Ch. VI. 



BEDFORDSHIRE. 



125 



CHAPTER VI. 



BEDFORDSHIRE. 



I 



UGH DE BELCAMP ("Beau- 

 champ) is i-ecorded in the 

 Domesday Survey to have pos- 

 ^ sessed a park of wild beasts 



(parchus ferarum silvaticamm) within his 

 manor of Stachedene fStagsden) in the 

 western confines of this county : no further 

 notice appears to have been preserved of 

 this park. 



The parks which were attached to the 

 manor and castle of Ampthill, early in the 

 sixteenth century, in the hands of the 

 Crown, and erected into an ' Honour ' by 

 Act of ParUament, may perhaps next 

 claim our attention. No less than eight 

 cluster round the town of Ampthill, ac- 

 cording to Saxton's Map of Bedfordshire, 

 engraved in 1576. Besides Ampthill 

 Great Park, there were the parks of 

 Houghton, or Houghton-Conquest, Brok- 

 noro, or Brogborough Park, Beckering 

 Park, and a park near Flitwick. Here 

 there is still a small park or paddock, 

 belonging to Mr. Brooks. 



The Great Park of Ampthill was held 

 under the Crown by various persons until 

 it was granted by Charles II. to Mr. John 

 Ashburnham ; it afterwards came by pur- 



> Lysons' Bedfordshire, p. 38. 



« S. P. O. Domestic. 



' Nichols's Progresses of King James I., 



chase to Viscount Fitzwilliam, and again 

 to the Earls of Upper Ossory. The cus- 

 tody of the park appears to have been 

 held by the noble family of Bruce.' 

 There is in the State Paper Office a 

 petition from Robert, Earl of Elgin, to 

 the King (Charles II.), for a'grant of 100 

 trees growing in Ampthill Park, in order 

 to enclose some part of it for red-deer ; a 

 warrant was granted for this purpose on 

 the lith of May, 1664.* The Park of 

 Ampthill was . surveyed by order of Par- 

 liament in 1653. 



The park at Houghton-Conquest was 

 also called Dame Ellensbury Park. Like 

 Ampthill, it was formerly held under the 

 Crown, and was granted in fee to Lord 

 Bruce in 1630.' In 1738 it passed by 

 purchase to the Bedford family. 



Brogborough and Beckerings Parks are 

 in the parish of Ridgmont. Both appear 

 to have been in possession of the Crown 

 previous to the Usurpation. After the 

 Restoration, both were granted by Charles 

 II. to the family of Ashburnham, and 

 came afterwards by purchase to the Rad- 

 cliffes : they have been for ages disparked. 



In the north-western part of the county, 



vol. i. p. 521 note ; and Lysons' Bedfordshire, 

 p. 96. 



