134 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. VI. 



OXFORDSHIRE. 



The Royal Park of Woodstock, according 

 to Rous, in his ' History of the Kings of 

 England,' was founded in the fourteenth 

 year of Hemy I. (A.T). 1113-1114), and 

 was the oldest in England : its claim to 

 be considered the oldest park in this 

 country cannot, however, be maintained ; ^ 

 but it has been supposed that it might 

 have been the first park enclosed with a 

 wall, a permanent fence, which the great 

 plenty of stones in the neighbourhood 

 would naturally suggest. Rous adds, 

 but it is doubtful whether he had any 

 authority for doing so, that many vil- 

 lages were destroyed in its completion, 

 and that it was seven English miles in 

 circuit. 



Of this favourite seat of Royalty it will 

 be sufficient here to observe, that it was 

 granted by Queen Anne to the Duke of 

 Marlborough in 1705, and the name 

 changed to Blenheim. In 1666, as ap- 

 pears by a warrant in the State Papers, 

 the keepers were paid an annual sum of 

 40/. as wages, and a like amount allowed 

 for provision of hay for the deer.^ At 

 present it contains 2,800 acres, of which 

 about 1,150 are open to the deer : there is 

 a herd of about 770 fallow and 64 red- 

 deer. 



The following curious service has refer- 

 ence to this ancient and Royal park. 

 The Manor of Stanton-Harcourt in this 

 county was held of the Crown ' by the 



> Seep. 13. 



» S. P. Dom., May 16, 1666. 



service of finding four trousers, i. e. men 

 to cut the brushwood, in Woodstock Park 

 in winter time, when the snow shall 

 happen to fall, and tarry and lie and 

 abide be the space of two days, and so to 

 find the said brousers there brousing, so 

 long as the same doth lye, every brouser 

 to have to his lodging every night, one 

 billet of wood, the length of his axe halve, 

 and that to carry to his lodgings upon 

 the edge of his axe ; and the king's baiUffs 

 of the demesnes, or of the Hundred of 

 Wootton, coming to give warning for the 

 said brousers, shall blow his horn at the 

 gate of the Manor of Stanton-Harcourt, 

 and there the said bailiff to have a loaf 

 of bread, a gallon of ale, and a piece of 

 beef of the said Lord of Stanton-Har- 

 court ; and the said lord to have of custom 

 yearly out of the said park, one buck in 

 summer and one doe in winter ; and also 

 the Lord of Stanton-Harcourt must fell, 

 make, rear, and carry all the grass grow- 

 ing in one meadow within the park of 

 Woodstock, called Stanton and Southley 

 Mead, and the fellers and the makers 

 thereof have used to have of custom of the 

 king's majesty's charge sixpence in money 

 and two gallons of ale.' ' 



Cornbury, another ancient Royal park, 

 long alienated from the Crown, lies to the 

 west of Woodstock : it is recognised as a 

 park as early as the thirteenth of Edward 

 III., when John de Solers was appointed 



p. 18. 



Skelton's Oxfordshire, Wootton Hund., 



