i2 4 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



deer in the forest. But perhaps the deer in Blandsby park 

 escaped reckoning. 



An inquisition was held as to the condition of the forest in 

 1562, the returns of the juries covering the period since the 

 death of Henry VIII. It was stated that since that time Sir 

 Richard Cholmley had felled eighty oak trees in Goathland, 

 and much in other parts of the forest to his own use, and that 

 he had used much timber in the making of his house at 

 Roxby ; that Sir Richard had taken down fourteen loads of 

 the best dressed stones out of the chief tower and other parts 

 of Pickering castle to build his gallery at Roxby, the castle 

 being in ruin and decay ; that the red deer were viewed to be 

 264, whereof 54 were male deer ; and that the fallow deer in 

 Blandsby park and woods adjoining were 600, whereof 77 were 

 male. 



In 1591, the killing of any deer, red or fallow, within 

 Pickering forest, was prohibited for three years, as the stock 

 was getting greatly diminished. 



A survey of the woods taken early in 1608 mentions that 

 the wall of stone round Blandsby park was greatly decayed 

 in many places, and that there were then about 100 deer in it. 



The elaborate survey taken in 1619-21 by John Norden, 

 sworn to by forty-one jurors, gives full particulars as to 

 bounds, woods, wastes, encroachments, and general manorial 

 details. Norden complains that " the tenantes about Pickeringe 

 are so unrulie, as they make their owne pervers wills a 

 law." In connection with the "spoylers of woode," mention 

 is made of oak, ash, alder, and maple. There were no keepers' 

 lodges in any part of the forest save in Blandsby park, where 

 there were two. 



' ' The foreste game shoulde be redd deere, but few lefte within the 

 foreste, and they that are raunge into confininge woodes of S r 

 Thomas Posthumus Huby, having litle or noe covert els within the 

 foreste, but Newton Dale onlie, where they are often disturbed with 

 stealers of woode, so that it is manifest that for everye redd deare in 

 the forest there are 5000 sheepe. The parke is replenishte with 

 fallow deere, but being unstaunchte (unsatisfied) they raunge over 

 all the adjacent feildes." 



A detailed survey of the honor and its members was also 



