FORESTRY 



was in Eltham and Lee, 336 acres. The deer of all three parks had been destroyed by the 

 soldiers and common people during the preceding summer, and much of the park palings 

 broken down and destroyed. In the first two of these parks, the Commonwealth surveyors 

 marked 2,200 of the best trees to be reserved for the navy ; the trees left standing numbered 

 1,386, and were valued at £sS6. In Home Park, where most of the 2,620 trees were old and 

 worn out, none were marked for the navy ; their value was estimated at -^917. The whole 

 estate must have been splendidly wooded, for 3,700 trees on the Eltham demesnes were marked 

 for the navy in addition to those in the parks. * 



Evil befel the timber of Eltham during the Commonwealth period, apart from that felled 

 for navy purposes. Mr. Shirley cites from a book, published in 1660, called The Mysteries 

 of the Good Old Cause, to the effect that ' Sir Thomas Walsingham had the Honour of Eltham 

 given him, which was the Earl of Dorset's, and the Middle Park which was Mr. White's ; 

 he has cut down ;f5,ooo worth of timber, and hath scarcely left a tree to make a gibbet.' - 



Greenwich had from early days been a royal residence, but there is no record of a park 

 here until 1433, when Henry VI licensed Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, to inclose 200 

 acres of land pasture and wood at Greenwich to make a park. Within the park the duke 

 erected a tower termed Greenwich Castle, now the observatory, and a spacious residence on 

 lower ground. All this reverted to the Crown on his death in 1447.^ It became a favourite 

 residence of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth. 



Hentzner, when travelling in England in 1598, makes this mention of Greenwich : ' Near 

 this place is the Queen's Park, stocked with deer ; such parks are common throughout England, 

 belonging to those that are distinguished either for their rank or riches.' * 



James I was often resident at Greenwich, and here were born his children. His queen, 

 Anne of Denmark, took particular pleasure in Greenwich Park, and there laid the foundations 

 of the ' House of Delight,' which afterwards served as the ranger's lodge. 



When Greenwich palace was turned into a hospital for aged and disabled seamen in 

 1694, the park was disjoined from the palace and still continues vested in the Crown. The 

 park was walled round by James I, and includjs 188 acres. It contains some fine timber, 

 particularly elms and Spanish chestnuts. There is a herd of about 100 fallow deer ; on Bank 

 Holidays and special occasions, when there is great public resort to the park, the deer are confined 

 to a small paddock. 



The chief episcopal parks of Kent were those of Otford and Aldington. The manor of 

 Otford belonged to the see of Canterbury from the close of the eighth century onwards. The 

 manor-house of Otford was a favourite residence of many of the primates, and here Archbishop 

 Winch elsey died in 131 3. There were two parks on the estate, distinguished as the Great 

 and Little, but the latter was disparked during the reign of Edward VI. The keeper of the 

 Great Park, which was 700 acres in extent, had a yearly fee of £6 3/. ^d., and the keeper of 

 the Little Park £6 is. Sd. Archbishop Cranmer exchanged Otford for other property with 

 Henry VIII. It is of the Great Park of Otford that Lambard has put a foolish tale on record 

 as to St. Thomas of Canterbury : — ' As Thomas a Becket walked on a time in the Olde Parke 

 (busie at his prayers), that he was muche hindered in devotion by the sweete note and melodic 

 of a nightingale that sang in a bushe beside him, and that therefore (in the might of his holy- 

 nesse) he injoined that from henceforth no byrde of that kynde shoulde be so bolde as to sing 

 thereaboutes.' * 



The vast manor of Aldington, by far the largest in the county and lying chiefly within 

 the forest or Weald, was also one of the earliest endowments of the see of Canterbury. Here 

 the primate had a great park adjoining the manor-house. The Hundred Rolls of 1275, among 

 a list of many irregularities, show that Master Richard de Clifford, the escheator, sold wood 

 in the Archbishop's park at Aldington, at the time of the vacancy of the see of Canterbury, 

 to the value of 66s., and took twenty deer and more in the same park.^ This estate was also 

 alienated by Archbishop Cranmer to Henry VIII, who coveted every possible hunting ground 

 within reasonable reach of London. 



There are several brief records as to the inclosing of parks in the woodlands of Kent among 

 the Patent Rolls. William de Say, in 1262, gained the licence of Henry III to impark his 

 wood of Hanger within the bounds of the forest of Pembury.' 



* Pari. Surv. Aug. Off., cited in Hasted's Kent, i. 52-3. 



2 Shirley, Deer and Deer Pjrks, 70. ^ Hasted, Kent, 1. 19. 



< Lysons, Environs, i. 519. 6 Lamh:ird, Perambulation of Kent, ^j. 



* Furley, op. cit. ii. 137. ' Pat. 46 Henry III, m. 20. 



I 473 60 



