296 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



companions was made bailiff of Finchampstead, within the 

 forest, which was then well supplied with red deer. Business 

 was by him usually sacrificed to pleasure. At the end of 

 July, 1526, Fitzwilliam writes from Guildford : "I received 

 a packet of letters addressed to the king, which I took to His 

 Majesty immediately ; but as he was going out to have a shot 

 at a stag, he asked me to keep them until the evening." 



In August, 1528, Sir Thomas Heneage, in a letter to 

 Wolsey, from Easthampstead, said that the king on the 

 previous day had taken great pains with his hunting, from nine 

 in the morning till seven at night, but only obtained one deer 

 the greatest red deer killed by him or any of his hunters that 

 year which he sent as a present to the Cardinal. Fitzwilliam, 

 writing to Cromwell in August, 1534, having arrived that 

 night at the Great Park, mentioned that he was in much 

 comfort, as his keepers promised that the king should have 

 great sport, and asked Cromwell to bring his greyhounds 

 with him when he came to either Chertsey or Guildford. In 

 January of the following year, Lord Sandys writes to Crom- 

 well, in sore dread of the king's wrath, for young Trapnell 

 had killed twenty of the king's deer on the borders of Windsor 

 forest. 



Towards the end of his reign, Henry VIII. made the last 

 royal attempt to afforest a new district. But even his tyranni- 

 cal disposition was restrained by statute, for he could afforest 

 no man's estate against his will, and he therefore had to make 

 private arrangements with owners to effect his purpose. 

 When he was established at Hampton Court, the king desired 

 to have a nearer hunting-ground than that adjoining Windsor 

 or Guildford, and therefore he resolved to make forest, if 

 possible, of all the country between Hampton and his new 

 palace of Nonsuch, near Epsom. Partly by new statute and 

 partly by his own headstrong will, he effected most of his 

 purpose. In 1539 he conferred on the district forest rights 

 and privileges, and called it the Honor of Hampton Court. 

 In the following year he obtained from Parliament two Acts, 

 the one " for the uniting of divers lordships and manors to the 

 castle of Windsor," and the other "for the uniting of the 

 manor of Nonsuch and divers other manors to the Honor of 

 Hampton Court." But shortly after Henry's death this newly 



