lOO 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. IV. 



George Duke of Clarence, with a park of 

 200 acres at Collingbourne.' ' The castell 

 stoode in a parke, now clene down,' says 

 Leland in his ' Itinerary,' ' written in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. In 1583, Lu;-gats- 

 hall belonged to Lady Bridges, and was 

 two miles in circuit. In the immediate 

 neighbourhood is Everleigh, where a park 

 once also existed, as appears by a return 

 of parks granted by lease within the 

 Duchy of Lancaster.' Still more to the 

 north is Savernake Forest and Park, in 

 the neighbourhood of which were two 

 other ancient parks, Tottenham and Sud- 

 den, which in 1583 were the inheritance 

 of the Earl of Hertford. Savernake at 

 this period is described as nearly six miles 

 in circuit, Tottenham three miles, and Sud- 

 den two miles.* It was at Tottenham Park, 

 in July 1620, where Mr. Chamberlain, in 

 one of his gossiping lett«rs to Sir Dudley 

 Carleton, mentions ' the death of a young 

 gentleman of good sort, one Waldron, 

 who was killed by the rise or bound of a 

 buck in the king's presencg.' * Tottenham 

 is described by Aubrey in his ' Wiltshire 

 Collections,' as ' a most parkefy ground 

 and romancy pleasant place, with several 

 walkes of great length of trees planted.' 



Ramsbury, north of Savernake, was the 

 Park of the Bishop of Salisbuiy. It is 

 thus noticed by Leland, ' There is a right 

 •fayre and large parke hangynge upon the 

 clyffe of an highe hille, welle wooddyd over 

 ■Kenet, hard on the south syde of the 

 place.'" In 1383 it is described as four 

 miles in circuit, being the inheritance of 

 the Earl of Pembroke.* 



' Aubrey's South Wilts, printed in 1862, 



P- 359- 



^ Vol. vii. p. II, fol. 22. 



» Cotton MS., Titus, b. iv. fo. 297^ 



* Note of Parks in the County of Wilts, 



Littlecote Park, adjoining, is not noticed 

 in the -park. return of 1583; but is laid 

 down in Saxton's map of this county of 

 the year [576. Evelyn calls it, in 1654, 

 ' a noble seate park and river.' ' 



- There was also, according to the return 

 of 1583, a park at Clatford, near Marl- 

 borough, belonging to Mr. Goddarde, and 

 nearly three miles in circuit;'' it is not 

 marked in the old surveys. 



At Wotton Basset, on the borders of 

 Braden Forest, were two ancient parks. 

 Of these the most remarkable was the 

 great park of Fasterne, or Vasterne, as it 

 was sometimes called. One park here was 

 enclosed by Philip Basset in the thirty-first 

 of Henry III.,' and at the d^ath of Aliva 

 (Basset) Lady Despencer, in the ninth of 

 Edward I., it contained 789 acres, of which 

 616 were arable and 173 pasture. In the 

 twenty-first and twenty-eighth of the same 

 reign, Hugh Despencer obtained letters 

 patent to enlarge it;' and again, in the 

 thirteenth of Edward II., it was further in- 

 creased by taking 300 acres of wood, then 

 included under Braden. Despencer also 

 appears to have added to it by means less 

 regular, and in the ' Wiltshire Archaeolo- 

 gical Magazine' (vol. iii. p. 247), is the ac- 

 count of a forcible entry made upon his 

 manor by the adherents of theparties whom 

 he had injured. Leland (Collect, vol. iv. 

 p. 248) says, 'a little before Lady-day 



1489, King Henry VII. roade into Wilt- 

 shire on hunting; and slew his gres (buck) 

 in three places in that shire. He first 

 hunted in the forest of Savernake, the 

 second in the good Parke of Fastern, the 



■ - - — ; ;„ K_ 



Sept. 24, 1583. S. P. O. Domestic. 



' Court and Times of James I. vol. ii. p. 209. 



" Itin. vol. vii. p. 83, fol. "65 A 



' Diary, June 6, 1654. 



' Cal. Pat. Rolls, pp. 40-56,. 



