CHAPTER X. 



BEASTES. 



[THIS Chapter, with the three which follow it, on " Fishes," " Birds," and " Reptils and Insects," 

 constitute a principal branch of the work. On these topics Aubrey was assisted by his friend Sir James 

 Long, of Draycot, Bart,, whose letters to him are inserted in the original manuscript. Besides the 

 passages here given, the chapter on " Beastes " comprises some extracts from Dame Juliana Berners' 

 famous " Treaty se on Ilawkynge, Hunting, and Fisshynge " (1481) ; together with a minute account 

 of a sculptured representation of hunting the wild boar, over a Norman doorway at Little Langford 

 Church. This bas-relief is engraved in Hoare's Modem Wiltshire. J. B.] 



I WILL first begin with beastes of venerie, whereof there hath been great plenty in this countie, 

 and as good as any hi England. Mr. J. Speed, who wrote the description of Wiltshire, anno 

 Domini [1611], reckons nine forests, one chace, and twenty-nine parkes. 



This whole island was anciently one great forest. A stagge might have raunged from Bradon 

 Forest to the New Forest ; sc. from forest to forest, and not above four or five miles intervall (sc. 

 from Bradon Forest to Grettenham and Clockwoods ; thence to the forest by Boughwood-parke, by 

 Calne and Pewsham Forest, Blackmore Forest, Gillingham Forest, Cranbourn Chase, Holt Forest, to 

 the New Forest.) Most of those forests were given away by King James the First. Pewsham Forest 

 was given to the Duke of Buckingham, who gave it, I thinke, to his brother, the Earle of Anglesey. 

 Upon the disafforesting of it, the poor people made this rhythme : 



" \Vhen Chipnam stood in Pewsham 's wood, 



Before it was destroy'd, 



A cow might have gone for a groat a yeare 

 But now it ia denyed." 



The metre is lamentable ; but the cry of the poor was more lamentable. I knew severall that did 

 remember the going of a cowe for 4 d . per annum. The order was, how many they could whiter they 

 might summer : and pigges did cost nothing the going. Now the highwayes are encombred with 

 cottages, and the travellers with the beggars that dwell in them. 



The deer of the forest of Groveley were the largest of fallow deer hi England, but some doe 

 affirm the deer of Cranborne Chase to be larger than Groveley. Quaere Mr. Francis Wroughton of 

 Wilton concerning the weight of the deer ; as also Jack Harris, now keeper of Bere Forest, can tell 

 the weight of the best deere of Verneditch and Groveley : he uses to come to the inne at Sutton. 

 Verneditch is in the parish of Broad Chalke. 'Tis agreed that Groveley deer were generally the 

 heaviest; but there was one, a buck, killed at Verneditch about an . 165-, that out-weighed Groveley 



