Ch. L since the NORMAN CONQUEST. 21 



certiffie us of their names : and that ye faill not herof^ as ye will, eschew 

 our displeasure, at yo"^ perill, and upoa forfeiture of the kepyng^ of o'" said 

 park. 



'Yeven at Plasshe,,' the xxviii day. of Auguste, the yere etc. xxvii 



[1449-]' ' 



' By the Queue.' ' To my lords sqiiier and ours, J. D. Keper of Shene 

 Farke," or his Depute there.' 



'■Trusty arid welbeloved. For as moche as we suppose that in short 

 tyme, we shall come righte negh unto my lords menoir of Shene, we desire 

 and praye you hartly that ye will kepe against our resortinge thedor, for 

 oure disporte and recreation, two or iii of the grettest bukkes in my lord's 

 pare there, saving' alweyes niy'lord's owne commandment there in presence. 

 As we trust etc.'^ 



To a date a little subsequent to that of the preceding letters, the latter 

 part, namely, of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth, 

 we may, I think, ascribe the erection of ' Lodges,' built for the purposes of 

 hunting and retirement, in uncultivated and romantic chases and parks at 

 some distance from the castles and manor houses of the noble and knightly 

 owners — quiet seats, where the lord might indulge his silvan tastes free 

 from the cares of his household and retainers. 



Leland in his Itinerary, the earliest, and I had almost said most 

 agreeable, of English Topographers, constantly mentions the 'pratie loggis' 

 which adorned the parks of his day. Of these the, well-known inscription 

 at Wortley, in Yorkshire, preserves ' a pleasant record, which speaks much 

 to thfe imagination,'* and of which Hunter, in his ' Hallamshire,' has given us 

 the following account : — 



' WharncHfife is five miles from the Toavh of Sheffield tothe north, it is 



*■ Plasslie, Pleshey, the ancient seat" of the ' ' Letters of Queen'Margaret of Anjou,- printed 



Bohuns Earls of Essex, and afterwards of Thomas by the Camden Society in 1863, pp. 100 — 137. 



of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester, in Essex. * Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvii. (1820). 



' Shene Park, i. c. Richmond, in Surrey, 



