THE FOREST OF WINDSOR 297 



created honor was dechased, and the deer removed to 

 Windsor forest. 



Of Queen Mary it is stated that on the Tuesday after her 

 marriage, when she was at Windsor, a novel method of ' ' sport" 

 was introduced. Toils were raised in the forest four miles in 

 length, when a great number of deer, driven therein by 

 the hounds and huntsmen, were slaughtered. 



Elizabeth was much more of a sportswoman than her sister. 

 Under the guidance of her favourite, Sir Henry Neville, the 

 queen frequently hunted in this forest. She remained keenly 

 attached to this royal sport to the end of her days. In January, 

 1699, Elizabeth wrote to Neville instructing him to give orders 

 for restraint of killing game and deer in Mote and Sunninghill 

 parks in Windsor forest during his absence as resident am- 

 bassador in France. As late as 1602 she shot "a great and 

 fat stag " at Windsor with her own hand, which was sent as 

 a present to Archbishop Parker. 



The chief matter pertaining to Windsor forest under James I. 

 was the elaborate and careful survey drawn up by John Norden, 

 which was finished in 1607. There is a good abstract of this 

 survey, with a reproduction of that part of his map (at the 

 British Museum) relative to the Great Park, in Mr. Menzies' 

 fine work on that part of the forest. Norden thus defines the 

 limits of the forest: "This forest lyeth in Berkshire, Oxford- 

 shire, Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex. The Tamis bounds 

 it north, the Loddon weste, Brodforde river and Guldowne 

 south, and the Waye river east." The Great Park had then 

 a circumference of loj miles, and contained 3,650 acres within 

 the counties of Berks and Surrey, whilst his estimate of 

 the extent of the open forest was 24,000 acres. 



James raised the wrath of the residents by attempting, soon 

 after his coming to England, to close the Little Park and 

 Cranborne Chase against all comers; but "the squires and 

 better sort," says Dixon, in Royal Windsor, "made private 

 keys and entered like gentlemen of the highest quality ; the 

 locks were exchanged, and they broke the fences with as little 

 scruple as the tramps." 



Charles I. hunted here frequently at the beginning of his 

 reign. In 1632 Noy, the king's attorney-general, styled by 

 Carlyle "that invincible heap of learned rubbish," revived 



