DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



ch. hi. 



seat of the family of Morant, adjoins 

 Chevening, and is in that parish, in the 

 liberty of the archbishop. 



In the/orty-first of Edward III. Stephen 

 Ashway obtained leave to increase his 

 park at Brokesham in this county. 



Among the Kentish parks which were 

 imparked in the sixteenth, seventeenth, 

 and eighteenth centuries, we have East- 

 well, one of the largest and perhaps most 

 remarkable of deer parks in the south of 

 England. It appears to have been im- 

 parked by Sir Thomas Finch in the reign 

 of Elizabeth. Though not marked as a 

 park in Saxton's Survey, we find it in that 

 of Speed in the beginning of the reign of 

 James I. ; and Catherine, daughter of Sir 

 Thomas Moyle of Eastwell, and widow of 

 Sir Thomas Finch, is said to have died 

 seized of the capital messuage called 

 Eastwell Place, with the garden and 

 'Park^ in 1586-7.' The present park 

 contains nearly 2,300 acres, within its 

 outer fence, which stretches for nearly 

 four miles along the high-road from Ash- 

 ford to Faversham; about 1,500 or 1,600 

 acres are open to the deer. This park ex- 

 hibits great variety of ground and abrupt 

 differences of character and soil, being in 

 some parts stiff clay, in others loams 

 upon chalk, and in others chalk downs, 

 with scarcely any soil to cover the sub- 

 stratum. This great variety of soil and 

 pasturage has an excellent effect upon the 

 deer, and insures the extraordinary quality 

 and flavour of the venison for which this 

 park is remarkable. 



Eastwell Park is also remarkable for 

 the great height of the fern, which flour- 

 ishes here in the greatest luxuriance, in a 



' CoUins's Peerage Ed. Bridges, vol. iii. 

 P- 379. 



wood of gigantic beeches, now unfortu- 

 nately much decayed, cut into eight 

 avenues, and known as ' the Star Walk.' 

 Specimens of fern have been gathered 

 measuring more than fourteen feet in 

 height. In favourable years, the fern will 

 reach to a man's shoulders on horseback, 

 completely concealing fallow-deer, which 

 can only be traced by their bounds. 

 Eastwell Park conta:ins both red and 

 fallow-deer of every variety, and is cele- 

 brated for a breed of powerful grey- 

 hounds peculiar to this park, and used 

 for catching the deer after the rutting 

 season is over, and then turning them 

 into a paddock in order to supply the 

 London market. The method of doing 

 this is described elsewhere.' 



Surrenden-Dering, supposed to be an 

 ancient park, contains 350 acres of land, 

 with a herd of 150 fallow-deer. • 



Mereworth Castle'z\s,o an ancient park, 

 though not so marked in the ancient 

 maps of the county ; a small park of from 

 90 to 100 acres, with from 80 to 100 head 

 of fallow-deer. This park was restocked 

 from Ireland about the year 1852. , 



Chilham Park, said to have been first 

 enclosed in the year 1616; it contains an 

 area of 228 acres, with a small herd of 

 from 65 to 70 fallow-deer. 



Mersham-Hatch Park, enclosed by a 

 grant from James I. in 1618; a park of 

 380 acres, with a herd of from 200 to 220 

 fallow-deer. 



Waldershare Park was enclosed in the 

 reign of Queen Anne, probably by the 

 Furnese family, the then proprietors. It 

 is a park of 500 acres without 'the Wil- 

 derness,' with a large herd of fallow-deer. 



2 Information of the Earl of Winchilsea and 

 Nottingham. 



