FORESTRY 



^o and 50 acres. The usual number of deer kept in this park for a long time averaged about a 

 hundred, but they have much increased during the last few years; they now (January 191 3) 

 number about 200. There have been planted on the Knebworth estate within the last eleven 

 years 8^ acres of poor meadow land and 13 J acres of very poor stiff clay arable land. The 

 trees planted were mostly oak, ash, Scotch fir, larch, spruce and Spanish chestnut.^' This 

 park, which is well timbered and undulating, is not marked on the older surveys of Norden and 

 Saxton, but Chauncy (1700) describes this seat as ' a large pile of brick with a fair quadrangle 

 in the middle of it, upon a dry hill in a fair park, stocked with the best deer in the county, 

 excellent timber and well wooded, and from whence you may behold a most lovely prospect to 

 the east.'^" 



Moor Park (Lord Ebury), in the parish of Rickmansworth, was imparked as early as the 

 reign of Henry VI,'^ and apparently enlarged by Cardinal Wolsey,''^ but the present inclosed 

 area of 473 acres dates from the time of Charles II. It is stocked with about 150 fallow deer, 

 and is heavily timbered, more particularly with a large number of very old oaks. The large 

 hme tree engraved in Strutt's Sylva Britannica (1826) was blown down during a heavy gale in 

 January i860.'' 



Rickmansworth Park (Mrs. Birch), to the north of the town, includes 200 acres, and is 

 stocked with fifty fallow deer. It contains various fine old trees. In a deed of sale of the 

 Fotherley family, dated 7 December 1685, various closes of this estate are stated to be ' now 

 impalled in and lately made a parke.' ^* 



Tring Park (Lord Rothschild) incloses over 225 acres, and is stocked with about eighty 

 head of fallow deer, as well as with kangaroos, emus and rheas. The park stands on high 

 and undulating grounds, and is surrounded by woods which are chiefly of beech. 



Woodhall Park (Mr. Abel Henry Smith), in the parish of Watton-at-Stone, incloses an area 

 of 428 acres, including the mansion, gardens and home farm ; it is stocked with 150 fallow 

 deer. It is nobly timbered with forest trees, as well as with firs and cedars. There was a park 

 here in EHzabeth's days, as shown in Saxton's survey. The present park was much enlarged 

 and improved at the end of the 1 8th century. 



Of the parks that have disappeared or lost their deer the most famous is that of Theobalds, 

 which lay to the north-east of Enfield Chase. Much has been already said elsewhere of this 

 favourite hunting seat of James I, which need not be here restated.'' The present much reduced 

 park of Theobalds (Sir Hedworth Meux) incloses about 200 acres. 



Panshanger Park (Lady Cowper), in Hertingfordbury parish, the most important of the 

 deerless parks, was inclosed by the fifth Earl Cowper in 1801, when the former family mansion 

 at Cole Green was pulled down. The extensive park of close upon 1,000 acres, watered by the 

 River Mimram, includes much splendid timber. To the west of the house stands that singularly 

 grand old tree known as the Panshanger Oak. By a measurement taken in 1719 this tree was 

 found to contain 315 cubic ft. of timber, and Arthur Young in 1804 gave its girth as 17 ft. 

 at a height of 5 ft. from the ground. A further measurement taken in 1805 showed the 

 marvellous vigour of the tree, for it then contained 796 cubic ft., but this second detailed 

 measurement included those branches which were sufficiently large to be considered timber.'" 

 Gilbert White, in his Natural History of Selborne, named this tree as ' probably the finest and 

 most stately oak now growing in the south-east of England.' It has now a girth of 21 ft. 

 4 in. at a height of 6 ft. above the ground. 



HameUs Park, in Braughing parish, covers about 200 acres ; it is well timbered in parts, 

 and contains some ancient oaks, hornbeams and thorns. The stock of deer died out about 1850. 



Tyttenhanger, south of Hatfield, was formerly a deer park of the Abbots of St. Albans ; it 

 was disparked at the dissolution of the monasteries. 



At Berkhampstead there was an ancient royal deer park attached to the castle, which is 

 mentioned as early as the reign of Edward I and on various subsequent occasions.'^ A small 

 portion of the original park of the castle is now attached to Berkhampstead Place. 



The ancient deer park at King's Langley was probably formed'^ in the 13th century. 

 According to a survey of 1556 it contained a little less than 700 acres. The actual area of 

 Langley Bury Park is now about 220 acres. 



The largest of the more modern parks are those of Albury, 500 acres, and Aldenham, 400 

 acres. 



2' From information kindly communicated by Mr. J. Milne, the estate agent. 



'» Chauncy, op. cit. 356. '^ r.C.H. Herts, n, 375. '^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, vi, 426. 



" Cussans, op. cit. Cashio Hund. 129. '* Ibid. 145. " V.C.H. Herts, i, 346-8. 



'8 Clutterbuck, Herts, ii, 193. " Cobb, Hist, of Berkhampstead (1883), 18, 22, 28. 



^ V.C.H. Herts, ii, 237. 



279 



