Ch. IV. 



WILTSHIRE. 



103 



risith ther of 6 fountaines or springes, 

 whereof 3 be on the northe side of the 

 parka, harde withyn the pale ; the other 3 

 be north also, but without the parke. The 

 Lord Stourton gyvith these 6 fountaynes 

 yn his armes.'^ Aubrey adds, ' The park 

 is large, but bald for timber trees, only 

 some old stagge-headed trees remayning. 

 This tract of country was heretofore all 

 horrid and woody; it bordereth on the 

 forests of Bruton and Gillingham." 

 Stourton was imparked by license granted 

 to John Stourton, Esq., in the sixth of 

 Henry VI.; the grant comprehended a 

 thousand acres of land.' 



The Royal park of Meere, adjoining 

 Gillingham Forest, was in 1583 in the 

 keeping of Sir John Zouche. The rent to 

 Lord North, the lessee of the Crown, being 

 5/. per annum, ' sufficient pasture and 

 feeding for the deer in the same park, as 

 well in winter as in summer,' being re- 

 served. Lord North assigned his interest 

 in this park to George Blythe, gentleman, 

 in the sixteenth year of Elizabeth.* 



The park of Fonthill, not given in Sax- 

 ton's map, belonged in 1583 to Sir James 

 Mervyn, Knight, and was two miles in 

 circuit. At- Wardour Castle there were 

 two parks, described in 1583 as respec- 

 tively two miles and three miles in cir- 

 cumference. 



Returning towards Salisbury, from 

 whence we commenced the notices of the 

 parks in this county, the park at Wilton 

 requires some observation. Although 

 neither marked in the surveys of Saxton 

 or Speed, or in the general return of 



> Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. 107, fol. 78 b. 



2 Aubrey's Wiltshire Collections, p. 389. 



» Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 274. In the 25th of 

 the same reign the king granted to this gentle- 

 man the office of supervisor of all the parks 



parks in the year 1583, there is yet evi- 

 dence that it was enclosed for deer as 

 early as November 22, 1578. This appears 

 by a letter from Henry Earl of Pembroke, 

 to Sir Edward Stradling, in which he re- 

 quests him ' to bestow upon him some 

 deer towards the storing of his new park;" 

 the letter is written from Salisbury, and 

 could only refer to Wilton. Sir Edward 

 Stradling's park was at St. Donate's Castle, 

 in the county of Glamorgan. The present 

 park at Wilton contains 256 acres, and is 

 stocked with a herd of 200 fallow-deer. 



A small park at Campion, in this neigh- 

 bourhood (of 90 acres), with a herd of 

 about 170 fallow-deer, is said to have 

 existed from time immemorial, and is men- 

 tioned in the third of Edward I. (1274)." 

 On the other side of Salisbury is the little 

 park or paddock of deer at Brickworth, 

 with its herd of 50 head of fallow-deer; 

 the extent is not more than twenty-five 

 acres and a half. The date of this minia- 

 ture park is unknown, but it has existed 

 for more than a century. 



Existing Parks in Wiltshire. 



1. Tottenham 



2. Charleton . 



3. PlNCKNEY . . 



4. Spve . . . 



5. BOWOOD . . 



6. roundway . 



7. Erlestoke . 



8. longleat - . 



9. Wilton . . 



10. COMPTON . . 



1 1. Brickworth . 



Marquis of Ailesbury. 



Earl of Suffolk. 



Mr. Creswell. 



Mr. Spicer. 



Marq. of Lansdowne. 



Mr. Colston. 



Mr. Watson Taylor. 



Marquis of Bath. 



Earl of Pembroke. 



Mr. Penruddock. 



D'. Countess Nelson. 



and woods, &c. in the county, at tlie annual 



rent of 3J. 41/. per annum. — lb. 

 '• Original indenture penes Baroness North, 

 * Stradling Correspondence, 8vo, i84o,p. 71. 

 " Information of the owner, Mr. Penruddock. 



