Ch. V. 



NORFOLK. 



117 



Holkham, whose heirs are now Earls of 

 Leicester : it is now, however, disparked, 

 the deer being removed to Holkham in 

 1844. 



Lord Sondes has a modern park also at 

 Elmham, enclosed about the beginning of 

 the present century : it contains 140 acres 

 and a herd of about loo fallow-deer. In 

 this hundred ancient parks are said to 

 have existed, both at Mileham, belonging 

 to the Cokes in 1600, and in the parish of 

 Swanton-Morley, called Bywick' Park, 

 the property of the Morleys, and after- 

 wards to their heirs and descendants, the 

 Parkers, Lords Morley.' 



The western district of Norfolk, sur- 

 rounded on two sides by the sea, is 

 divided into the hundreds of North- 

 Greenhoe, Brothercross, Smithdon, Gal- 

 low, and Frebridge. In the first-named 

 is the extensive domain of Holkham, en- 

 closed by the first Earl of Leicester of the 

 Coke family between the years 1735 and 

 1759. It then contained about 840 acres 

 of land.'' The deer were removed here, 

 as has been already stated, in 1844, from 

 the ancient Episcopal park of Elmham : 

 the present park at Holkham contains 

 595 acres and a herd of 450 fallow-deer. 



At Hunstanton, the venerable seat of 

 the L'Estrange family, at the very north- 

 western corner of Norfolk, in Smithdon 

 Hundred, was an extensive park, now 

 without deer ; and at Rainham, the seat 

 of the IVIarquis Townshend, is also a large 



' History of Norfollc, 1781, vol. viii. pp. 

 119,152. 

 * lb. vol. vi. p. 32. 



park, in the same condition, but which 

 was 'well stocked with deer' in 1776.' 

 But at Houghton, once the residence of 

 Sir Robert Walpole, and now of his 

 descendant the Marquis of Cholmondeley, 

 the deer still remain. The park is said 

 to have been enclosed by Sir Robert Wal- 

 pole about the year 1 722 : it is an area of 

 450 acres, with a herd of 210 fallow-deer. 

 At Castle-Rising, in the hundred of 

 Frebridge, was a famous royal chase for 

 deer, now long broken up and disused. 

 But in its near neighbourhood a Royal 

 park has very lately been reestablished at 

 Sandringham, by H. R. H. the Prince of 

 Wales ; deer being brought hither from 

 Windsor, in the autumn of 1863. This 

 notice of the only R'oyal, as well as the 

 most modern park in this county, may 

 fitly conclude these notes on the ancient 

 and modern parks of Norfolk. 



Existing Parks in Norfolk. 



1. BlickLING . Marquis of Lothian. 



2. Houghton . Marquis of Chol- 



mondeley. 



3. KiMBERLEY . Earl of Kimberley. 



4. Melton-Constable, Lord Hastings. 



5. Elmham . . Lord Sondys. 



6. GuNTON . . Lord Suffield. 



7. Holkham . Earl of Leicester. 



8. Rackheath . Sir Henry Stracey, 



Bart. 



9. Sandringham, H. R. H. the Prince 



of Wales. 



' Beauties of England, 3rd ed. 1776, vol. ii, 

 p. 36. 



