38 DRAINAGE OF HATFIELD CHASE PART I. 



to the royal domains ; but one estate after another was 

 alienated, until at length, when James I. succeeded to 

 the crown of England, there only remained the manor 

 of Hatfield, which, watery though it was, continued to 

 be dignified with the appellation of a Royal Chase. 

 There was, however, plenty of deer in the neighbour- 

 hood, for De La Pryme says that in his time they were 

 as numerous as sheep on a hill, and that family venison 

 was as abundant as mutton in a poor man's kitchen. 1 

 But the principal sport which Hatfield furnished was in 

 the waters and meres adjacent to the old timber manor- 

 house. Prince Henry, the King's eldest son, on the 

 occasion of a journey to York, rested at Hatfield on his 

 way, and had a day's sport in the Royal Chase, which is 

 curiously described by De La Pryme : " The prince and 

 his retinue all embarked themselves in almost a hundred 

 boats that were provided there ready, and having fright- 

 ened some five hundred deer out of the woods, grounds, 

 and closes adjoining, which had been drawn there the 

 night before, they all, as they were commonly wont, 

 took to the water, and this little royal navy pursuing 

 them, soon drove them into that lower part of the level, 

 called Thome Mere, and there, being up to their very 

 necks in water, their horned heads raised themselves so 

 as almost to represent a little wood. Here being en- 

 compassed about with the little fleet, some ventured 

 amongst them, and feeling such and such as were fattest, 

 they either immediately cut their throats, or else tying 

 a strong long rope to their heads, drew them to land 

 and killed them." 



Such was the last battue in the Royal Chase of Hat- 

 field; for shortly after, King James brought the subject 

 of the drainage of the tract under the notice of Cornelius 

 Yermuyden, who, on inspecting it, declared the project 

 to be quite practicable. The level of the Chase con- 



1 De La Pryme, History of the Level of Hatfk-M Clias<-.' 



