98 



DEER AND- DEER PARKS. 



Ch. IV. 



Hinton St. George, are both noticed by 

 Leland ; the latter, he remarks, had been 

 lately made by Sir Hugh Paulet, ' not far 

 from his House in the side of an hylle.' 

 In 1583 it is described as two miles in 

 circuit. It is thus noticed by Cosmo 

 III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, in his 

 curious travels in England, in the reign 

 of Charles II. (1669)' : — 'Round the house 

 is the park, three miles in circumference, 

 surrounded by a thick row of trees, be- 

 tween each of which is a terrace of turf ; 

 and where the trees begin to shoot out 

 branches ; these, intertwined together, 

 form, along with the earth of the ter- 

 races, a fence of the strongest description. 

 (He seems to be describing an English 

 hedge.) In this park are six hundred 

 deer, to which the mixture of plain, of 

 hills, of coppice-wood, and meadow land, 

 together with two plentiful springs of 

 water, which are within the same enclo- 

 sure, afford a most suitable abode. The 

 deer are of two sorts, black and red ; the 

 latter, though smaller, fatten sooner than 

 the others. They begin to' hunt them 

 early in June, and continue it for six 

 weeks ; they hunt only the fattest, driving 

 them with dogs into a corner of the park ; 

 they kill about one hundred annually. 

 In winter, when the pasture fails,' they 

 give them hay and leaves of trees, par- 

 ticularly when snow falls (although it soon 

 melts in these parts), making this observa- 

 tion, that where the moles dwell, of which 

 there is a great abundance (and on this ac- 

 count they keep strict watch to prevent them 

 spoiling the land), deer seldom resort.' 



4to. (London, 1821). 



Gough's Camden, vol. i. p. 109. 



Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. 108, fol. 79 a. 



Passing to the east of the county, 

 a large park is marked by Saxton at 

 Evercreech, where the Bishop once had 

 a park, now divided.* A little to the 

 South is Castle Carey, where was also an 

 ancient park, which also bore the name 

 of Ansford Park, from the parish in 

 which it was. Another is marked in the 

 ancient surveys on the borders of Dorset- 

 shire, near Cucklington, which perhaps 

 is identical with ' Master Carente's House 

 and Park,' which Leland left on his left 

 hand as he rode from Stourton to Staple- 

 ford (Stalbridge) in Dorsetshire.' At 

 Farley Castle, the venerable seat of the 

 Hungerfords, near Bradford, on the con- 

 fines of this county and Wiltshire, there 

 was also a park existing in 1654,* and 

 which is described in an old survey printed 

 in Sir R. C. Hoare's ' Hungerfordiana' 

 (p. loo), as 2 miles and 3 quarters in gix- 

 cuit, ' A very fayre and parkly grounde, 

 replenished with 26 deer of antler, and 

 44 of rascall.' 



I find licenses for imparking granted by 

 Edward III. in the second year of his 

 reign, to Sir Richard Dammory (D'Amori), 

 Knight, at Ubbelegh {Ubley), in the 

 north-eastern part of Somersetshire, and 

 by Henry IV., in the thirteenth year of his 

 reign, to Sir Thomas Beauchamp, Knight, 

 comprehending 250 acres in 'le Shand,' 

 in his Manor of Ashill, close to Neroche 

 forest, in the south of the county.* 



The present parks in Somersetshire are 

 Pixton, belonging to the Earl of Carnar- 

 von, near Dulverton, on the borders of 

 Devonshire, a park of about 140 acres, 



* Will of Anthony Hungerford, of Black 

 Bourton, county of Oxford, Esquire. 

 ' Cal. of Patent Rolls, pp. 103, 259, 



