A HISTORY OF KENT 



Edward II, in 1325, granted licence to David de Strabolgi, Earl of Athol, to impark his 

 wood called Northwood, on the manor of that name, in the hundred of Whitstable.^ 



Licence was granted hy Edward III, in 1341, after inquisition ad quod dnnnnnn, to Geoflrey 

 de Say to inclose 100 acres of land and wood in Birling, together with a path between the 

 land and wood, and to impark the whole, on condition of making elsewhere on his own soil 

 a path for the public of equal length and breadth.* 



In 1360, the same king confirmed to the Archbishop of Canterbury the concession made 

 to him by William Morunt, namely that neither William nor his heirs would ever in the future 

 make any park or warren in his demesne lands or holdings in Chevening to the prejudice of 

 the archbishop's free chase.' Leave was granted in 1 360 to Stephen Ash way to inclose ninety 

 acres of land and twenty acres of wood in ' Brokesham,' for the purpose of enlarging his 

 park.* 



The accounts of William Payne, deputy in Kent of ' Robert Henneage Esquier, Master 

 of the Kynges highness Wooddes ' for the year ending Michaelmas, 1533, show receipts 

 amounting to Cz^ 165. ^^d. resulting from wood sales in the county. Three acres of wood 

 that had a gro^^th of about sixteen years on Shotover Hill, in the manor of Eltham, much 

 spoiled by the cattle for lack of inclosing, were sold at 15J. the acre to several residents. About 

 six acres of adjoining wood of like age but not so much spoiled were sold at ijs. the acre to 

 other inhabitants of Eltham. Other damaged coppice wood on the same manor sold at 18/. 

 the acre, and one lot of seven acres, very much spoiled, at only lOs. the acre. Four beeches 

 sold in Dolldyngbery Wood, parcel of the late priory of Tonbridge, realised ^os. Certain 

 tops sold in the manor of Bayhall, remaining of the timber appointed for the building of South 

 Frith Lodge, fetched 13/. ^d- ; the tops of timber felled for repairing the king's mill at Tonge 

 brought in 4^., and five acres of wood sold at another time produced over ^4. The outgoings 

 were inconsiderable, amounting to ^^3 8/. ^d., which sufficed to cover the expenses of Payne 

 with two horses during his various journeys to Eltham and elsewhere in the county when 

 measuring and selling the wood.* 



William Lambard, writing in Elizabethan days of the Weald, considered that this district 

 ' was a great while together in manner nothing else but a Desert, and waste Wildernesse, 

 not planted with Townes, or peopled with men, as the outsides of the shyre were, but stoared 

 and stuffed with hearded Deare and droves of Hogs only.' ^ 



' Parkes of fallow Deere, and games of gray Conyes, it (Kent) maynteineth many, the 

 one for pleasure, and the other for profit, as it may wel appeare by this, that within memoire 

 almost the one halfe of the first sorte be disparked, and the number of warreyns continueth, 

 if it do not increase dayly. As for red Deere and blacke Conyes, it nourisheth them not, as 

 having no great walkes of waste grounds for the one, and not tarying the tyme to raysethe 

 gaine by the other ; for blacke conyes are kept partly for their skins, which have their season 

 in Winter : and Kent by the nearnesse to London hath so quick market of yong Rabbets, that 

 it killeth this game chiefly in Summer.' ' 



In Lambard's list of parks, drawn up in 1571, eighteen are set down that had been already 

 disparked, namely those of Panthyrst, Brasted, Henden, Hever, Broxam, Wrotham, Ightham, 

 Cage, Postern, Sutton, Langley, Allington, Mereworth, Lye, Folkestone, Stonehyrst, and 

 two at Oxenhoath. The parks still existing in Lambard's time were Knole, Groombridge, 

 Penshurst, Cooling, Birling, Cobham, Greenwich, Ashoure, Southpark, Lullingstone, Calehill, 

 Leeds, St. Augustine's, Bedgebury, Westenhanger, Halden, Hamswell, Hungershall, Shorling, 

 Stowting, Postling, Ashford, Sissinghurst, Glassenbury, three at Eltham, three at South 

 and North Frith, in the south-west corner of the county, and two at Otford, in all thirty- 

 two.* 



Only three of the many deer parks enumerated by Lambard now survive, namely those 

 of Knole, Cobham, and Lullingstone. 



In Hasted's famous history of the county, published in 1778, some attention is paid to 

 the general question of the trees and woodlands. As to orchards of apples, pears, plums, and 

 cherries, they are stated to be in great number everywhere — ' but not so much as formerly, 

 especially of the latter, many of them having been destroyed of late, and converted into hop 

 grounds.' Plantations of apples and filberts were specially abundant in the neighbourhood 



» Pat. 18 Edw. II, pt. ii. m. 14. » Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i. m. 11. 



' Pat. 33 Edw. Ill, pt. iii. m. 9. * Pat. 41 Edw. Ill, pt. i. m. 19. 



* Exch. Accts. K.R. bdle. 149, No. 16. « Lambard, op. cit. (1576) i68. 



' Lambard, op. cit. 9. * Ibid. 48-9. 



474 



