68 



BEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. III. 



according to SpeecJ, fourteen parks; of 

 these Bridge and Mayfield have heen 

 already noticed. Adjoining to Ashdown 

 Forest, sometimes called Lancaster Great 

 Park, were Bolbrook and Stonland'Paxks, ; 

 also Buckhurst, the ancient seat of the 

 now extinct family of Sackville, and now 

 the inheritance of their descendant, the 

 Earl de la Warr. Buckhurst Park appears 

 to have been enclosed by Andrew de 

 Sackville in the 29th year of Edward I.' 



Lancaster Great Park was so called 

 from having been enlarged by John of 

 Gaunt Duke of Lancaster; though it is 

 naentioned as a park in the reign of Ed- 

 ward II., who occasionally resided here. 

 On a rising ground, the ' King's standing' 

 is still pointed out; where, according to 

 the well-known custom of the chase, the 

 game, was driven before him. According 

 to the'Parhamentary survey made in April 

 J658, this park contained I3,g9ia. or. 37p. 

 After the Restoration, the fences, which 

 had fallen to decay, were attempted to be 

 restored; but 'by the crossness of the 

 neighbourhood,' the attempt seems to 

 have been unsuccessful. The park has 

 been long disparked, and for a time re- 

 sumed its forest character; sixty years 

 ago there was said to have been twelve or 

 fourteen hundred head of deer still left — 

 the last, a doe, was killed about the year 

 1808.-^ 



To the south of Ashdown Forest, and 

 partly enclosed within its bounds, was 

 Newnd Park. 



Further south still, parks are marked at 

 Uckfleld and Ifield; and near them a 

 cluster of five parks, of which the prin- 



' Cal. Patent Rolls, p. 62. 

 '' See the Sussex Archsological Collections, 

 vol. xiv. p. 35, for a valuable account of Ash- 



cipal was Plashet, an ancient park, noticed 

 also in Saxton's map ; a small portion of 

 the park oi Plashet was restored by Lord 

 Gage in 1825, containing 94 acres, with a 

 herd of 100 head of fallow-deer. 



Another park is marked by Speed, near 

 Haylsham, on the borders of the rape of 

 Hastings. 



But two ancient parks are given by 

 Saxton and Speed in the rape of Hastings, 

 those of Hurstmonseux and Ashburnham. 

 The park of Hurstmonseux is of great 

 antiquity, and was increased bv Royal 

 license in the first year of Henry V.' 



Ashburnham, a still existing park of 

 the noble and very ancient family of that 

 name, is in the parishes of Penhurst and 

 Catsfield, and contains an area of about 

 500 acres, with a herd of 200 fallow-deer, 

 with a small herd of red-deer. 



.* 



List of existing Deer Parks in the County 

 of Sussex. 



1. Eridge 



2. Arundel . 



3. Ashburnham . 



4. Petworth 



5. Up-park . 



6. Parham . 



7. WiSTON 



8. COWDRAY . 



9. West-Grinsted 



10. cuckfield 



11. Den . 



12. Plashet . 



Earl of Aberga- 

 venny. 



Duke of Norfolk. 



Earl of Ashburn- 

 ham. 



Lord Leconfield. 



Lady Fetherstone. 



Lady de la Zouche. 



Rev. J. Goring. 



Earl of Egmont. 



Sir Percy Burrell, 

 Bart. 



Colonel Sergison. 



Mr. Eversfield. 



Lord Gage. 



down Forest by the Rev. Ed. Turner. 

 ° Cal. Patent Rolls, p. 262. 



