Ch. IV. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



ros 



The Bishops of Winchester, besides their 

 Domesday park at Waltham, had another 

 at Hursley, near Winchester, which is 

 probably as ancient, though it is not 

 noticed in the Conqueror's Survey, which 

 indeed omits the parish of Hursley alto- 

 gether. 



It is thus noticed by Leland in his ' Iti- 

 nerary:' 'Ther is a park 3 miles out of 

 Winchester, almost by south, cauUyd 

 Hursley, longging to the Bishop of Win- 

 chester, and by this park was a castelle 

 caullid Merden, whereof some smaulruines 

 or tokens yet remayne.'^ Hursley Park 

 has been long dissevered from the see of 

 Winchester, having been for many genera- 

 tions the seat of the Heathcotes, baronets 

 of that place. The present park contains 

 altogether 440 acres, of which the house 

 and gardens occupy about 18. There is 

 a herd of 220 fallow-deer. The old park- 

 bank, of enormous height and size, ex- 

 tends far beyond the bounds of the pre- 

 sent park, and includes part of Ampfield 

 wood, and the meadows to the south of 

 the house. A free-boird of 18 feet in width 

 can still be traced, here called ' a deer- 

 leap;' an evidence probably of that ancient 

 right (saltatorium) with which the bishops 

 of Winchester were no doubt invested, 

 [See page 85, where it is engraved*] 



There were many other ancient deer 

 parks in this county (though but four 

 now remain); these shall be noticed in 

 order. Beginning with those in the north- 

 eastern part of the county, we hAviBeaure- 

 paire, near the forest of Pembury,or Pam- 

 ber, on the borders of Berkshire. This 

 park appears to have been enclosed by 



' Itin. vol. iii. p. 105, fol. 74. 

 2 CaJ. Pat. Rolls, p. 183. It was enlarged 

 also by license in the 12th of Richard II. 



Sir Bernard Brocas, Knigbt', by the Royal 

 license, in the forty-second year of Ed- 

 ward III., and comprehended '121 acres 

 of land and 30 acres of wood in Sher- 

 bourne St. John, not within the bounds of 

 the forest, and 22 acres of land in Brom- 

 ley, which were within the bounds of the 

 Forest of Pemburjr.'' Adjoining ' Beaure- 

 paire' is ' The Vyne,' the ancient seat of 

 the Sandys family. A park is marked 

 here in Saxton's map, though Warner tells 

 us in his Hampshire collections that ' no 

 traces of a park are to be found here.* 

 The Vyne is in the parish of Sherbourne 

 St. John, where John de St. John had license 

 to impark 100 acres of wood in his manor 

 of Sherbourne, within the bounds of the 

 Forest of Pembury,' in the twentieth of 

 Edward I.; and in 1306, the thirty-fifth 

 of the same reign, John de St. John prays 

 to be allowed to continue his park within 

 this manor, which was enclosed by John 

 his father. The answer which he received 

 was, that all such parks made since the 

 disafforesting of forests were to be dis- 

 parked.* Three parks are marked near 

 Bastng/va. Saxton's Survey; and a fourth 

 called ' Preu Park,' by Speed. Queen 

 Elizabeth hunted here during her progress 

 in 1601. It was then the residence of the 

 Marquis of Winchester. Upon the destruc- 

 tion of that noble seat during the rebellion 

 in the seventeenth century, the family 

 removed to Hackwood, a corruption, as 

 it is said of Hawkingwood, originally the 

 lodge in the park belonging to Basing- 

 house, with which it was connected by 

 avenues of chesnuts two miles in length. 

 The present park of Hackwood contains 



» Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 55. 



* Rolls of Pari, vol, i. p. 201. 



