126 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. VI. 



on the borders of Buckinghamshire, is 

 Turvey, for many centuries the chief 

 house of the great family of Mordaunt. 

 Here, in 1297, William Mordaunt had the 

 king's license to enclose a park,' which is 

 given in Saxton's Survey : it has been for 

 a long period disparked. 



A little more to the north is Carlton, 

 where, and in Harold adjoining, John de 

 Pabenham had in 1313 license to impark 

 his woods, being within the king's forest.^ 

 Harold afterwards belonged to the noble 

 family of Grey. The park at this place 

 is marked both in Saxton's and Speed's 

 Surveys. 



In the north of the county are Bletsoe 

 and Melchbourn Parks, seats of the an- 

 cient family of St. John, but neither of 

 them marked as parks in either Saxton's 

 or Speed's maps. 



South-east of AmpthiU is Wrest Park, 

 in the parish of Flitton, the ancestral seat 

 of the Greys, but not, it would seem, an 

 ancient park, being undistinguished as 

 such in the older maps of the county 

 already referred to. 



To the south again is Toddington, 

 where a park is marked by Speed. This 

 was the seat of the Cheneys, and after- 

 wards of the Wentworths, by whom, pro- 

 bably, the park was made. 



Adjoining Toddington is Ckalgrave. 

 Here Sir Nigel or Neal Loring, one of 



' CoUins's Peerage, Bridges' ed. vol. iii. p. 3 10. 

 ' Pat. 6 Ed. II. 



the founders of the Order of the Garter, 

 retired to spend his latter days ; and here, 

 in the year 1365, he had the royal license 

 to enclose a park.' 



In the south-eastern corner of the 

 county, on the confines of Hertfordshire, 

 is Luton and the park of Luton Hoo. 

 300 acres here were enclosed by Sir 

 Robert Napier in the early part of the 

 seventeenth century. 'The park,' writes 

 Lysons, ' was enlarged by the late Lord 

 Bute to 1,200 acres, and it now (1806) 

 contains about 1,500.'* 



West of Luton and Dunstable, on the 

 edge of Buckinghamshire, is Eaton Bray, 

 successively the manor of the families of 

 Bray and Sandys. Here a park is given 

 by Saxton, now long disparked. 



It remains to mention the park of 

 Woburn, the chief seat of the Duke of 

 Bedford, though it appears to have* no 

 claims to great antiquity, and is not found 

 marked as a park in the ancient surveys. 

 Woburn Park is very extensive, and is 

 surrounded by a wall eight feet in height. 

 There are here both red and fallow-deer : 

 the doe venison is said to be remarkably 

 good. 



Existing Deer Parks in Bedfordshire. 



1. Wrest Park . Countess Cowpen 



2. Woburn . . . Duke of Bedford. 



3. Flitwick . . Mr. Brooks. 



= Cart. 39-40 Ed. III. quoted by Lysons. 

 * Lysons' Bedfordshire, p. 108. 



