Ch. III. 



ESSEX. 



77 



John Gates by King Edward VI." In the 

 same parish of Great Waltham, besides 

 the existing park of Langleys, was Ap- 

 ckild or Abfield Park, which, in 1449, 

 belonged to Queen Margaret of Anjou.'* 

 The letter which Her Majesty wrote from 

 Pleshey to the keeper of this park has 

 been already given. She also wrote from 

 Pleshey on the 30th of August in the 

 same year to the keeper of Falkborne 

 Park in this neighbourhood, desiring him 

 to preserve the game, which the owner, 

 Elizabeth Lady Say, had granted to the 

 Queen ' to have our disporte in her park 

 of Felborne.' ' 



Morant gives the following account 

 of another extensive park in this part of 

 Essex: — ' The Manor of Warners in Great 

 Waltham, soon after the death of Henry 

 Warner (who died in 1556), this estate 

 was purchased by Richard Lord Rich ; 

 that great acquirer had obtained a little 

 before, viz. in 1536, a grant of the priory 

 of Little Lees, &c.; these demesnes he con- 

 verted into a park, about four miles in 

 circumference, lying partly in this parish 

 and partly in those of Little Lees and 

 Felsted. It was called Littley Parke, 

 alias Little Hay.'* This place, which has 

 been for near two centuries disparked, 

 was called by Dr. Walker in his Funeral 

 sermon on the death of Charles Rich, Earl 

 of Warwick, 'A secular Elysium, a worldly 

 paradise, a heaven upon earth ! ' 



New Hall, south of Lees, built in a park 

 by Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and 

 given by Queen Elizabeth to Thomas 

 Radcliffe Earl of Sussex, came afterwards 

 by purchase to George ViUiers Duke of 



Cough's History of Fleshy, Anno 1803, 



p. 9. 



See note, p. 20. 



Buckingham. It was visited by Evelyn in 

 1656, who remarks: — ' Above all,I admired 

 the faire avenue planted with stately lime 

 trees in 4rowes, forneare a mile in length; 

 it has three descents, which is the only 

 fault, and may be reform'd ; there is an- 

 other faire walk of y= same at the mall 

 and wildernesse, with a tennis-court: [the 

 park] was well stor'd with deer and 

 ponds.'" This park, like so many of the 

 ancient parks in this county, has been 

 long disparked; in 1691 it belonged to the 

 Duchess of Albemarle, and was then 

 ' well stored with deer.' At this period 

 also (1691) I find by a letter from Mr. 

 Abdy to Mr. Moore at Newcastle House, 

 St. James's, that he hopes the Duchess, of 

 Albemarle will give him some deer to 

 stock his new park at Falix Hall in this 

 county. 



In the north-western part of the 

 county is Audhy End, one mile fi'om 

 Saffron Walden, ' a nobly well-wall'd, 

 wooded, and watered park,' wrote Evelyn 

 in 1654; the present park contains about 

 143 acres, with a herd of 300 fallow-deer. 

 Near Audley End is Shortgrove, where 

 a park was enclosed in April 1835, con- 

 taining 100 acres and 150 fallow-deer. 

 To the north again, is Chesterford Park. 

 ' The house was built, or begun,' says 

 Morant, 'by William Marquis of Berkeley, 

 the then lord of the manor, who died in 

 1 49 1, a mile northward from the Town, in 

 the middle of a park.' It afterwards be- 

 longed to the owners of Audley End, from 

 whence Thomas Earl of Suffolk writes to 

 his son Lord Howard of Walden, May 31, 

 1623, that ' he has failed to obtain an in- 



' Letter of Queen Margaret of Anjou, Cam- 

 den Society, 1863, pp. 100, 105. 

 ■' Morant's Essex, vol. ii. p. 85. 

 ' Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 292. 



