136 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. VI. 



of the Copes ; at Blechingdon, belonging 

 to the Annesleys Earls, of Anglesea, and 

 at Yarnton, near Oxford, belonging to the 

 Spencers. At Beckley, on the borders of 

 Otmoor, about five miles north-east from 

 Oxford, was undoubtedly an ancient park, 

 for which a Charter was obtained by 

 Hugh de Spencer, in 1312. It afterwards 

 reverted to the Crown, and in 1457 King 

 Henry VI. presented Archbishop Chichele 

 with twelve trees from his park at Beckley 

 towards building All Souls College.' It 

 is marked in all the ancient maps, although 

 long disparked : a farm called ' Park- 

 House ' still attests the site. 



License to enclose a park in the neigh- 

 bouring village of Elsfield, three miles and 

 a half from Oxford, was granted to Gil- 

 bert de Elsfield in the first year of Ed- 

 ward III.^ This park, if it ever existed, 

 has been long destroyed, but an ancient 

 one remains at Holton, five miles east of 

 Oxford, once the seat of the Bardolfs. 

 The date of the park is unknown, but if 

 we may judge from the size of the oaks, 

 one of which measures twenty-seven feet 

 in circumference at five feet from the 

 ground, it must be of great antiquity. 

 Holton Park contains about 200 acres, 

 and 100 fallow-deer. 



Before noticing the parks south of Ox- 

 ford, the Park or Paddock in the College 

 of St. Mary Magdalett in the University 

 itself, claims a brief description. Of this 

 beautiful, and may it not be called unique 



' Guide to Architectural Antiquities in the 

 Neighbourhood of Oxford, p. 209, &c. 



2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 100. 



' In 1707 there is a charge in the Liber 

 Computi, 'Damas in arbusti interficientibus. ' 

 At the same time, and afterwards, it was found 

 necessary to purchase venison for the gaudy ; 

 the deer had increased sufficiently when George 

 III. visited the College in 1786 to attract his 



park, Dr. Bloxam writes :— ' My impression 

 is that deer were first introduced into a 

 portion of the space behind the new 

 buildings (then a bowling-green and gar- 

 dens) about the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, and that, as they increased, more 

 space was given to them till the whole was 

 at last absorbed into what is now called 

 " The Grove ; " but no historical account) 

 or even tradition of them, is extant.'* 



The extent of this miniature park is 

 eleven acres, and there is a herd of forty 

 fallow-deer. 



Nuneham-Courtenay, the seat of the 

 Harcourt family, was purchased by Si- 

 mon Lord Harcourt in 17 10, and the 

 beautiful park probably enclosed by his 

 lordship subsequently : it is said to con- 

 tain 1,200 acres, six miles and a half in 

 circumference. 



At Ricot, near Thame, the ancient seat 

 of the Lords Norreys, and afterwards of 

 the Berties Earls of Abingdon, was a park 

 which is marked in all the old maps, and 

 which has been disparked within the 

 present century. Kip's view of this place, 

 taken in 17 14, notices 'The East India 

 Deere Parke,' besides another and larger 

 park. 



Thame Park, containing at present 250 

 acres, and 180 fallow-deer, can lay claim 

 to great antiquity, the abbey here being 

 refounded by Alexander, Bishop of Lin- 

 coln, in 1 138, in the park* of Thame, 

 which had before belonged to the Bishop.' 



attention. No deer are represented in Mag- 

 dalen Grove in 1731, as appears by the view 

 in the Oxford Almanack of that year, but they 

 are engraved in the view of the College in 

 1787, in the same Almanack. 



■■ Query whether the -word, parcus here ought 

 not to be translated inclosure ? 



' Dugdale's Monasticon, new ed., vol. v. 

 p. 404. 



