A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Stoke Park. In addition to red deer, Mr. 

 W. Bryant, the owner, kindly informs me 

 that there are at present about 100 fallow 

 deer here. Whitaker (1892) stated the num- 

 ber at about 200. 



Stowe Park. In addition to red deer, it is 

 stated by Whitaker (1892) to contain about 

 eighty-six fallow deer. Lipscomb's plate of 

 this house shows deer in the park. 



Whaddon Hall. Up to 1840, deer, ap- 

 parently red as well as fallow, existed in a 

 wild state in Whaddon Chase, some 2,200 

 acres ; but now the chase is enclosed and in 

 great part cultivated, and the deer destroyed. 

 Only some fifty head of fallow deer remain in 

 the park. Evidence of the existence of the 

 Chase and of the ' venison ' contained therein, 

 as early as the reign of William Rufus is fur- 

 nished by Lipscomb. 1 



Besides the above mentioned deer parks, 

 deer were formerly living at the following 

 places, and I do not suppose this list is a com- 

 plete one. 



Bern-wood Forest. Originally the western 

 portion of the great Chiltern Forest. It 

 doubtless contained red deer as well as fallow, 

 though only the latter are actually mentioned 

 in inquisitions recorded in the chartulary of 

 Boarstall, where in 1363 and 1364 three 

 persons were severally accused that each 

 ' interfecit unam damam.' * Bernwood was 

 disforested in the reign of James I., though 

 very likely fallow deer at any rate remained 

 later at Boarstall, where another estate called 

 'The New Park' is mentioned in i654. 3 



Buhtrode Park. In Hedgerley parish, con- 

 taining about 800 acres, is mentioned by 

 Lipscomb as 'stocked with a great number 

 of deer,' and is included in Shirley's English 

 Deer Parks, published in 1 867. A print in my 

 collection, labelled ' Bulstrode, Buckingham- 

 shire,' engraved by Walker from an original 

 drawing by Corbould, published 1794, shows 

 numerous deer in the park ; three in the fore- 

 ground are drawn with unmistakable red deer 

 horns, though of course this evidence as to 

 species is quite untrustworthy. In a paper in 

 the Records of Bucts, v. 330, the late Rev. 

 Bryant Burgess stated that the last Duke of 

 Portland who lived here, apparently meaning 

 the third duke, as the fourth duke sold the pro- 

 perty in his lifetime in 1814, directed in his 



1 iii. 491, quoting Cooke's MSS., and there are 

 other references to the deer at later dates, pp. 496, 

 497. The deer here are also referred to in Memoirs 

 of the Verney Family, i. 75, 237. 



* Kennett (2nd edition), ii. 139 et seq. 



3 Lipscomb, i. 76. 



will that the fine herd of deer in the park should 

 be killed and buried. The executors faith- 

 fully carried out this direction, but the venison 

 was dug up again before it had become high. 

 If this story is true deer may have been subse- 

 quently reintroduced. 



Claydon House. In the third volume of 

 Memoirs of the ferney Family are quoted seve- 

 ral attempts of Sir Ralph Verney to purchase 

 deer for the park at Claydon. In 1657 we 

 are told that ' Sir Ralph's next project was to 

 have a deer-park.' Apparently the idea was 

 put into his head by acting as agent or am- 

 bassador for his cousin, Richard Winwood of 

 Quainton. On 28 December of that year (?) 

 (misprinted 1688), Sir Ralph induced his uncle, 

 Doctor Denton, to accompany him to the 

 Fleet prison, to bargain with Lord Monson, 

 an Irish peer, one of the regicides, for his herd 

 of deer at Grafton Regis Park, just over the 

 Northants border west of Hanslope, which 

 ' Cousin Winwood ' was anxious to buy, 

 ' where ' (as Sir Ralph wrote next day) : 



at first my Lord, having almost forgot my Uncle, 

 seemed somewhat shy, and carelesse of parting 

 with his Deere, but as soon as hee caled him to 

 minde, confessed clearly they cost him money, and 

 yeelded him neither profit, nor pleasure, and was 

 very inquisitive what his Friend would give (for 

 you were never named), and at last told him, hee 

 knew not what to aske, but intreated him . . . 

 to get as much as hee could for a Poore Prisoner. 



The negotiations begun with Lord Monson 

 in the Fleet prison for the purchase of deer 

 stretched over a considerable time. Doll 

 Smith (Dorothy Hobart, who married W. 

 Smith of Akeley, afterwards Sir William) 

 wrote (27 October 1657) of some deer offered 

 to her husband from Lord Gray's park (ap- 

 parently in Herts, somewhere near St. 

 Albans) : 



. . . but non but dows, & fawnes, and prickets & 

 prickets sisters . . . twenty shillins a peece for all 

 thees, one with another, & that he must be tyed to 

 take twenty brace of them for else they will not 

 bestow the making of a cops to take them. 



About the same time Thomas Stafford was 

 procuring deer for Sir Ralph from Mr. Dodes- 

 worth of Harrold Park in Beds, about five 

 miles north-east of Olney. 



In June 1658 (?), after an infinite amount 

 of negotiation, Lord Monson was ready to 

 accept an offer for his deer at Grafton Park ; 

 Sir Ralph intended to buy them all and then 

 to divide them with ' Cousin Winwood.' On 

 i January 1659 the latter wrote : 



Because you desire to know what price I can 



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