CHAPTER I. 



' And I will that every man be entitled to his hunting, in wood and in field, on his own 

 possession ; And let everyone forego my hunting : take notice where I will have it 

 untrespassed oh, under penalty of the full wite.' — Laws of King Cnut. 



S parks, ot' enclosed grounds for the preservation of deer, are 

 incidentally mentioned in the general survey of Domesday 

 undertaken soon after the Norman conquest of England, we 

 may, I think, conclude that they were not unknown here 

 before that period ; though we have (for the most part) no earlier means to 

 distinguish them from the forests, woods, and hunting-grounds, which 

 covered so large a portion of our island in pre-Norman times. And in 

 confirmation of this view I would refer to Mr. Thorpe's ' Diplomatarium 

 Anglicum .^vi Saxonici, a Collection of English Charters from the Reign 

 of King iEthelberht of Kent A.D. DCV. to that of William the Con- 

 queror.' Among the wills is that of Thurstin, of which the supposed date is 

 1045. He bequeaths to his ' Chnites, or pages, the wood at Ongar (in 

 Essex) except the deer-hay or deer-park " Derhaye" and the stud which I 



