CHAPTER XX 

 THE FOREST OF OXFORDSHIRE 



OXFORDSHIRE from the earliest days was exceptionally 

 well wooded. The whole county was in the main wood- 

 land down to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On 

 the north of Oxford lay the chase of Woodstock, which merged 

 on the forest of Wychwood to the west ; on the north-east, 

 near Bicester, was the forest of Bernwood, a considerable 

 section of which was in this county ; on the east were the 

 adjacent forests of Shotover and Stowood ; on the south-east 

 were the wild stretches and dense backwoods of the Chilterns ; 

 whilst on the south the woods of Cumnor and Bagley com- 

 pleted the circle. It was doubtless the great preponderance 

 of hunting ground, at a comparatively short distance from 

 London, that made this shire so favourite a resort of our 

 Norman kings. Henry I., in order to secure good accommo- 

 dation when indulging in the pleasures of the chase, built 

 himself an important house at Beaumont on the north side of 

 Oxford, as well as a hunting-lodge at Woodstock. This royal 

 lodge was surrounded by a park enclosed within a stone wall 

 seven miles in circuit, and is said to have been the first 

 English park enclosed with this material. Here, according to 

 William of Malmesbury, the king established a menagerie of 

 foreign beasts. "He was extremely fond of the wonders of 

 distant countries, begging with great delight from foreign 

 kings, lions, leopards, lynxes, or camels. He had a park 

 called Woodstock wherein he used to foster favourites of this 

 kind ; he had placed there also a creature called a porcupine, 

 sent to him by William of Montpelier." 



Camden, writing in Elizabethan days, was much impressed 

 with "the great store of woods" that covered the hills of 

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