land, 

 and was usually limited by the king to the 

 demesne lands of his subjects 27 one made by 

 Edward I in 1291 'to Richard Bishop of 

 London and his successors of free warren in 



fourteenth century owing to a decision in the Court 

 of King's Bench, 1 3 Edw. Ill, which decided that 

 it was a beast of warren on the ground that it 

 drove away the other deer (Select Pleas, xxi). 

 " Select Pleas, ix. 



* Ibid. viii. 



" At Acton (two), Ealing, Edgware, Stanmore, 

 Willejden, Neasden, Harlesden, East Twyford, 

 Hanworth, Hampton, Twickenham, Uxbridge, 

 .Cowley, Ickenham, Ruislip, Staines, ' Halewyke,' 

 Newington, Stepney, Hackney, Kempton, &c. 

 Some of these are mentioned in Domesday Book. 



" Lysons, Environ! of London, 209. 



* Ibid, and Ford, Hut. of Enfield, 70, 71, 92, 

 93. A conreyance of the manor of Worcester* 

 in Enfield Parish (executed 4 July 1616) to Sir 

 Nicholas Raynton shows that this manor contained 

 ' ye piece of land called ye Warren and ye close or 

 park called Little Park.' 



M Select Pleat of the Foreit, cxxiii, and cf. czxviii 

 and cxxix. 

 " Ibid. cxxv. 



all his lands of Stebenhythe (Stepney) and Hack- 

 ney.'* Another made by Henry III on 

 22 March 1245 to Hamo Papelowe confers 

 a similar right with respect to ' the demesne 

 lands of the manors of Barve (Barren) in 

 Suffolk and Newton (Stoke Newington} in Mid- 

 dlesex ' ; 2S> and after the change of ownership 

 of the latter manor a fresh grant of free warren 

 in it was made by Edward I on 10 May 

 1286 to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. 30 

 Free warren in the manor of ' Acton under 

 the wood,' the lesser of the two manors in 

 Acton parish, was granted to the dean and 

 chapter of St. Paul's by Edward II in 1316 ; 31 

 and the calendar of Charter Rolls contains 

 similar grants in the manor of EJelmeton (Ed- 

 monton) to William de Say in I245, 32 to Henry 

 de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in the manors of 

 Eggeware (Edgware} Cow eh (Cow ley] in I2Q4; 33 

 to Bartholomew Peche in the last-named manor 

 and that of Ikenham (Ickenham} in 1252 ; 34 and 

 in the same year to the Abbot of Bee in the 

 manor of Risse/ip (Ruislip}* 6 and James de 

 Aldethelly in that of ' Halewyke.'' 36 



The confirmation, on 8 June 1280, of a 

 charter of Henry III, granting to the Order 

 of St. John of Jerusalem free warren in the 

 demesne lands of the manor of Hampton 37 

 shows that the proprietary rights attaching to 

 it remained unaffected by the disafforest- 

 ing of the Warren of Staines. In the early 

 part of the sixteenth century it was acquired 

 by Cardinal Wolsey, who, after the completion 

 of Hampton Court Palace, hunted there with 

 Henry VIII ; 38 and after the king had taken 

 possession of it this part of the warren became 

 a royal hunting preserve. 



The manor, the boundaries of which were 

 conterminous with those of the parish, was 

 about 3,000 acres in extent, and originally 

 consisted of the Home Park, lying to the east, 

 and Bushey Park, lying to the north of the 

 Kingston Road. 39 



Henry VIII, who was devoted to shooting, 

 Hawking, and all other kinds of sport, caused 

 these two parks to be well stocked with deer 

 and other game, and subdivided Bushey Park 

 by brick walls into three equal divisions the 



19 9 Edw. I, Cal. Chart. R. ii, 383. 

 "27 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 282. 

 30 14 Edw. I, CaL Chart. R. ii, 337. 

 " Chart. R. 9 Edw. II, no. 31; cf. Lysons, En- 

 virons of London, 3. 



M 22 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 282. 

 22 Edw. I, Cal. Chart. R. ii, 436. 

 "37 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 409. 

 " Ibid. 3 Ibid. 



17 34 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. ii, 6. 

 58 Law, Hiit. of Hampton Court, i, 91. 

 Ibid. 4, 5 



255 



