Ch. IV. 



SOMER SE T SHIRE. 



95 



sent. But neither of these surveys mark 

 a park at Mekombe, a little to the north, 

 and belonging to Sir John Horsey in 

 1583, containing deer, and two miles in 

 circuit. 



At Lulworth Castle, near the sea, there 

 was formerly also a large park, imparked 

 by Thomas Lord Howard in the second 

 year of James I., who had license to en- 

 close 1,000 acres of land in East Lulworth ; 

 the present park, if it can be so called, as 

 there are no deer, was walled in by the 

 la|e Thomas Weld, Esq., by a wall four 

 miles in circumference.' Coker, in his 

 Survey of Dorsetshire, observes of this 

 place : ' The greatest Honor that Lul- 

 worth can boast of, is giving entertain- 



ment to the King as often as he cometh 

 the western Progresse ; who chose to it to 

 disport himselfe in the parke, as alsoe in 

 Island of Purbeck near adjoining." In 

 iS^S) eighteen enclosures were considered 

 as parks, though all had not deer in 

 them, within the county of Dorset. 



Existing Deer Parks in Dorsetshire. 



1. Stock . . .Mr. Yeatman. 



2. Melbury . . Earl of Ilchester. 



3. Sherborne . Mr. Wingfield Digby. 



4. Bryanstone . Lord Portman. 



5. Charborough, Mr. Grosvenor Erie 



Drax. 



SOMERSE T SHI RE. 



A PERAMBULATION of the forest of Sel- 

 wood, on the eastern frontier of this 

 county, which was made in the year 

 1298, makes mention of the parks of 

 Withmn^ and Forshefe, both probably 

 royal parks ; in the former was ' The 

 King's Hall.'* This park appears to be 

 identical with that which is marked in 

 Saxton's Survey of 1573 as 'The Charter- 

 House.' There was also a royal park at 

 Keynsham, near Bristol, ' walled with 

 stone,' mentioned by Leland in his ' Itine- 

 rary.' ^ Passing from the royal to the 



' Hutchins' Hist of Dorset, new ed. vol. i. 



P- 375- 



^ Coker's Survey of Dorset, p. 41. 



' In the 35th of Henry III. Robert de Mus- 

 segros obtained leave to impark certain lands 



domestic parks, we find seven parks said 

 to be appendant to the Abbey of Glaston- 

 bury ; of these the largest was Northwood, 

 which, at the period of the Dissolution, 

 ' contained in circuit four miles, the pales 

 well repaired, the herbage very good and 

 sweet, wherein are 800 deer, whereof there 

 are of deer of anfler 160, deer of " rascall " 

 640. Within this park there are 172 acres 

 of wood of the age of 20 years, and here- 

 tofore have always been used to be felled 

 and sold every 16 years, every acre 

 thereof at this present survey worth los. 



near his Park of Beyweham, within the bounds 

 of the Forest of Selwood. 



* Phelp's History of Somersetshire, 

 vol. i. p. 147. 



' Vol. vii. p. 104. 



1839, 



