Ch.VI. 



BUCKING HA MS HIRE. 



129 



by the license for 310 acres granted at 

 that time.' 



At Gayhurst, anciently written Gote- 

 hurst, the well-known seat of the Digbys, 

 in the same hundred, a park is also no- 

 ticed by Saxton, and another at Moulsoe, 

 or Mulshoe, near Newport Pagnell. 

 ' Park-wood ' and ' Park-farm ' still attest 

 its site. 



The southern part of the county is di- 

 vided into the hundreds of Aylesbury, 

 Desborough, Burnham, and Stoke. 



At Bradenham, in the hundred of Des- 

 borough, was the seat and residence of 

 the Lords Windsor, and the site of an 

 ancient park existing in the early part of 

 the seventeenth century, and marked in 

 the ancient maps. A small existing park 

 is at Turville, on the borders of Oxford- 

 shire, and closely adjoining Stonor, in 

 that county. 



The hundred of Burnham is remark- 

 able for the site of an ancient park, at the 

 Vache, in the parish of Chalfont St. Giles, 

 the seat of a family who took their name 

 from hence, and flourished in the four- 

 teenth century. This park is given in 

 Saxton's Survey. 



On the very edge of the county adjoin- 

 ing Bedfordshire is Chenies. This was 

 the seat of the Russells, and here were 

 two parks in the time of Leland ; one is 

 marked in Saxton's map ; but as neither 

 are given by Speed, we may suppose 

 they were disparked before the reign of 

 James I. 



In the hundred of Stoke, which is the 

 most southern part of the county, we have 

 to notice the parks of Bulstrode, Langley, 

 and Ditton. 



' Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 189. 



' Lipscomb's Bucks, vol. iv. p. 507. 



' Grimaldi's Origines Genealogies, p. 1 79. 



Bulstrode Park is in the parish of 

 Hedgerley, by which name it is distinr 

 guished in Saxton's Survey: it contains 

 about 800 acres, is well wooded, and 

 stocked with a great number of deer.^ 



Langley was a Royal park, and there is 

 extant a grant from Richard III. of its 

 custody, dated in the year 1483.' In 1523 

 Henry VIII. appointed Henry Norres, 

 Esq., Keeper of the king's woods in the 

 county, Plaunte, or new park of Langley. 

 In 1540 it is called 'The Park of Plaunt 

 in Langley,' and in the second year of 

 Edward VI. the Princess, afterwards 

 Queen Elizabeth, received from her 

 brother a grant of this park, with bucks 

 and dofes therein.* Norden, Surveyor of 

 the Woods to King James I., thus de- 

 scribes it : — ' Langley Parke, lying within 

 Buckinghamshire, whereof M. Edmond 

 Kederminster is Keper, hath about 140 

 fallow deere, about 35 of antler, about 14 

 buckes. This parke is divided into two 

 parkes by a new erected pale. The 

 groundes also differing in nature. The 

 ■upper grounde heath, and full of bogges, 

 unprofitable, and impassable. The lower 

 grounds reduced to a better use, for the 

 game, and more delightful to hunte in, by 

 reason of the faire artificial lawns latelie 

 made and leveled with manie convenient 

 and pleasant standinges.' * 



At present Langley Park comprehends 

 about 300 acres, with a herd of 220 fallow 

 and a few red-deer. 



Stoke-Poges was the principal seat of 

 the noble family of Molins, though they 

 had property in other parts of the county. 

 Sir John de Mohns obtained license from 

 Edward III., to impark his woods in 



* Lipscomb's Bucks, vol. iv. p. 532. 

 s MS. Brit. Mus. quoted by Lipscomb, 

 vol. iv. p. 533 note. 



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