Ch. III. 



ESSEX, 



11 



Godmerskam Park. — The total extent is 

 696 acres; 560 acres open to the deer; 

 imparked in the years 1743-3. There is a 

 herd of 500 fallow-deer, which are said to 

 have come from the Grange in Hamp- 

 shire, but before that place was per- 

 manently disparked. 



The Mote Park. — It is uncertain when 

 this park was first enclosed. It contains 

 480 acres, of which number 140 are free 

 of tithe, in consequence (as it is said) of 

 that being the original deer park. The 

 deer have been reduced from 600 to 400, 

 and now to but 86, aU fallow-deer. 



Hall Place Park, in the parish of Leigh. 

 This park contains about 150 acres, with 

 a herd of about 80 fallow-deer. 



Boughton Park. — A very small park, 

 containing but very few deer. 



I. 

 2. 



3- 

 4- 



S- 

 6. 



7- 

 8. 



9- 



10. 

 II. 

 12. 



13- 

 14. 



Existing Deer Parks in Kent. 

 Greenwich . The Queen. 

 Knole . . The Countess de la 



Warre. 

 COBHAM . . TheEarlofDarnley. 

 LULLINGSTONE Sir Perceval Hart 



Dyke, Bart. 

 Eastwell . The Earl of Win- 



chilsea. 

 Surrenden-Dering, Sir Edward 



Dering, Bart. 

 Mereworth . Viscount Falmouth. 

 Chilham . Mr. Hardy. 



Mersham-Hatch, Sir Norton 



KnatchbuU, Bart. 

 Waldershare The Earl of Guilford, 

 GODMERSHAM . Mr. Knight. 

 The Mote . Earl of Romney. 

 Hall-Place . Mr. Baily. 

 Boughton . Mr. Rider. 



ESSEX. 



That Essex 'is full of Parks,' was re- 

 marked by Norden in his Survey of that 

 county in the year 1594, and a glance at the 

 map will prove that this observation was 

 well founded, no less than forty-five being 

 marked by him, and forty-four in Saxton's 

 map dated in 1576. The county was in- 

 deed completely studded with parks in the 

 Elizabethan period ; the number has been 

 gradually reduced, there being at present, 

 I believe, but eleven deer parks in Essex, 

 the sole representatives of that great hunt- 

 ing field or forest which we are told ' in 

 ancient times comprehended almost the 

 whole of the county, an area greatly re- 

 duced by a charter or grant of King John, 



dated the 25th of March, in the fifth year 

 of his reign, and again by a perambu- 

 lation made in the twenty-ninth of Ed- 

 ward I. in pursuance of the Charta de 

 ForestH. 



But one park in Essex is noticed in 

 Domesday, that belonging to Suein, in the 

 Hundred of Rochefort. A park is marked 

 at ' Rocheford' both by Saxton and Norden 

 in the reign of Elizabeth. The principal 

 Royal parks in this county were those in 

 the parish of Great Waltham, called 

 ' Pleshey and Apchild,' and at Havering, 

 called Havering atte Bower, an ancient 

 and favourite seat of Royalty. But the 

 Patent Rolls abounding with licenses to 



See the 15th Report of the Commissioners on the Woods and Forests, anno 1793. 



