RECENTLY EXTINCT HERDS. 99 



same "for King James. "On the 21st March, 1627, 

 King Charles I., by letters patent, conveyed to Sir 

 Christopher Nevil, K.B., and Sir Edmund Sawyer, their 

 heirs and assigns, for ever, in consideration of the sum 

 of 4,300/., all that park called Ewelme Park, containing 

 895 acres, which was part of the manor of Ewelme ; 

 also six acres, four of which were in a place called 

 Haseley, and two in a place called Ellesmere, the Keeper 

 of the Park having heretofore been accustomed to save 

 the hay thereof for the deer and wild beasts in the said 

 park, to be held subject to a rent of 60/. per annum. 

 Ewelme Park was probably disparked at this period." * 

 Mr. Shirley, a great authority on such questions, agrees 

 with me in considering it certain that, whether or no 

 on the two first occasions named above, " wild beasts " 

 meant deer alone or included wild cattle also, in the last 

 mention of them as " deer and wild beasts " wild cattle 

 alone were intended to be meant : they alone, besides 

 deer, of any animals which could be called " wild beasts," 

 requiring hay, and that being the technical name by 

 which they were designated in other parks at the same 

 period. It is remarkable that this conveyance was made 

 exactly two years after the death of King James I., 

 so that these wild cattle must have been here in his 

 lifetime, and may have been introduced by him, as they 

 almost certainly were into his park at Holdenby. 



Another wild herd, supposed to have been an ancient 

 one, existed formerly in the park of Leigh Court, in 

 Somersetshire, close to Bristol, and now the residence 

 of Sir William Miles, Bart. It was purchased by his 



* Shirley's "Deer Parks, chap, vi., p. 137; quoting the Hon. and Rev. 

 Alfred Napier's " Historical Notices of Swyncombe and Ewelme," 4to, 

 Oxford, 1858. 



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