Ch. VII. 



LEICESTERSHIRE. 



143 



Kirkby-Malory, near Tooley Park, was 

 a large park, very well wooded and stored 

 with deer, and set in the lifetime of Sir 

 Thomas Noel, Baronet, since deceased 

 (1696), for several years (deer excepted) 

 at 100/. per annum, and the running of 

 six horses,^ &c. 



'A belt of parks almost wholly encir- 

 cled Charnwood,' writes Potter in his his- 

 tory of that forest, ' to which indeed they 

 owed their origin, either as affording faci- 

 lities for more free hunting than the thick 

 woodland permitted, or as furnishing ad- 

 ditional protection to the forest itself. 

 This belt was formed by the parks of 

 Groby, of which there were four, extend- 

 ing altogether several miles on the south- 

 ern borders, and of Bardon, Whitwick, 

 Gracedieu, Garendon, Burleigh, Lough- 

 borough, two parks, Beaumanor, Quorn- 

 don, Swithland, and Bradgate.'^ 



It was found by inquisition in the year 

 1279, that the Lord William de Ferrers 

 held the manor of Groby, and had in his 

 domain four parks. In 1287 the pasture 

 and pannage were worth per annum 

 66j. Zd., and the underwood of the said 

 parks 6s. 8d. per annum. In Leland's 

 time, Groby was the inheritance of the 

 Marquis of Dorset ; he observes, ' there 

 is a fine large parke by the place a vi 

 miles in compase.'' Groby was disparked 

 before 1622, but is marked as a park in 

 all the older maps. 



Bardon Park, originally 1,225 acres, 

 imparked previously to the year 1300; a 

 considerable portion was originally infra 

 forestam. It belonged to Roger Quincy 



' Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 767. 

 '^ Potter's Charnwood Forest, 4to. London, 

 1842, p. 117. 

 ' Itin. vol. i. p. 19. 



Earl of Winchester,* and afterwards to 

 the Earls of Oxford, according to Burton, 

 who places it among the disparked parks 

 in 1622. 



Whitwick originally belonged to Hugh 

 de Grentesmaisnell. Queen Ehzabeth, in 

 1569, granted it to Sir Henry Hastings, 

 Knight and Henry Cutler, Gentleman. 

 It is included in Burton's list of disused 

 parks in 1622. 



Gracedieu, adjoining Whitwick, but not 

 found marked as a park in the ancient 

 surveys. 



Garendon Park is included in Burton's 

 list of ' parks which are now in use,' and 

 as belonging to the Earl of Rutland in 

 1622. I conclude it was afterwards dis- 

 parked, as the present park of Garendon, 

 containing about 1,500 acres, of which 

 somewhat less than 500 are occupied by 

 a herd of 300 fallow-deer, was enclosed 

 by Sir Ambrose Phillipps in the latter 

 part of the reign of Charles II. 



Burleigh or Burley was a park in use 

 in 1622, when it belonged to the Earl of 

 Huntingdon. 



Loughborough Park was imparked by 

 Hugh le Despencer, and disparked in the 

 year 1630,^ according to Burton's cor- 

 rected copy of his history in 1641. Le- 

 land observes of it, ' Lughborow parke a 

 mile from Lughborow toune. This parke 

 cam to the Marquise of Dorset by ex- 

 change of landes with the kinge.'' 



Beaumanor. — Henry, first Lord Beau- 

 mont, who died in 1340, according to 

 Camden, is said to have enclosed the 

 park here with a stone wall. It is thus 



' Potter's Charnwood Forest, p. 160. 

 ' Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 782. 

 ' Itinerary, vol. i. p. 20. 



